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Coronavirus Update: Compassion meditation may ease anxieties related to coronavirus

From WVU Today:

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Practicing social distancing is one way to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, but practicing emotional closeness may help alleviate the anxiety that the coronavirus can provoke.

Julie Brefczynski-Lewis, a research assistant professor in the West Virginia University Department of Neuroscience—part of the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute—said that “switching to compassion mode” may be one way to manage that anxiety.

Brefczynski-Lewis is an expert in compassion meditation, which she calls a technique for getting out of the claustrophobia of self-centeredness, cultivating concern for others and realizing we are not alone in our experience of suffering. She has published several peer-reviewed studies dealing with various forms of meditation, mindfulness and neuroimaging. 

She also has developed a smartphone app to assist in applying meditation techniques for daily stress relief, and she regularly leads mindfulness meditation sessions at the WVU Health Sciences Center.

She is involved in research that uses MRI, PET scans and electroencephalograms to reveal activity within the brain.

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