Deep Rest: An Integrative Model of How Contemplative Practices Combat Stress and Enhance the Body’s Restorative Capacity

Engaging in contemplative practices like meditation, yoga, and prayer, is greatly beneficial for psychological and physical well-being. Recent research has identified some of the underlying psychological and biological pathways that explain these benefits. However, an overarching model has yet to be developed that incorporates the latest research from intervention and experimental studies with the physiological processes related to contemplative practices. In this paper, we link divergent scientific literature on contemplative practice interventions, stress science, and mitochondrial biology, presenting a unified and biologically focused model of how contemplative practices promote physical health. We argue that engaging in contemplative practice facilitates a restorative state termed ‘deep rest,’ largely facilitated by safety signaling, during which energetic resources move towards cellular optimization and away from an energy-demanding threat-arousal state. In sum, our model presents a framework for how contemplative practices enhance positive psychological and physical functioning by improving how cellular energy is consumed

Deep Rest: An Integrative Model of How Contemplative Practices Combat Stress and Enhance the Body’s Restorative Capacity

Engaging in contemplative practice like meditation, yoga, and prayer, is beneficial for psychological and physical well-being. Recent research has identified several underlying psychological and biological pathways that explain these benefits. However, there is not yet consensus on the underlying overlapping physiological mechanisms of contemplative practice benefits. In this article, we integrate divergent scientific literatures on contemplative practice interventions, stress science, and mitochondrial biology, presenting a unified biopsychosocial model of how contemplative practices reduce stress and promote physical health. We argue that engaging in contemplative practice facilitates a restorative state termed "deep rest," largely through safety signaling, during which energetic resources are directed toward cellular optimization and away from energy-demanding stress states. Our model thus presents a framework for how contemplative practices enhance positive psychological and physiological functioning by optimizing cellular energy consumption. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)