Music, as a temporal auditory art, tends to evoke aesthetic emotions (Scherer, 2004; Frijda and Sundararaja, 2007). The aesthetic values of music are capable of inducing a much more nuanced range of emotive states than discrete emotions outlined in the traditional emotion models (Zentner et al., 2008). Previous studies suggest that music evokes emotions that are significantly different from utilitarian emotions; emotions evoked by music are more often aesthetic than utilitarian (Stecker, 2006; Nieminen et al., 2012; Silvia et al., 2015; Reybrouck et al., 2018; Menninghaus et al., 2019). Many aesthetic emotions, although positive overall, encompass negative or mixed emotional ingredients, which are measured by domain-specific models (Barrett et al., 2010; Larsen and Stastny, 2011; Swaminathan and Schellenberg, 2015; Menninghaus et al., 2019; Cowen et al., 2020). Theoretical approaches have verified that domain-specific models might be more appropriate (Zentner et al., 2008; Zentner, 2010; Zentner and Eerola, 2010) compared to the classical theories of basic emotions that concern fear, anger, or joy, for example (Ekman, 1992), or dimensional models that describe all the affective experiences in terms of valence and arousal (Russell, 2003). This study is based on the aesthetic emotion theory, which is a domain-specific model of emotion (Zentner et al., 2008; Menninghaus et al., 2019).

Previous studies have shown that the processing of music aesthetic emotion involves the multidimensional measurement of both the psychological and the behavioral phenomena (Brattico et al., 2016; Menninghaus et al., 2019). Neuroscientific evidence shows that music evokes complex emotions beyond pleasant/unpleasant or happy/sad dichotomies (Nieminen et al., 2011; Brattico et al., 2016; Menninghaus et al., 2019). The processing of music aesthetic emotion is closely related to the emotional response, aesthetic judgment, and aesthetic preference of an individual while listening to music (Schubert, 2007; Barrett et al., 2010; Nieminen et al., 2012; Brattico et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2013; Orozco, 2015). The emotional response to musical aesthetics involves two processes, emotional recognition (emotion expressed by music) and emotion experience (emotion experienced by subjects) (Schubert, 2013; Schindler et al., 2017; Schubert and North, 2020), both of which are regarded as a continuum of aesthetic emotion processing (Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2011; Swaminathan and Schellenberg, 2015; Scherer et al., 2019). A forced choice task (FCT), wherein the judges were asked to select from several pre-selected emotion labels, was used to evaluate the recognition and experience of music emotion (Laukka and Juslin, 2007; Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2011; Laukka et al., 2013). Even though the forced-choice methodology produces an ecologically valid task, the participants were further required to rate the intensity of each stimulus on the Likert scale (Laukka and Juslin, 2007). The forced-choice response paradigm is a simple, clear, and methodologically strong technique that provides robust results (Frank and Stennett, 2001, p. 1). The Geneva Emotional Musical Scale (GEMS) is an effective psychometric scale based on the theory of aesthetic emotion and employs suitable ecological musical works as stimulus materials (Zentner et al., 2008; Vuoskoski and Eerola, 2011; Trost et al., 2012). The GEMS acts as an effective tool for exploring the behavioral characteristics and psychological mechanisms of Musical aesthetic emotion processing (MAEP). It is a nine factorial music emotion model comprising wonder, transcendence, tenderness, nostalgia, peacefulness, power, joyfulness, tension, and sadness (Zentner et al., 2008; Zentner, 2010; Trost et al., 2012). Tension is an important indicator of the physiological changes in an emotional experience and reflects the degree to which the psychophysiological state of an individual could change, from relaxation to tension (Menninghaus et al., 2019; Scherer et al., 2019). Activation/arousal can be used to measure the psychophysiological and neurophysiological intensity induced by music (Barrett et al., 2010; Trost et al., 2012; Vuoskoski and Eerola, 2012; Ellison et al., 2015) and the intensity of the psychophysiological and neurophysiological activation in the domain-general model of emotion (Hölzel et al., 2011a; Bueno et al., 2015; Andreu et al., 2019; Bailey et al., 2019). To facilitate the measurement of the degree of relaxation induced by mindfulness meditation training (Dvorak and Hernandez-Ruiz, 2019; Hernandez-Ruiz and Dvorak, 2020; Loo et al., 2020) and music listening (Baylan et al., 2018; Sorensen et al., 2018), this study selected tension as an indicator of the psychophysiological response of the participants.

