A path analysis of home meditation practice and mental health status: The role of spirituality and nonduality

Abstract

Previous research has focused on evaluating structured mindfulness-based interventions and manualized treatment, with few studies examining the relationship between meditation home practice, spiritual experience, and mental health status. This research examines whether meditation home practice is associated with mental health status and whether spiritual enlightenment experience mediated this relationship. Methods This study conducted a cross-sectional survey among 220 Chinese meditators and collected information on their meditation home practice, spiritual enlightenment, daily spiritual experience, and their mental health status including anxiety, depression, and stagnation (a traditional Chinese medicine mental health construct operationalized for clinical use by mental health professionals and researchers). Results Path analyses revealed that daily meditation home practice time and years of meditation home practice were negatively correlated with anxiety, depression, and stagnation. These relations were mediated by nonduality (a component of spiritual enlightenment). Discussion The study provided preliminary evidence that daily meditation home practice and nonduality experience might be significant protective factors for mental health. These findings may have implications for further discussion of the safety of meditation home practice.