closeness and positive emotions. In a second longitudinal study of loving-kindness meditation,
participants were again assigned to either meditation training or a waitlist control and provided
daily reports for nine weeks. This time, however, participants reported both positive emotions and
feelings of social connectedness each day. In addition, the experimenters measured vagal tone, an
index of autonomic regulation, at the beginning and end of the study. Vagal tone represents the
bodily capacity to rapidly and flexibly adapt to changing circumstances, and is associated with
immune functioning and cardiovascular health
The study replicated the effect of loving-
kindness on positive emotions (see Figure 1). Participants in the meditation condition also
increased in social closeness and vagal tone
Further modeling revealed that positive emotions and social closeness were linked, with changes
in positive emotions driving changes in social closeness throughout the study. In addition, the
changes in positive emotions and social closeness impacted autonomic regulation. In the final
model, meditation increased positive emotions, which led to increases in social closeness, which
ultimately led to increased vagal tone
, suggesting that loving-kindness may improve physical
health in part by promoting positive subjective experiences that influence vagal tone.
Bi-Directional Linkages and Upward Spirals of Compassion
 Inducing compassion through loving-kindness meditation appears to increase the frequency or
intensity of experiences of social closeness and positive emotions, and these subjective
experiences have consequences for mental and physical health. Interestingly, improvements in
health may increase the likelihood of experiencing compassion in the future. In the second
longitudinal study described above, loving-kindness led to increased positive emotions, which led
to increased social closeness, which led to increased vagal tone. In addition, however, vagal tone
at the start of the study predicted participants’ positive emotion and social closeness gains over
the eight weeks
. This exciting finding suggests that as people experience compassion, their
bodies change in ways that increase the likelihood that they will experience more compassion in
the future (see Figure 2). In this upward spiral, compassion predicts greater experiences of social
closeness and positive emotions, which lead to better health, which increases the subjective
impact of compassionate practice. Through this bi-directional process of growth and change,
compassion may become a self-sustaining, effortless practice where each moment of compassion
makes the next moment even more likely.
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Figure 2.
A theoretical model of self-sustaining compassion.