The evaluation of aesthetic judgment and aesthetic preference also have an important influence on the processing of the aesthetic emotion while listening to music (Brattico et al., 2016; Menninghaus et al., 2019). Beauty is the core of music aesthetics (Nieminen et al., 2012; Brattico and Pearce, 2013), which appears to be “in the interaction between the stimulus and the beholder's cognitive and affective processes” (Reber et al., 2004, p. 3). Aesthetic judgment is an important measure in experiencing the beauty of music, to better account for typical aesthetic emotions, such as admiration and awe (Juslin, 2013; Schindler et al., 2017). Liking is a comprehensive index reflecting musical preference and personality traits. Some studies have shown that liking was also significantly related to the quality of music and the listening environment (Schellenberg et al., 2008; Brattico et al., 2013). Studies have shown that music preference can effectively predict aesthetic judgments and affect the emotional arousal and intensity of musical enjoyment (Nieminen et al., 2012; Brattico et al., 2016; Menninghaus et al., 2019).

Usually, phenomena such as tension, beauty, and liking in relation to aesthetic emotion recognition and experience would be measured by means of the Likert scale (Schellenberg et al., 2008; Munar et al., 2011; Trost et al., 2012; Juslin et al., 2013; Thammasan et al., 2017; Madsen et al., 2019). Evidence shows that the conceptualization, classification, and measurement of aesthetic emotions (Zentner et al., 2008; Schindler et al., 2017; Menninghaus et al., 2019) have provided important theoretical models and measurement tools for the music aesthetic domain (Zentner et al., 2008; Brattico et al., 2009; Barrett et al., 2010; Zentner, 2010; Trost et al., 2012; Diaz, 2013; Menninghaus et al., 2019), which have had a profound impact on the study of music aesthetics and emotional processing (Nieminen et al., 2012; Brattico et al., 2016; Madsen et al., 2019).

Retrospective evaluation has generally been used to measure the behavioral characteristics of the participants in the experimental research into MAEP (Zentner et al., 2008; Trost et al., 2012; Vuoskoski and Eerola, 2012, 2017; Silvia et al., 2015). However, most of the previous empirical studies have focused on exploring causality or correlation between musical noumena and MAEP, paying little attention to the influence of mindfulness meditation on MAEP (Baylan et al., 2018; Scherer et al., 2019; Hernandez-Ruiz and Dvorak, 2020; Loo et al., 2020; Misba et al., 2020).

Mindfulness, combined with Buddhist meditation, has a long history. Mindfulness is usually defined as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally” (Diaz, 2013; Lutz et al., 2014; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014). Mindfulness meditation, as a state, trait, or clinical intervention, has been widely used in emotion regulation, attention, psychotherapy, and clinical medicine, among other fields (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Sahdra et al., 2011; Singh et al., 2014; Bueno et al., 2015; Zanesco et al., 2016; Zanesco, 2017; Andreu et al., 2019; Bailey et al., 2019). It has brought many positive effects to people, such as regulated negative emotions, enhanced self-awareness, improved well-being, enhanced psychological function, and reduced stress symptoms, and improved cognitive recovery (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014; Tomaselli, 2014; Anderson, 2016; Bell et al., 2016; Baylan et al., 2018; Sorensen et al., 2018; Loo et al., 2020; Misba et al., 2020). Previous studies have shown a certain relationship between mindfulness meditation and specific music activities (Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014). Mindfulness-based music listening can increase listening sensitivity and enjoyment (Anderson, 2016; Baylan et al., 2018), improve well-being (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014; Sorensen et al., 2018; Loo et al., 2020), enhance body awareness and listening experiences (Diaz, 2013; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014), and decrease psychological stress and anxiety symptoms (Tomaselli, 2014). Specific musical activities, such as listening to mindfulness music, chorus training, music performance, and music creation, could induce a state of mindfulness meditation, which moderates the absorption of musical stimuli by the participants and affects their emotional experiences (Bell et al., 2016; Lynch and Wilson, 2017; Dvorak and Hernandez-Ruiz, 2019).

