A three-week online self-compassion meditation program can produce improvements in body appreciation and positive wellbeing, while reducing body dissatisfaction, new research from La Trobe University has found.
Australian adults who completed the self-compassion meditation training reported significantly increased body appreciation, positive wellbeing and lower self-judgement. The benefits were still evident six weeks after the program concluded and frequency of practice alone did not drive the size of change.
The randomised controlled trial, published in the journal Mindfulness, involved 227 people, aged 18 to 39 years. Participants in the intervention group undertook 20 minutes of daily self-compassion, while those in the control group remained on the waitlist.
Three different meditation sessions given to participants encouraged mindfulness, self-kindness and common humanity. Although some practices involved awareness of bodily sensations, the meditation scripts did not include appearance-related prompts or instructions to focus on body image or physical appearance.
Lead researcher Dr Joshua Marmara from La Trobe's Department of Psychology, Counselling and Therapy said developing a kinder relationship with yourself could have positive benefits for mental health and body image.
"Many body image interventions focus directly on appearance concerns, but our study found that simply encouraging people to treat themselves with greater kindness and understanding can improve how they feel about their bodies,” Dr Marmara said.
Fostering self-compassion, which encourages individuals to respond to personal difficulties with greater kindness and mindful awareness rather than harsh self-criticism, may be key to enhancing body appreciation rather than mindfulness practice alone.
Dr Siân McLean, Associate Professor in Psychology from La Trobe's School of Psychology and Public Health said the findings highlighted the potential of accessible, self-guided interventions to better support positive mental health.
“Because these self-compassion training programs are simple to deliver online and require relatively little time, they have the potential to reach large numbers of people,” Associate Professor McLean said.
“With concerns about body image affecting people across all stages of life, accessible tools that help people develop greater self-acceptance could make a meaningful difference.”
The researchers say further work is needed to understand how self-compassion interventions work across more diverse populations and whether benefits are maintained over longer periods.
DOI: 10.1007/s12671-026-02981-w
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