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Abstract

Mindfulness of the body is an important aspect in many contemplative traditions and crucial for psychological well-being. However, until recently, standardized self-report measures for body awareness were scarce, their theoretical bases narrow in scope and the effect of interoceptive training on such measures largely unknown. Mehling et al. (2012) recently developed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA) that measures body awareness with 8 different scales. In the current study, we investigated whether and how these different aspects of body awareness are influenced by a 3-month contemplative intervention in which 148 subjects engaged in daily practices of “attention to breath” and “body scan” in the context of the presence module of the ReSource project. In a first step, we developed a German version and tested it in a large and diverse sample (n=1076). Internal consistencies were found to be similar to the English version (.56-.89), re-test reliability is shown to be high (rs: .66-.79), and the MAIA shows convergent and discriminant validity through its associations to other questionnaires. Contemplative training improved all 8 aspects of body awareness significantly, but in different magnitudes. The strongest changes were observed for the functional aspects, that is, how the body is used in everyday life (e.g., for self-regulation). Only small changes were observed for the pure noticing aspect (becoming aware of bodily changes), which is the aspect that is predominantly assessed in other body awareness questionnaires. This underscores the importance to assess body awareness multi-dimensionally, particularly when interested in changes through contemplative practice.