New research suggests that loving-kindness and compassion meditation, as well as long periods of meditation, may lead to reduced anxiety over time by cultivating self-compassion and loosening the grip of distressing thoughts.
Research: Frequent loving-kindness meditation reduces anxiety in long-term practitioners through greater self-compassion and cognitive flexibility. Image credit: chayanuphol / Shutterstock
In a recent study published in the journal scientific reportresearchers investigated how long-term loving-kindness and compassion meditation (LKCM) practice affects anxiety through self-compassion and cognitive fusion, while considering the role of practice frequency.
Background and long-term benefits of LKCM
What if practicing kindness towards yourself could reduce anxiety? Various studies suggest that mindfulness improves mental well-being, but its long-term benefits are still unclear. Second-generation mindfulness approaches, such as LKCM, extend beyond observation to foster warmth, compassion, and emotional resilience.
Although short-term effects are well established, evidence regarding continued practice is inconsistent, particularly regarding how duration and frequency shape results. Some people have been meditating for years without any apparent psychological benefit, raising questions about what makes the difference.
Understanding how meditation works may help optimize its use, but further research is needed to determine how different practice routines affect long-term results.
LKCM survey design and countermeasures
This study employed a cross-sectional correlational design with 60 long-term LKCM practitioners recruited from meditation centers in Spain. Participants had 2 to 15 years of experience and practiced 1 to 7 times per week for 15 to 120 minutes per day.
Data were collected via an online survey from November to December 2022 following ethical approval.
Anxiety was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale Anxiety Subscale (HADS-A), while self-compassion was assessed using the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Cognitive fusion was measured using the Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ).
For statistical analysis, we used the PROCESS macro to test for moderation and mediation effects. Weekly practice frequency was assessed as a moderator and age was included as a covariate. Bootstrapping with 10,000 samples was applied to improve robustness.
self-compassion, cognitive fusion, anxiety
This study identified a complex relationship between meditation and anxiety. Years of meditation alone are not directly associated with reduced anxiety, suggesting that how an individual practices meditation may be more important than the duration.
Weekly practice frequency was associated with increased self-compassion. Those who practiced two or four days a week showed an increase in self-compassion over time, but this relationship was not observed for those who practiced almost every day.
This pattern suggests that those who practice more frequently may reach higher levels of self-compassion faster, while those who practice less frequently may experience more gradual improvements.
Higher self-compassion is associated with lower cognitive fusion, meaning individuals are less likely to treat thoughts as literal truths. Lower cognitive fusion was associated with lower anxiety.
Mediation analysis showed that self-compassion and cognitive integration jointly explain the meditation-anxiety relationship through a series of pathways rather than independently.
Practice frequency and clinical significance
The indirect association between meditation and anxiety depended on the frequency of practice, with significant effects observed for those who practiced two or four days a week.
Descriptive results showed relatively high self-compassion (71% of maximum score), low cognitive fusion (40%), and low anxiety levels (27.5%), suggesting possible ceiling and floor effects.
Overall, long-term LKCM practice was associated with reduced anxiety not only in duration but also indirectly through increased self-compassion and decreased cognitive fusion. The frequency of practice appears to shape how these relationships develop over time.
These findings do not support the idea that practicing more often is always better. Instead, they emphasize the importance of psychological mechanisms such as self-compassion and cognitive flexibility.
However, the results should be interpreted with caution as the cross-sectional design and selected sample limit causal inferences.
Reference magazines:
- Yera, J.R., Baz, J., Crego, A., Gregoris, L., and Alonso, M. (2026). Frequent loving-kindness meditation reduces anxiety in long-term practitioners through compassion and cognitive fusion with the higher self. scientific report. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-46387-z, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-46387-z
