The Science Behind REAL Shift: Research and Its Limits

The Science

Science Gives Us Reason for Hope

The patterns that shape how we think, feel, and react are not fixed.

Research in neuroscience and psychology shows that practices involving attention, emotional awareness, labeling, reappraisal, compassion, and mindful presence can be associated with measurable changes in how we respond to experience. These are many of the same capacities REAL Shift is designed to strengthen.

Science cannot prove every insight of the contemplative traditions. But it offers something deeply encouraging: the mind can learn, the brain can adapt, and our habitual reactions can change.

That means transformation does not have to begin someday.
It can begin with the next ten seconds.

What the research says

Each movement of the method is related to an area of published research.

Rumination and the default mode network

The default mode network is a set of brain regions most active when the mind is not focused on a task. It has been linked to self-referential thought and mind-wandering (Raichle et al., 2001), and mind-wandering has been associated with lower reported happiness (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). In one study, experienced meditators showed different activity and connectivity in these regions during meditation than beginners (Brewer et al., 2011).

Naming what you feel

Putting a feeling into words has been shown to reduce activity in the amygdala, a region involved in emotional alarm (Lieberman et al., 2007). This is the research most closely related to the first movement, Recognize.

Stepping back

Self-distancing, taking the view of an observer rather than being swallowed by the experience, has been associated with lower emotional reactivity and less rumination (Kross & Ayduk, 2017). It is closely related to the movement of Awareness.

Compassion

Compassion training has been associated with increased positive affect and with changes in how the brain responds to other people’s suffering (Klimecki et al., 2013; Singer & Klimecki, 2014). It is related to the movements of Empathy and Love.

Attention

Reviews of mindfulness research describe links to attention control, emotion regulation, and self-awareness (Tang, Hölzel & Posner, 2015). Noticing where attention has gone, and returning it, is what each ten-second practice rehearses.

REAL Shift is a contemplative practice and an educational method. It is not a medical or psychological treatment, and it is not a substitute for care from a qualified professional.

Sources and further reading

Raichle, M. E., et al. (2001). A default mode of brain function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(2), 676–682.
Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science, 330(6006), 932.
Brewer, J. A., et al. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(50), 20254–20259.
Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428.
Kross, E., & Ayduk, O. (2017). Self-distancing: Theory, research, and current directions. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 55, 81–136.
Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Lamm, C., & Singer, T. (2013). Functional neural plasticity and associated changes in positive affect after compassion training. Cerebral Cortex, 23(7), 1552–1561.
Singer, T., & Klimecki, O. M. (2014). Empathy and compassion. Current Biology, 24(18), R875–R878.
Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225.
Libet, B., Gleason, C. A., Wright, E. W., & Pearl, D. K. (1983). Time of conscious intention to act in relation to onset of cerebral activity (readiness-potential). Brain, 106(3), 623–642.

The research behind the practice