CALM, CENTERED, AND CONFIDENT: MINDFULNESS MEDITATION AS A TOOL FOR MANAGING STUDENT STRESSBOB FULLER, PHD, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES, BRADLEY UNIVERSITY

MARK LEHTMAN, BS, PSYCHOLOGY AND HISTORY, BRADLEY UNIVERSITY

Calm ConfidentCen

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MINDFULNESS MEDITATIONA Tool for Managing Student Stress

Mindfulness is defined as being focused in the moment. 1,2 One way to practice mindfulness meditation consists of simply sitting in a comfortable position for ten to twelve minutes while concentrating on the sensation of air moving in and out of the lungs. For these few minutes one is instructed to notice—then let go of—every distracting thought that comes into the mind. The goal of mindfulness meditation is to be as attentive as possible to the simple act of breathing in order to live fully in the moment, free from distracting thoughts or emotions. The purpose of mindfulness meditation is thus to be fully conscious of each moment of experience with minimal interference from competing mental states, such as regret, worry, anticipation, or other emotion-driven distractions.

The recent popularity of mindfulness meditation in corporations and other enterprises across America attests to a growing and broad-based interest in finding ways to negotiate the demands of a multitasking culture. Hundreds of research articles suggest that mindfulness exercises can help people overcome anxiety, concentrate better, and even become more compassionate. 3,4,5 To build upon this past research, an experiment was designed to determine (1) if mindfulness meditation techniques can be taught effectively in a university setting, and (2) if they provide benefits for students.

METHODSThe experiment was conducted with 28 college students who attended a one-credit mindfulness seminar that met one hour a week for eight weeks. Prior to the seminar’s first meeting, participants filled out a questionnaire with items from the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Survey, 6 the Perceived Stress Survey,7 the Self-Compassion Survey,8 and the Altruistic Inventory.9

The students met once a week for instruction and practice using a set of thirty-minute videos that cover the basics of mindfulness practice. Along with these weekly meetings, participants were asked to practice mindfulness meditation on their own for at least ten minutes, four times per week throughout the eight-week seminar.

Students kept informal logs to record the date and setting of these required meditation sessions. The final assignment was to write a reflection paper assessing their experience with mindfulness meditation.

FINDINGSAfter the experimental period of eight weeks was over, the initial questionnaire was administered again (see Table 1). Participants’ self-reported scores increased on three of the four initial measures: stress, self-esteem, and compassion. This increase indicates that individual levels of perceived stress decreased over the eight-week instruction period, while levels of self-esteem and compassion towards themselves increased during this period.

Ten minutes of calmly watching one’s own breath sounds easy. Yet the experiment’s participants found this simple task to be incredibly difficult at first. Their minds often raced toward other thoughts such as creating checklists for accomplishing tasks, worrying about the outcome of some project or test, and fretting over strained personal relationships. Each week, however, they improved at shedding such distracting thoughts and “returning to their breath.” Within weeks they had gained a new technique to add

INTRODUCTION

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to their repertoire of life skills. As many reported, mindfulness meditation taught them to take a break from scheming, fretting, and striving. For ten minutes they could “just live.”

ALMOST ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS PRAISED MINDFULNESS PRACTICES AS A TECHNIQUE THAT HELPED THEM DEFUSE ANXIETY BEFORE GIVING A PRESENTATION, TAKING A TEST, OR INITIATING A POTENTIALLY CONFRONTATIONAL CONVERSATION.

One student sent an email right after giving an important oral presentation for his senior engineering project. He wrote that about fifteen minutes before his speech he had been so nervous that he was visibly shaking. He found an empty room nearby and decided he had no other option than to try out his newly acquired ability for practicing mindfulness. A little more than ten minutes later he stood up and walked into his presentation, calm and confident. Another student wrote, “I found myself using meditation to try and reset my mind and rid myself of anxiety.” Another participant noted, “After meditating, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders and that everything was going to be fine.” Many students mentioned increased self-esteem and increased self-control as being a product of their mindfulness practice. As one put it, “I am more aware of what I am feeling and can take control

of those emotions in whatever situation I am involved in.”

