Motivation for Meditation and Its Association with Meditation Practice in a National Sample of Internet Users

There is limited understanding of what motivates people to initiate and sustain meditation practice. This study investigates initial and current motivations for meditation, demographic variability in motivations, and associations with ongoing and lifetime meditation practice.

A national sample of internet users were recruited to examine initial and current motivations for meditation practice.

Nine hundred fifty-three participants completed the initial screening and 470 (49.3%) reported exposure to meditation practice. Four hundred thirty-four (92.3%) completed a follow-up assessment. The participants most frequently reported mental health/stress alleviation as an initial motivation (n = 322, 74.2%) followed by spiritual (n = 122, 28.1%), physical health (n = 69, 15.9%), awakening/enlightenment (n = 64, 14.7%), cultural (n = 51, 11.8%), and other (n = 33, 7.6%). The participants reported a mean of 1.52 (SD = 0.83) initial motivations. Among those currently meditating, a significant increase in the number of motivations was found between initial and current motivations (1.60 [SD = 0.89] and 2.11 [SD = 1.16], for initial and current motivations, respectively, Cohen’s d = 0.45). The number of motivations was positively associated with meditation practice. Initial mental health motivation was found to be negatively associated with current and lifetime meditation practice, whereas spiritual motivation was found to be positively associated.

While meditation started as a tool for spiritual attainment, findings suggest that it is predominantly used in the USA for mental health support and to manage stress. Findings suggest that both type and number of motivations may relate to the course of practice.