Broaden-and-build - Meditation and The Hedonic Treadmill

Meditation and The Hedonic Treadmill

Positive emotions are very temporary, thus leading to the theory of the hedonic treadmill where an individual is constantly trying to find new ways to experience positivity because their old techniques have become ineffective. The Broaden-and-Build model addresses this issue by arguing that life satisfaction is achieved through a pathway that includes positive emotions causing a person to build resources which can be drawn upon to improve life satisfaction for extended periods of time. This path is much more effective than a path that attempts to go straight from positive emotions to life-satisfaction due to the hedonic treadmill effect. Meditation is a means bywhich some researchers have proven that a person can broaden their mind and experience the positive emotions needed to build personal resources. Specifically, Loving-Kindness Meditation has been proven effective. In this type of meditation, a participant is first asked to think about a person that they already think of in a warm way. Then they are asked to expand their focus and positive feelings first to themselves, then to a widening array of people. This allows for immediate positive emotions and provides for more long-term effects.

Loving-kindness meditation has been shown to increase such positive emotions as love, joy, gratitude, contentment, hope, pride, interest, amusement, and awe. However, the study that was done on these emotions was done over a nine-week period by Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Peck, and Finkel. The period of time allowed them to see that these positive emotions were not developed immediately. The slow progression provided evidence that the positive effects built resources that allowed for more positive experience in the future. Therefore, this process was able to side-step the hedonic treadmill, reinforce that the broaden-and-build model is accurate, and demonstrate that loving-kindness meditation is an effective method to facilitate the initial broadening. Taken together, these studies set the theory into motion.