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The Cultivating Emotional Balance Program
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Research Goals
Cultivating Emotional Balance is the first large-scale multi-phase Mind and Life research project designed to teach and evaluate the impact of meditation combined with emotional regulation strategies training on the emotional lives of beginning meditators. The curriculum developed to teach meditation has been secularized and focuses on teaching skills to better deal with destructive emotions.
Helping people learn to handle their emotions and stressful situations with greater skill and consideration is at the heart of Mind and Life's work. This research project seeks to harness the power of Buddhist practices to teach individuals in modern society the skills by which they can: 1) manifest greater emotional awareness and intelligence in dealing with their own destructive thoughts and emotions, and 2) develop greater empathy and compassion in response to the suffering of others, as well as greater skill in dealing with stressful situations.
The project has two primary research objectives:
- Design and test a curriculum to teach people to deal with destructive emotions drawing from Buddhist contemplative practices and western psychological research
- Evaluate the impact of the curriculum on the emotional lives of the participants
The curriculum will be extensively developed, tested, and evaluated through a multi-tiered research protocol involving M&L researchers at three universities in California:
- Margaret Kemeny, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, UCSF
- Paul Ekman, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator, UCSF
- Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D., Research Scientist, UCSF
- Alan Wallace, Ph.D., Collaborator, Mind and Life Institute
- Jeanne Tsai, Ph.D. Collaborator, Stanford University
- Janine Giese-Davis, Ph.D., Collaborator, Stanford University
Following publication of the research results, Mind and Life will oversee distribution of the curriculum on a non-profit basis as a benefit to humanity.
The Cultivating Emotional Balance project website is located at: http://cultivatingemotionalbalance.org
The Cultivating Emotional Balance Curriculum: Training in Seven Essential Skills
The curriculum design incorporates seven components, each of which will be rigorously tested and evaluated in the research process. Secondary school teachers have been selected as the subjects for the pilot study because of the inherent stress and intense emotional demands of teaching adolescents. Researchers felt the emotional skills taught by this curriculum would be of immediate benefit to both the teachers and their students.
1. Meditation Training for Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, Mental States,
and Mental Contents
Research participants will receive secular training in three attentional techniques: breath awareness, directing the attention to the mind, and settling attention into the nature of awareness. Together these techniques will teach participants the foundational skills to focus their attention on an object and begin to develop awareness of the nature of their mind. Daily exercises will be performed at home.
2. Empathy Skills Training
Empathy training will be designed to teach subjects three different aspects of empathic awareness: 1) sensitivity to another's affect; 2) sensitivity to one's own affect; and 3) development of compassion for oneself and others. Techniques taught include exercises developed by Project Advisor Tara Bennett-Goleman, M.A.; Co-Principal Investigator Paul Ekman, Ph.D.; and a secularized version of Tonglen meditation practice.
3. Strategies to Counteract Destructive Thought Patterns and Negative Emotions
Two approaches will be used in this component of the curriculum: 1) Cognitive-behavioral therapy in combination with principles from mindfulness meditation based on the work of Project Advisor John Teasdale, Ph.D.; and 2) Secularized meditation practices for freeing oneself from destructive emotions and generating wholesome emotional experiences.
4. Working with Stressful Situations
This component will use western psychological techniques involving journaling, focus groups, and re-enactment. Participants will log trying emotional encounters, select episodes for analysis, and explore alternate scenarios though re-enactment.
5. Training in Visual Recognition of Emotions
Based on the work of Ekman, subjects will be taught to identify very brief micro expressions of emotion. Participants will also practice how to apply this information in real-life contexts of challenging emotional encounters with family, friends, and colleagues via exercises developed by Ekman in his new book, Emotions Revealed.
6. Body Movement Practices
To enhance the effectiveness of the meditation training, the curriculum includes teaching the Kum Nye system of gentle movement. Developed by Tibetan master Tarthang Tulku, Kum Nye prepares the body and mind for more effective meditation practice by enhancing relaxation and awareness.
7. Working with Awareness in Daily Life
The final component of the curriculum has been designed to instruct teachers in developing awareness of their emotional responses to students, the emotional reactions of the students, and both of their resulting behavior. Teachers will use their interactions with students as an on-going forum for continuing to develop their mindfulness training. Additionally, they will be coached to apply mindfulness training to their daily interactions.
Measurement and Evaluation
The research protocol includes a multi-phase measurement and evaluation process. These measures will be taken on the study group pre-training, immediately post-training, and six months post-training, as well as on a control group. Both groups will be composed of secondary school teachers with at least one year of teaching experience, no known psychological disorders, and little or no experience with meditation or yoga. Three primary types of measures will be used.
1. Enhanced Skills in Resolving Emotional Conflicts
2. Empathy Measurement
3. Stress Reduction and Immune Enhancement
By measuring these 3 components in both groups (a) before the training, (b) immediately after the training, and (c) 6 months later, we can determine the effectiveness of the training on teachers' ability to calm their minds, manage negative emotions, and handle stressful situations. The advantage of the current clinical trial over prior scientific evaluations is that it relies on biological and behavioral measures rather than the more commonly used self report questionnaires, which are more subject to biases such as suggestibility and the unconscious tendency to present the self in a positive light. It is expected that the teachers who receive the CEB training will evidence beneficial changes in emotional and physical well being at the end of the clinical trial as compared to the wait list control group.
Program Status & Support
Mind and Life is working under an initial funding grant to undertake the pilot phase of the Cultivating Emotional Balance research project through the University of California, San Francisco. We are initiating a campaign to raise the funds for the full study, and invite inquiries from foundations and donors interested in matching the initial funding grant and the donation to the project from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If you are interested in becoming a supporter of the Cultivating Emotional Balance project, please follow the link to Opportunities for Sponsorship on our website.
© Copyright 2007 Mind and Life Institute, Boulder, CO, USA. All rights reserved.
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