Previous studies have shown that mindfulness meditation could improve emotion processing (Tan et al., 2014; Bueno et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016). Mindfulness meditation comprises a process of enhanced self-regulation that can be differentiated into distinct but interrelated components, namely, attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and a change in self-perception (Hölzel et al., 2011b). Mindfulness-based intervention contributes to inducing a positive emotional state (Brown and Ryan, 2003) and reducing negative emotions (Baylan et al., 2018). Neurophysiological evidence shows that mindfulness meditation causes structural changes in the brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, and self-referential processing (Davidson et al., 2003; Hölzel et al., 2011a; Lutz et al., 2014; Davidson and Kaszniak, 2015; Tang et al., 2015). Mindfulness meditation training can be divided into three levels according to the training time (Davidson, 2010; Davidson and Kaszniak, 2015; Sayers et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016): temporary mindfulness meditation training (3 min to 1 h), short-term mindfulness meditation training (4 days to 4 months), and long-term mindfulness meditation training (over 10 years). Studies have shown that both short-term mindfulness meditation training and long-term meditation training affect emotional processing by increasing individual mindfulness and self-awareness and enhancing individual emotional self-acceptance (Lei et al., 2016). Erisman and Roemer (2010) examined the effect of a temporary mindfulness meditation intervention on emotional response in terms of three emotions (sad, positive, and mixed), following the viewing of film clips. The results showed that temporary mindfulness meditation intervention effectively enhanced positive experiences and reduced negative experiences (Erisman and Roemer, 2010). A neuroimaging study showed that temporary mindfulness meditation training enhanced the activation of the prefrontal lobe and reduced the activation of the amygdala and the hippocampus (Lutz et al., 2014). These studies indicate that temporary mindfulness meditation training is an effective method of mood regulation and affected emotional processing (Erisman and Roemer, 2010; Lalot et al., 2014; Lutz et al., 2014; Garland et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016).

Mindfulness meditation is the intentional awareness of internal and external happenings in the present moment, without judgment, rejection, or attachment to the moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2012; Dvorak and Hernandez-Ruiz, 2019; Hernandez-Ruiz and Dvorak, 2020). It includes two components, namely, regulating the attention of an individual to maintain the immediate experience and approaching the experiences of an individual with curiosity, openness, and acceptance (Lei et al., 2016). The non-judgment and openness experience induced by state mindfulness meditation are highly related to body awareness (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Diaz, 2013; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014; Clark et al., 2015; Anderson, 2016; Loo et al., 2020; Misba et al., 2020). Temporary mindfulness meditation training, as a relaxed state of enhanced self-regulation, effectively induces the openness of individuals to experience and non-judging of inner experience by individuals, thereby improving emotion processing (Bishop, 2004; Tan et al., 2014; Bueno et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016). In addition, changes in time perception may be related to body awareness and openness of the internal experience induced by mindfulness meditation training, which enhances attentional function (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Kramer et al., 2013; Bailey et al., 2019). Mindfulness meditation focuses more strongly on sensory experiences and greater awareness of feelings and of body states, which leads to a slowing down of time in the present moment (Wittmann and Schmidt, 2014). Kramer et al. (2013) found that participants engaging in mindfulness training overestimated the length of time when images were visually presented to them. The authors attribute this to the temporary changes in attention and perception, wherein the participants were more aware and focused at the moment on the task at hand (Kramer et al., 2013). Overall, the maintenance of a relaxed body state and listening sensitivity induced by mindfulness meditation may have important academic and social significance for exploring temporary mindfulness meditation training and MAEP.

