Abstract:

The article describes the results of a longitudinal study on the effects of the regular practice of mindfulness on coping with stressful situations of university students, whom later are employees in various companies and institutions. The main focus of the study was to analyse their strategies for managing difficult situations and the possibility to maintain a state of harmony by the participants after the practice of mindfulness. From 2002 to 2018, 97 participants (53 men and 44 women) were monitored for the study. They were students at Czech universities who first passed an 8-week course of mindfulness and who practiced mindful meditation at least once a day and for a period of 20 minutes. We recorded their statements four times a year for a period of 17 years. In total, there were 6,596 interviews. The first objective was to determine how their behaviour, experience and thinking changed over time, particularly in difficult situations. At the beginning of the study, their reactions in emotionally charged situations were subjectively characterised by a lack of self-control, low self-confidence in terms of managing the problem, and perceiving conflicts as unsolvable catastrophic events. The second objective was to record how the participants perceived the effect of regular practice of mindfulness on experiencing difficult situations, and how the solution of such problematic behaviour changes as a result of meditation. The results indicate a significant change in the lives of the participants during the implementation of the study. In particular, participants reported greater focus on studied text and concentration on their studies or work, their response to stressful situations was calmer, without experiencing paralysing anxiety, and they followed daily work plans better, without the tendency to procrastination. Therefore, mindfulness may be used as a quality and time-effective training method that reduces stress, leads to better concentration on the present moment and subsequent, calmer decision-making and behaviour, which are qualities that are considered pivotal in university studies (and later at work). Based on this longitudinal study, we prepared a programme that became the basis of a new subject, “Mindfulness in Practice”, for students of Psychology with a Focus on Education. We believe that a level-headed teacher is the basis for good practice in high and elementary schools and we consider opening this subject to be basal for monitoring and verifying the principles of the practice of mindfulness, under the professional supervision of a lecturer with our students at the Faculty of Education.

Keywords:

Resilience, protective factors, anxiety, mindfulness.