In recent years, meditation has gone so rapidly from subculture to mainstream that some might be tempted to dismiss it as a passing fad. The fact is that two core practices of the new wave of meditation apps and schools, mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation, date back thousands of years. And both have been clinically shown to have beneficial effects on self-awareness and compassion for others, two core dimensions of emotional intelligence.

Boost calmness

Of the Four Domains of Emotional Intelligence, mindfulness meditation can help with self-awareness and self-management. Loving-kindness meditation can help with social awareness (empathy) and relationship management.
Research shows that mindfulness meditation can dramatically improve emotional self-control. It helps people be less reactive under stress. When people do get upset, they’re more likely to recover more quickly.
Boost compassion

Research shows that loving-kindness meditation—bringing to mind loves ones and wishing them well—makes people kinder, more generous, and happier.
Loving-kindness meditation triggers the mammalian caretaking circuitry—the same biological wiring that drives parental love.
Our caretaking circuitry is important for the third of three kinds of empathy:
1. Cognitive empathy: Taking the other person’s perspective
2. Emotional empathy: Feeling what the other person feels
3. Empathic concern: Caring about the other person and wanting to help him or her
We can have the first two but not be concerned or caring. With all three, we have the full package of empathy.