Although these studies show the influence of the mindfulness training level on emotional processing (Sayers et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016), little is known about the influence of mindfulness meditation on MAEP among non-musically trained adults (Diaz, 2013), especially following exposure to the musical aesthetics of Chinese classical folk instrumental music. Thus, far, no study has explored the relationships between mindfulness meditation using natural Chinese classical folk instrumental musical works and MAEP. Past research has shown that music-specific models, emotion validation using multiple psychometric approaches, and ecologically valid music will become more common in future music emotion research (Zentner et al., 2008; Kumar and Garg, 2010; Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2013; Menninghaus et al., 2019). Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the effect of temporary mindfulness meditation training on MAEP. Music aesthetic tasks include five items, namely, recognition, experience, tension, beauty, and liking. FCT was used to evaluate between-group differences in the recognition and experience of the musical aesthetic emotion. The Likert scale is used to assess between-group differences in tension, beauty, and liking of music aesthetic tasks. After participants had listened to the music, GEMS was used to explore within-subject consistency in evaluating the music aesthetic emotions, verifying that the music emotion belongs to the category of aesthetic emotion (Laukka and Juslin, 2007; Munar et al., 2011; Brattico et al., 2013; Laukka et al., 2013). The differences in musical aesthetic tasks between the MMG and the CG will be investigated to illustrate that temporary mindfulness meditation training has an impact on MAEP, body awareness, and time perception of non-musically trained participants. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized the following:

In our novel examination of the influence of temporary mindfulness meditation training on MAEP, the hypotheses were partially confirmed. In line with our expectations, significant differences in recognition, experience, and beauty between the two groups were influenced by temporary mindfulness meditation training. Temporary mindfulness meditation decreased the negative emotions (e.g., tension, sadness in sad music) of happy and sad music and the positive emotions (e.g., wonder, tenderness, and joy) of calm music during recognition and experience and improved the experience of beauty in MAEP. The post-test results showed that maintaining a state of mindfulness enhanced body awareness and led to experiencing a faster passage of musical time while listening to music. Although there were no statistically significant between-group differences in tension and liking, the scores of all aesthetic dimensions in the MMG were lower than those in the CG, which suggested that temporary mindfulness meditation training might affect music aesthetic emotion. Additionally, the GEMS findings showed that Chinese classical folk instrumental musical works induced aesthetic emotions and produced multidimensional emotional experiences.

The behavioral results showed that the rating scores of emotion recognition, emotion experience, and evaluation of beauty and liking effectively measured the differences in the processing of music aesthetics in individuals with no musical training. Previous studies showed that temporary mindfulness meditation affected negative and positive emotion processing (Arch and Craske, 2006; Erisman and Roemer, 2010; Lalot et al., 2014; Lei et al., 2016). Erisman and Roemer (2010) found that temporary mindfulness meditation intervention effectively enhanced positive experience and reduced negative experience using the stimuli with three emotions (sad, positive, and mixed) (Erisman and Roemer, 2010). However, a few studies also investigated the effect of mindful attention on positive emotions using positive stimuli; their results showed that participants without previous mindfulness training reported lesser positive emotions (Arch and Craske, 2006; Lalot et al., 2014). Consistent with previous studies (Arch and Craske, 2006; Erisman and Roemer, 2010; Lalot et al., 2014), the MMG showed an effectively decreased music aesthetic emotion during recognition and experience as well as a decrease in the negative emotional experiences of happy and sad music. Compared with the MMG, the CG reported more positive emotional experiences (e.g., wonder, tenderness, and joy) in the emotional experiences of calm music. This may be due to the non-judgment of the inner experiences induced by temporal mindfulness meditation (Lei et al., 2016; Hernandez-Ruiz and Dvorak, 2020); the non-judging of inner experience refers to taking a non-evaluative stance toward thoughts and feelings (Baer et al., 2008). In previous studies, mindfulness meditation, as an effective form of regulating the body and mind and promoting health, had a significantly positive effect on regulating negative emotions, attention, emotional stability, awareness, and empathy experience (Erisman and Roemer, 2010; Tan et al., 2014; Bueno et al., 2015; Clark et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016; Ren et al., 2018; Andreu et al., 2019; Bailey et al., 2019). Temporary mindfulness meditation training influenced aesthetic emotion recognition and experience and enhanced the experiences of musical beauty in individuals with no musical training, which is consistent with a few previous research (Bueno et al., 2015; Sayers et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016). Temporary mindfulness meditation training, as a relaxed state of listening to music, provides us with a new method of listening and helps us to experience music in depth and generate aesthetic judgments.

