The Mindfulness Project

The college classroom can be a space, and place, for promoting peace through mindfulness practices and meditation.  Kabat-Zinn (2003) defines mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way – on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” Research suggests that college students may benefit from mindfulness meditation through stress reduction, increased attention and focus, and improved health behaviors (Bamber & Mopeth, 2018; Bamber & Schneider, 2016; Bamber & Schneider, 2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team introduced mindfulness meditation into our psychology courses. Students who participated in the optional “meditation breaks” we built into the courses favorably evaluated the opportunity to learn about and practice mindfulness meditation. Below are just a few sample student comments: 

“I liked that the mindfulness meditation gave me a reason to take a break, reset, and refocus my mind and awareness from all the stress that I am feeling as a student.”

“The mindfulness meditation taught me how to meditate but also provided me with an outlet to calm my body and mind that I didn't know existed previously. I never would've tried it if it weren't for this class.”

“I really enjoy meditation; it helps me focus more on my school work. I like how there's this program specifically to encourage students to meditate.”

“I think the mindfulness meditation program is a great thing that college students should consider participating in.  At first I did not take it seriously, ….. but after it was over, it changed my view on life and looking at my thoughts and emotions, and it truly helped a lot.”  

Based on the positive feedback from our students, we created this site to introduce and promote mindfulness more broadly across the college community.

References

Bamber, M.D., & Morpeth, E. (2018).  Effects of mindfulness meditation on college student anxiety: A meta-analysis. Mindfulness, 10, 203–214.

Bamber, M.D., & Schneider, J.K. (2016).  Mindfulness-based meditation to decrease stress and anxiety in college students: A narrative synthesis of the research. Educational Research Review, 18, 1–32.     

Bamber, M. D., & Schneider, J.K. (2022). College students' perceptions of mindfulness-based interventions: A narrative review of the of the qualitative research.  Current Psychology, 41, 667-680.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 144–156.