You can’t ohm your way to a better self.
Meditation might not be making you calmer or more compassionate, according to a new study.
“A person may have the expectation of becoming a better person through meditating, and may believe that to be the case — but in fact, this has not been proven,” Dr. Miguel Farias, lead author on the study, told The Telegraph. “We did not find that meditation had any negative effects, however, the good impacts can be compared to a placebo effect.”
Researchers reviewed 22 studies involving 1,685 people and found that higher levels of compassion were only reported when the author of the study was the meditation teacher.
Farias stresses that this doesn’t invalidate meditation, but suggests important aspects may be lost in translation when it’s practiced without spiritual and religious tenets. In 2015, Farias wrote a piece for The Conversation about how mindfulness had been commercialized as a tool for psychotherapy.
“If you want to meditate because you want some quiet time and time to relax, I see no issues, but the benefits it can have on a person’s character are limited,” Farias said. “If you want to be more compassionate go and volunteer at a charity.”