Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of stress on health and wellbeing
Effects of stress on health and wellbeing
The effects of stress management
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effects of stress on health and wellbeing
Introduction
Nowadays, stress is a major burden in the daily life of the average student, and it seems harder and harder to tackle it and eliminate all the factors that cause it. Students find it hard to concentrate on studying since there are a lot of deadlines and exams causing additional pressure. Stress in the form of anxiety and worry about past or future study-related experiences disturbs one’s well-being and students are not doing well anymore (Schutz & Davis, 2000).
Since it is inevitable to remove the external reasons for stress, focusing on internal techniques of coping with it may prove more efficient. In their efforts to create a remedy, scholars have found that mindfulness training and practices increase one’s well-being by teaching
…show more content…
These processes are part of the normal functioning. Attention is a process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience. (Westen, 1999, as cited in Brown & Ryan, 2003; Feltman) Awareness is about consciously monitoring the inner and outer environment. (Brown and Ryan, 2003) Glomb provides some examples for being mindful. For instance, being aware of the body position while we drive and simultaneously pay attention to what is happening on the road. Important to mention is the lack of judgment or relativity of the present moment to previous experiences or memories. In the driving example it means not to produce a negative evaluation if the traffic is moving …show more content…
Examination of this question requires methods to assess levels of mindfulness to determine whether individuals engaged in the practice of mindfulness are in fact becoming more mindful over time, and if so, whether these increases are responsible for the positive outcomes observed. Mindfulness is beneficial for the individual well-being and more specifically – positive affect (определение) (Glomb). + Chambers.Brown and Ryan found that Mindful capacity varies among people and can be sharpened or dulled by a variety of factors. Current research is about investigating individual differences in mindfulness and their relationship with one’s
The origin of mindfulness is rooted in Buddhist philosophy and practice tradition which is more than two and half thousand years old. Mindfulness can be practisced by anyone of any faith and religion and involves training the mind and doesn’t enforce any religious belief system.
For thousands of years people have practiced mediation for spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. Albeit there are many mediation types, in this paper I will be discussing and focusing on mindfulness mediation. Before further exploring mindfulness mediation, it is crucial to define mediation as a whole. Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016 state “Meditation can be defined as a form of mental training that aims to improve an individual’s core psychological capacities, such as attentional and emotional capacities” (p.213). Having that in mind, we can dive into mindfulness mediation. Mindfulness meditation is defined as “nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experiences (Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016).” A useful analogy to consider is going to the gym, going to the gym allows one to enhance the body, well similarly, practicing mindfulness is akin to taking the mind to the psychic gym, it enhances it. Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present all while dismissing discursive thoughts and maintaining a special focus on breathing.
It’s easy to think that mindfulness is a relatively new fad, with companies like Google inviting Zen masters to launch their Mindful Lunches. Maybe we think it’s a new need in today’s fast-paced life or because of a modern desire to be more productive. Mindfulness and meditation, however, are mentioned in ancient texts such as the Bible and have been around for thousands of years.
Mindfulness is an ideal that has been present for thousands of years (positivepsychologyprogram.com). It has roots in almost every major religion: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and most renown, Buddhism and Hinduism (positivepsychologyprogram.com). Psychology Today defines mindfulness as “a state of active, open attention on the present.” Dr. Shauna Shapiro during a TEDx Talk defines mindfulness as “intentionally paying attention with kindness” (Shapiro, S., 2017). Mindfulness has many principles involved with it, but the short version is to be aware. It is to be aware of the present moment deliberately. Jon Kabat-Zinn, considered the father of the western movement for mindfulness by some, defines mindfulness as, “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Bodhipaksa, 2007). We, as humans, get caught up in the business of life; so, we need to stay oriented to the present. Another way to describe this is “acting with awareness rather than on ‘automatic autopilot’” (Caldwell, et al, 2010). Mindfulness is non-judgmental about life. Mindfulness is to not be over-reactive by what’s going on around us (mindful.org). Mindfulness is being non-reactive to your environment. There are many things that stem from this thinking,
The psychological brain changes accumulate through neuroplastic response repeating a task now and then. fMRI is a brain imaging procedure that provides proof that attention to the left hippocampal grey substance increases during MBSR (Kabat-Zinn 2012). The study of mindfulness has shown the positive correlation between the time spent in practicing and improvement in clinical depression symptoms, mindfulness, and well-being. It argues that reputation determines the instantaneous and long-term therapeutic effect of mindfulness. However, there are no scientific facts to prove that the time spent in the practice of mindfulness meditation determines the symptom improvement. Although the medical practice lasts for eight weeks, shorter mindfulness programs yield positive effects too. If a person spent 20 minutes in meditation for five days, it resulted in reduced depression, anxiety anger, and fatigue. On the other hand, it improved immune-reactivity as well as decreased cortical (Saltzman 2014). If a person underwent mindfulness training for four days, there was the improvement of mindfulness, visual-spacial memory, working memory and sustained concentration. It proved that the time spent in the practice did not affect the increase in sustained attention. Besides, pre-task motivation increases concentration task performance more compared to everyday practice alone. In other words, the trait does not support task engagement. Instead, the state
