Use of Mindful Reappraisal Coping Among Meditation Practitioners.

OBJECTIVE:
By enhancing positive affect and cognitive flexibility, mindfulness practice may promote reappraisal of stressors. We hypothesized that coping through mindful reappraisal would be common among mindfulness practitioners from an array of traditions.
METHOD:
A sample of 118 meditation practitioners completed an online survey comprising assessments of the prevalence and frequency of mindful reappraisal, as well as measures of well-being and distress.
RESULTS:
Regular use of mindful reappraisal was reported by over half of the sample and was significantly correlated with years of meditation practice (r = .31, p = .01), meditation practice days per month (r = .30, p = .001), and meditation hours per week (r = .30, p = .001). Controlling for frequency of meditation practice and trait mindfulness, mindful reappraisal frequency explained significant portions of variance in well-being (P <.001) and distress (P <.001).
CONCLUSIONS:
Meditation practitioners commonly employ mindful reappraisal coping as a positive emotion regulatory strategy in stressful contexts.
© 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PMID: 23818289