The Self-Compassion scale used in this experiment contains a number of subscales which, when analyzed individually, increased in a pattern similar to the other scales over the eight – week period. These subscales indicated that participants strengthened such personality traits as self-kindness, self-judgment, sharing a common humanity with another person, a general sense of mindfulness, feelings of isolation and reflection, as well as an increased sense of identification with the world around them (see Table Two).

Increased “feelings of isolation” may at first seem unexpected, but these feelings make sense in the context of repeated experiences of sitting alone and reflecting. This particular subscale might be an example of how mindfulness meditation

fosters a sense of centeredness, creating an appropriate balance between internal locus of control and enhanced awareness of the surrounding world.

The only item that did not “improve” (i.e., change in the predicted direction) was the participants’ collective score on the Altruistic Inventory scale. This result is somewhat odd given that participants did increase in such measures as sharing a common humanity with another person and an increased sense of identification with the world around them. It is possible, though, that a personality trait such as altruism is too complex to manipulate and measure accurately during a time interval as short as eight weeks. This unexpected finding, however, certainly does warrant further investigation.

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Condition Percent ChangeSelf-Esteem Increased by 1.5%

Perceived Stress Decreased by 7.4%

Self-Compassion Increased by 7.7%

Altruism Decreased by 1.5%

Condition Percent ChangeSelf-Kindness Increased by 3.9%

Self-Judgment Increased by 8.7%

Humanity Increased by 12%

Isolation Increased by 5.8%

Mindfulness Increased by 8.4%

Over-Identification Increased by 7.4%

TABLE 1: Changes in Personality Trait Scores after Mindfulness Instruction

TABLE 2: Changes in Compassion Sub-Scale Scores after Mindfulness Instruction

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDYIt was clear from the outset that the environmental complexities of college life would make it difficult to produce dramatic changes in the relatively stable personality traits being measured. After all, most aspects of these students’ lives lay outside of the experiment’s control over the course of this study. Furthermore, students filled out the initial questionnaire after several weeks of vacation and before the academic semester had fully begun. When students completed the final questionnaire eight weeks later, the pressures of academic life had presumably increased.

Given the relatively small size of our sample, we decided to supplement our quantitative measures of change with two additional items designed to give us some qualitative data concerning the possible effects of mindfulness meditation. Participants turned in a log noting the date, time, and location of their meditation periods over the eight

weeks of the seminar. They also wrote a four-page paper in which they were asked to reflect candidly on whether they saw any value in these practices going forward in their lives. No participants wrote that they were now confirmed meditators or saw themselves wanting to practice mindfulness on a daily basis. The majority, however, stated that they now possessed a valuable tool to put in their “personal toolbox” for dealing with life’s stresses and strains.

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A quiet locationMeditation is usually

practiced in a quiet place with as few distractions

as possible. A speci�c, comfortable posture

Meditation can be done while sitting, lying down,

standing, walking, or in other positions.

An open attitudeThis means letting distractions

come and go naturallywithout judging them.

A focus of attention The meditator may focus on a mantra (a specially chosen word or set of words), an object, or the sensations of the breath.

IMPLICATIONS FOR COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIESAs mentioned above, participants doubted that they would ever become daily meditators. Virtually all reported that they found meditating difficult and many reported that they often wondered if those extra ten minutes would be better spent napping. But almost all mentioned that this brief exposure to mindfulness techniques gave them valuable new tools for their “personal tool box.” They found it reassuring to know they have some additional skills for becoming calm, centered, and confident amidst the frantic moments of everyday life.

These helpful “life tools” can easily be taught in a university setting. Instructional videos are widely available. Organizing groups to learn mindfulness doesn’t require a trained professional—only someone willing to become a co-learner. Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere—in a

dorm room or even at a desk in the library. It only takes a few minutes. Universities could even encourage this step toward wellness by buying a set of instructional videos and making them available to be watched alone or in groups.

Just providing students with an action plan for those moments when they feel besieged by fear or worry might itself be an important step toward helping them become calm, centered, and confident in both their personal and professional lives.