As a student, it is important to be proactive in finding ways to better ones self mentally, physically and emotionally. The ability to focus while studying, along with stress and time management are key elements to successfully adapting to the lifestyle of a student. Determining factors that will effectively enhance one’s ability to learn and to manage the way stress is relieved will make a positive impact on a student’s performance and their success. Today’s students are commonly faced with factors that limit their potential and have a negative impact on their performance, such as stress. The ideal situation is to discovery activities and techniques that enhance the ability of students and individuals to manage their time
All these stressors can be eased by one simple thing: mindfulness. In the article “When Mindfulness Meets the Classroom” by Lauren Cassani Davis, it discusses the opinions of the trained teachers helping their students
To begin with, mindfulness is when someone can pay attention to the present moment “without being devoted to different points of view” (Martin, 1997). Along with staying focused on the present moment, mindfulness is when the particular person does not judge the current experience as the person tries to comprehend the present situation. Mindfulness makes a person reflect on one’s self by not only figuring out one’s thoughts, but also the feelings that go along with it. The complex nature of mindfulness demonstrates that it has multiple purposes that cultivates a person into realizing the potential of the brain (Davis & Hayes,
Practicing mindfulness is something that most people probably have on their daily to-do list, but never getting around to it because they either don’t believe it’ll work or feel too busy with their lives to stop for literally just a minute to breathe. When going into this activity, my to-do is exactly what was in mind. It’s the list that is never completed. So, having this as an actual assignment was exactly what I needed to get a jumpstart on my mindfulness techniques in my daily life.
The first grant proposal addressed the effects of meditation on life-span cognitional developmental processes. From my understanding, there is a strong connection to the mindset and self-awareness, as one chooses to mediate for their own reason. Based on the informed information, meditation is used to decrease stress and maintain a healthy lifestyle. The provided background information and predicted research study will help determine the pros and cons of the process, using the meditation techniques.
Everyone deals with stress at some point in his or her life. Most people deal with it daily. As defined in the book called Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, stress is, “The mental, emotional, and physiological response of the body to any situation that is new, threatening, frightening, or exciting” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). This stress is caused by a stressor, which is also known as “a stress-causing event” (Hoeger & Hoeger, 2012). Stressors can take all different forms, from moving to a new town, having a baby, or even writing a paper (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). One major stressor in life can be going to college. If not coped with properly, these stressors can leave a person with too much stress that could end up harming them mentally and physically, such as developing an illness (Boyd, Wood, & Wood, 2011). There are several ways to cope with stress. Some healthy ways to cope with stress would be practicing emotion-focused coping, building time-management techniques, and practicing meditation.
The primary goal of this part of the current study was to determine whether mindfulness training is being offered at companies in the Tulsa Metro area. It is evident by the responses received that mindfulness training is not being offered at the majority of the companies in which participants were employed. There are several limitations associated with this study. For example, due to errors made by the researcher in designing the study, demographics associated with gender and age group could not be identified. Additionally, there is concern that mindfulness is not clearly understood in the Tulsa market. For example, when asked what types of mindfulness programs are offered, individuals stated financial, safety, fitness and inclusion as the types of mindfulness training.
In a study by Zimmaro et al., (2016), mindful undergraduate students were found to have less stress than students who did not practice mindfulness. In addition, the mindful students also had a great psychological wellbeing. In another study by Solhaug et al. (2016), psychology and medical students that practiced a 7-week mindfulness program reported “…increased curiosity, affect tolerance, patience and self-acceptance, and improved relational qualities.” In a study by MacDonald and Baxter (2016), female college students with a greater sense of mindfulness practice were better able to cope with negative thoughts, and become more aware of their emotions and their ability to control them. Not only do these research findings demonstrate exactly what I am searching for to improve my mental health, but they assure me that it can be done with mindfulness-based strategies. My motivation to become more aware of the present moment, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase my psychological well-being has been directly correlated with mindfulness, which furthers my belief that mindfulness is an excellent target behavior for my
Academic stress can take complete control over the student enduring it. Researchers say that the most common form of anxiety causing academic stress is achievement anxiety. This type of anxiety is likely to occur when a student has a fear of failure in an academic related situation. However a report conducted in 2000, Research in Higher Education” showed that academic stress and achievement anxiety can have a positive effect on a students grades. This is because students are aware of the fa...
A sample of 100 employee was selected among various organizations (N=100), out of which the sample was divided into employees who practice mindfulness meditation (N=50) and those employees who do not practice mindfulness meditation (N=50). A single administration of both the questionnaires – Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) and Life Effectiveness Questionnaire-H (L.E.Q-H) was done in order to obtain the scores for both the variables so that a comparison can be done. Permission was