Center for Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience
Interest in mindfulness continues to expand as scientific research increasingly reveals benefits to health – mentally, physically and socially. The Center for Mindfulness, Compassion and Resilience brings together Arizona State University faculty, students and research partners to examine the impacts of mindfulness across wide ranges of areas, including studies of social relationships and social justice, neuroscience and aging, wellbeing and immune function.
For example, the Interdisciplinary Research Cluster at ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research studies cognitive psychology and how individuals learn about the physical world through engaging with it, experiencing it and forming skills to navigate it. This cluster investigates the scientific perspective on the mind-body connection, from the premise that sensations accompanying actions contribute to the way individuals make sense of their environment.
Studies in ASU’s School of Social Work also examine the impacts of mindfulness training and daily practice. Their findings have shown that both approaches improve individual’s quality of communication and social connectedness. Working to design new interventions to maintain and improve wellness, ASU researchers in ASU’s School of Social Work have also identified how mindfulness interrupts the development of stress as an emergency response, which consequently forges a depleted immune system and a cycle of exacerbated stress.
ASU scientists and partners investigate how the human brain responds to mindfulness and its potential to enhance emotion regulation and positively impact neural patterns as well. Neuropsychology studies underway at Barrow Neurological Institute examine age-related changes in the brain, including analysis of emotional changes in people with autism as well as the effects of mindfulness on the brain and behavior, aging and dementia.
Contact us to find out more about how mindfulness research at ASU is changing lives and improving overall health.