In addition, new research shows that mindfulness training can assist in other areas besides stress and emotion regulation. Some studies have found that that these techniques are beneficial for those dealing with addiction and other substance abuse issues. 10,11,12 Mindfulness practices seem, for example, to be an effective supplement to other alcohol treatment programs.

CONCLUSIONOverall, this experiment with 28 students and an eight-week seminar offers some evidence that mindfulness meditation can provide college students with an effective tool for managing stress. Programs to teach these skills can be implemented inexpensively and without trained professionals, though it might be easy to identify skilled practitioners among a university’s faculty and professional staff.

Even if most students would not practice mindfulness on a regular basis, our study suggests that such instruction would still help give them tools for defusing the tensions that arise in the hectic environment of a college or university.

ELEMENTS OF MINDFULNESS MEDITATION13 Mindfulness meditation instructs the practitioner to become mindful of thoughts, feelings, and sensations and to observe them in a nonjudgmental way. This practice is believed to result in a state of greater calmness and physical relaxation, and psychological balance. Practicing mindfulness meditation can change how a person relates to the flow of emotions and thoughts.

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REFERENCES

1 Nhat Hanh, T. (1976). The Miracle of Mindfulness!: A Manual of Meditation. Boston: Beacon Press. 2 Kabat-Zin, J. (1991). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of the Body and Mind to Face

Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Dell.

3 Troyer, J., Tost, J., Yoshimura, M., LaFontaine, S., & Mabie, A. (2012). Teaching Students How to Meditate Can Improve Level of Consciousness and Problem Solving Ability. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 69, 153-161.

4 Desrosiers, A., Vine, V., Klemanski, D., & Nolen-Hoeskema, S. (2013). Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation in Depression and Anxiety: Common and Distinct Mechanisms of Action. Depression

and Anxiety, 30(7), 654-661.

5 Menezes, C., de Paula Couto, M., et al. (2013). The Improvement of Emotion and Attention Regulation After a 6-week Training of Focused Meditation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 1-11.

6 Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

7 Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A Global Measure of Perceived Stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24(4), 385-396.

8 Neff, K. (2003). Development and Validation of a Scale to Measure Self-Compassion. Self and Identity, 2, 223-250.

9 Rushton, J., Chrisjohn, R., & Fekken, G. (1981). The Altruistic Personality and the Self-Report Altruism Scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 2, 293-302.

10 Hau, S., Grow, J., & Marlatt, G. (2008). Mindfulness and Addiction. In Galanter, M. (Ed.), Recent Developments in Alcoholism (pp. 229-250). New York: Springer.

11 Witkiewitz, K., Marlatt, G., & Walker, D. (2005). Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Alcohol and Substance Abuse Disorders. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 19(3), 211-228.

12 Vallejo, Z., & Horensia, A. (2009). Adaptation of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program for Addiction Relapse Prevention. The Humanistic Psychologist, 37, 192-206.

13 NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2010). Meditation: An Introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/sites/nccam.nih.gov/files/meditation.pdf

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MEET THE AUTHORSREFERENCES

Bob Fuller, PhDBob Fuller is Caterpillar Inc. Professor of Religious Studies at Bradley University. Bob is the author of 13 books on the psychology of religion and American religious history, including his most recent book The Body of Faith: A Biological History of Religion in America (University of Chicago Press, 2013). Other research interests include the role of emotions in religion and the history of unconventional American religion.

Mark Lehtman, BSMark recently received his Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and history from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. While an undergraduate, he researched a variety of topics in the areas of narcissism, approach/avoidance motivation, and mindfulness meditation. Currently, Mark lives in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, where he works as the Assistant Director for Glencoe Youth Services and Glencoe Junior High Project. These organizations work to provide wholesome community service and social activities for the youth of North Shore Chicago. He will soon pursue a PhD in social/personality psychology.

Bradley University is a private, independent university located in Peoria, Illinois. Bradley’s residential campus is home to approximately 4,500 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students studying liberal and fine arts, the sciences, engineering, education, business, and the health sciences. Bradley is known for its commitment to excellence in classroom teaching and for launching students into successful professional careers.

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