The effects of meditation on individuals facing loneliness: a scoping review.
Although few studies exist at this intersection, the effects of meditation on alleviating loneliness are promising, given that all of the included studies show positive findings. Future research should be directed toward understanding how meditation reduces loneliness and how this intervention affects the practice of health care professionals.
Saini, GK, Haseeb, SB, Taghi-Zada, Z. etal . The effects of meditation on individuals facing loneliness: a scoping review. BMC Psychol 9, 88 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00585-8
Commentary
This study examines the benefits of meditation on the alleviation of loneliness. Meditation is generally defined as a mind-body practice that focuses on the interaction between the brain, mind, body, and behavior. The conditions for meditation seem to be a quiet place free of distractions, comfortable posture, focus of attention, and an open attitude.
Thirteen studies met the selection criteria for this study, published in 10 countries between 2012 and 2020, and 11 studies reported improvements related to loneliness. Of the remaining two studies, one mentioned alleviating loneliness, but focused primarily only on the social proximity of lonely individuals.
The other study found a correlation between loneliness and nuclear factor (NF)-κB levels, but the direct effect of meditation on loneliness was unclear. Three main themes emerged from this analysis: 1) all studies had positive results; 2) they were relatively small randomized controlled trials conducted over the past decade; 3) there was a lack of diverse demographic information; and 4) there was a lack of data on the effects of meditation on loneliness.
And the limitation of the study is that the scoping review did not include articles in languages other than English.
Despite these points, the results of the study show the benefits of meditation on loneliness. Let's try to implement the conditions for meditation as mentioned above.
