Residential meditation retreats: their role in contemplative practice and significance for psychological research.

Residential meditation retreats are a distinct type of intervention that can help researchers understand the effects of intensive, continued meditation practice as expertise develops, filling a gap left by studies of brief inductions or short-term programs. The article describes how retreats differ from other meditation interventions in design and highlights their value for studying meditation's effects on cognition, health, and well-being over time.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Contemporary investigations of mindfulness and meditation have predominately emphasized the short-term effects of brief inductions or standardized, multi-week interventions in people with little to no prior meditation experience. Considerably less is known about the effects of continued or intensive meditation practice as proficiency and expertise are acquired over time. In this article, we describe the form and function of residential retreats, an understudied class of meditation intervention that holds promise for bridging this gap in the empirical literature. We outline a number of design features that distinguish retreats from other meditation-based interventions, and highlight their utility for informing functional and developmental perspectives on meditation, cognition, health, and well-being.