Our results showed that emotion recognition was related to emotion experience. When exposed to musical aesthetics, the processing of the aesthetic emotions of individuals is affected by emotional experience, aesthetic judgment, and aesthetic preferences (Schubert, 2007; Barrett et al., 2010; Nieminen et al., 2012; Brattico et al., 2013; Lee et al., 2013; Orozco, 2015). Previous studies have found more similarities than differences between emotion recognition and experience, which are seen as a continuum (Gabrielsson, 2001; Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2011; Schubert, 2013) and which have an important influence on the judgment of music aesthetics (Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2011; Swaminathan and Schellenberg, 2015; Scherer et al., 2019). Previous studies have also shown that individuals could empathize with music and produce an individualized aesthetic experience by actively participating in music or by being deeply attracted to music. Therefore, emotion experience is more important than emotion recognition in music aesthetics (Madsen et al., 1993; Brattico et al., 2009; Paul, 2009; Menninghaus et al., 2019; Schubert and North, 2020). However, in the judgment of music emotion, perception and evaluation of music emotion of individuals are affected by subjective experience, which has a direct impact on music aesthetic judgment (Schubert, 2007; Kumar and Garg, 2010; Droit-Volet et al., 2013). In music aesthetics, recognition and experience of music aesthetic emotion are both independent and mutually influential (Gabrielsson, 2001; Schubert, 2007, 2013; Schindler et al., 2017).

In addition, tension, beauty, and liking are also important measurement dimensions of music aesthetic processing (Brattico et al., 2009, 2017; Schindler et al., 2017; Menninghaus et al., 2019; Cowen et al., 2020). Previous studies have shown that tension, emotional intensity, and activation are different measurement dimensions of subjective feelings (Zentner et al., 2008; Zentner, 2010; Menninghaus et al., 2019). This study explored how individuals with no musical training experienced a change from tension to relaxation induced by calm, happiness, and sadness in a state of mindfulness meditation. Some studies also showed that mindfulness meditation can effectively promote relaxation in individuals (Bueno et al., 2015; Tang et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016; Bailey et al., 2019). Therefore, this study chose tension as the measurement index of relaxation and emotional intensity. Although there is no significant difference in the tension between groups, the score of tension in the MMG is slightly lower than that in the CG, which indicated that a single session of mindfulness training is not enough to promote the relaxation of aesthetic emotional experience. Further study using short-term mindfulness meditation training on tension is needed. Beauty is influenced by the interaction between an individual and music, which reflects the self-evaluation of an individual of the beauty and ugliness of the musical stimulation and affects, or even determines, the liking for music aesthetics of an individual (Reber et al., 2004; Nieminen et al., 2012; Schubert and North, 2020). Our results showed that temporary mindfulness meditation training contributes to improving the aesthetic experience of the participants in MAEP, which indicates that individuals could experience more beauty by listening to music in a relaxed physical state. Liking is influenced by the music preference and personality traits of an individual (Brattico et al., 2016; Menninghaus et al., 2019), as well as by the quality of the music and the listening environment (Schellenberg et al., 2008; Brattico et al., 2013). This experiment was conducted in a quiet, soundproof room, stimulated by traditional Chinese folk music with high ecological quality, and played with high-quality audio equipment. The results showed that there was no significant difference in liking between groups, which may be due to the influence of music preference and personality traits of individuals (Brattico and Pearce, 2013; Menninghaus et al., 2019).

Previous studies showed that individuals could maintain a state of mind and body that focused on the present moment and could be open to more positive experiences while maintaining a state of inner experience without judgment (Clark et al., 2015; Sayers et al., 2015; Lei et al., 2016). Our results showed that, compared with the CG, the MMG maintained a more relaxed awareness of body control and experienced a faster passage of the musical time while listening to music. The reduction in body control in the MMG may reflect maintaining a relaxed state while listening to music (Diaz, 2013; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014). This may be related to the relaxation and positive emotional experiences induced by mindfulness meditation (Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014; Hernandez-Ruiz and Dvorak, 2020). Furthermore, some studies showed that time perception is intimately linked to affective states, which might alter the sense of time (Droit-Volet et al., 2013; Kramer et al., 2013; Wittmann and Schmidt, 2014). The faster time perception of music in the MMG may be due to moment-to-moment awareness in the positive emotional experience (Diaz, 2013; Droit-Volet et al., 2013; Rodríguez-Carvajal and Lecuona, 2014).

