Abstract
Inducing a state of meditation through conceptual metaphors used in the language of guided meditation instructions can have distinctive effects on well-being and meta-thinking. We hypothesized that the use of novel deliberate metaphor in the instructions of a guided meditation in which participants are invited to pay attention to thoughts would help novice meditators increase their meta-thinking activity and change their affective state during a guided meditation session. We conducted a study to test this hypothesis, using four experimental conditions (novel deliberate metaphor, conventional deliberate metaphor, non-metaphorical, silence) in micromeditation sessions with 324 university students. Results validate the instructions exploiting novel deliberate metaphor to activate meta-thinking activity and improve the affective state. These findings enhance our understanding of the short-term effects of guided meditation instructions, particularly regarding how the use of conceptual metaphor in the language of instructions can influence the meta-cognitive and affective levels of meditators, and open new directions both in applied metaphor studies and meditation research.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository: https://figshare.com/s/5075879a2b4f01342c36 (ESM1_Transcripts) and https://figshare.com/s/dd633f9c035c76e5598a (ESM2_Dataset).
Notes
Following the conventions in conceptual metaphor literature, conceptual metaphors are represented in small capitals with the formula TARGET DOMAIN IS SOURCE DOMAIN.
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This work was supported by the Conselleria de Innovación, Universidades, Ciencia y Sociedad Digital (Valencia, Spain), www.gva.es, under Grant Number GV/2019/101 awarded to the corresponding author. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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AJSL developed the conceptualization of the study, contributed to the study design, drafted and edited the stimuli materials, collected data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. DPC contributed to the study design, supervised the stimuli materials, collected and analysed data, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. ABL supervised the study design, collaborated with the analysis of data, and provided critical revisions on the first and last drafts. All authors read and approve the final manuscript.
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ESM 1
Transcripts: https://figshare.com/s/5075879a2b4f01342c36(DOCX 23 kb)
ESM 2
Dataset: https://figshare.com/s/dd633f9c035c76e5598a(CSV 69 kb)
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Silvestre-López, AJ., Pinazo, D. & Barrós-Lorcertales, A. Metaphor can influence meta-thinking and affective levels in guided meditation. Curr Psychol 42, 3617–3629 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01655-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01655-1