The following evidence confirms our hypothesis: Chinese classical folk instrumental musical works, which are consistent with Western classical music (Laukka and Juslin, 2007; Paul, 2009; Larsen and Stastny, 2011; Trost et al., 2012; Brattico et al., 2013; Eerola and Vuoskoski, 2013; Juslin et al., 2013; Madsen et al., 2019), effectively induce aesthetic emotion and produce two or more aesthetic emotion experiences among non-musically trained adults. Consistent with the previous findings regarding music aesthetics, this study selected three emotional levels of calm, happiness, and sadness with Chinese classical folk instrumental musical works as stimulus materials. Participants were not familiar with the materials used in this study. Previous studies have found that listening to negative emotional music induced by anger and fear for a long time may have a negative effect on the experience of individuals and may even produce a sense of disgust and a negative effect on the music aesthetics of individuals (Zentner et al., 2008; Zentner, 2010). By contrast, sad music based on personal mood and preference can generate positive effects (Brattico et al., 2016; Schubert, 2016; Garrido, 2017; Eerola et al., 2018). This study showed the following: (1) in terms of experience, the dimension of calm music was significantly greater than happy music, the dimension of happy music was marginally smaller than that of sad music, and there was no difference between calm music and sad music; (2) in terms of tension, the effect of calm music was significantly lower than sad music and happy music, and sad music was significantly lower than happy music; (3) in the assessment of beauty, there were noteworthy discrepancies in the three emotion levels, namely, calm music was higher than happy music and sad music, while happy music was slightly higher than sad music; and (4) in ratings of liking, calm music was higher than happy music and sad music, happy music was higher than sad music, and sad music was rated as “not very liked.” According to the mood congruence theory (Lee et al., 2013), liking of sad music might be affected by the positive mood of the participants, which indicates that one-off temporary mindfulness meditation training is not sufficient to have an impact on their preference.

To our knowledge, this is the first study investigating the influence of mindfulness on MAEP in individuals with no musical training. The findings contribute to existing literature by identifying the relationship between mindfulness and musically induced emotion. Importantly, this study provided new evidence of the aesthetic responses and new insights into the association between recognition and experience of aesthetic emotion based on Chinese classical folk instrumental musical works. Some limitations of this study has been discussed. First, the sample size was comparatively small for a behavioral study. Future studies should consider larger samples to further explore the MAEP in individuals who have no musical training. Second, this study was based on individuals who had no musical training. Future studies should investigate how mindfulness meditation affects the aesthetic emotion processing of musicians. Third, we relied on self-reports, which could not provide an objective index. As such, future studies should explore neural markers or brain activities using event-related potential (ERP) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Finally, future research needs to explore the influence of individual music preference and different personality traits on music aesthetic processing based on temporary mindfulness meditation, and, further, provide relevant behavioral and neurophysiological evidence. As some researchers expect, future research on the medium- and long-term effects of aesthetic experience on physical and mental health, well-being, and cognitive function may benefit from regarding aesthetic emotion as an important variable. Music could thus certainly offer highly effective and pleasurable tools to further promote well-being and health (Vuilleumier and Trost, 2015; Lynch and Wilson, 2017; Sorensen et al., 2018; Menninghaus et al., 2019). In the future, in-depth research on the effects of mindfulness meditation training on aesthetic emotion will be conducive to a better understanding of the functioning and cultivation of a healthy mind (Hölzel et al., 2011b; Bueno et al., 2015; Loo et al., 2020; Misba et al., 2020).

In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest, that whether during the recognition or the experience process, music emotions are multidimensional. Temporary mindfulness meditation decreases negative emotional experiences of happy and sad music and positive emotional experiences of calm music and promotes beautiful musical experiences in individuals with no musical training. Maintaining a state of mindfulness may enhance body awareness and lead to experiencing faster passage of musical time while listening to music. Mindfulness meditation, as a positive state of listening to music, provides a new avenue by which the beauty of music could be enjoyed. This is the first study exploring the effect of mindfulness on MAEP and provides new directions for the further studies of musical aesthetics.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Research Project Ethical Review Application Form, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

XL, YL, and HS conceptualized and designed this study and wrote the manuscript. MZ reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.