Students & Academia

Students can spend hours on end sitting at a desk. Assignments often require concentration and creativity. However, one can easily get distracted, making it difficult to focus on the task at hand. They are frequently faced with stressful challenges not only from work but peer pressure and social commitments. 

For university students living away from home, making new friends, financial worries and expectations means an added burden. This can affect their ability to focus, build resilience, regulate difficult emotions and form healthy supportive relationships. 

Studies have shown that “mental health problems from students have increased at least fivefold over the past ten years and the majority of mental health problems develop by the age of 24,  making university students a high-risk group…” 

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Students who feel stressed often experience: 

  • Fear, panic, anxiety, nervousness

  • Difficulty concentrating

  • Loss of appetite or overeating

  • Physical symptoms such as palpitations 

  • Sleep problems

Mindfulness is one of the most powerful approaches to dealing with stress. The concept of mindfulness is very simple, it means paying attention to the present moment. Mindfulness techniques help calm the mind and body and reduce negative energy. Mindfulness training can alter brain activity to increase a student’s ability to become more engaged, all this contributes to a better academic outcome.

Several studies in college students have found that those who practised mindfulness improved in a wide range of areas: 

  • curiosity (Solhaug, Eriksen, de Vibe, Haavind, Friborg, Sørlie, & Rosenvinge, 2016)

  • patience

  • self-acceptance 

  • relationships 

  • better regulation of emotions and suppression of thoughts (MacDonald & Baxter, 2016)

  • higher brain function

  • increased awareness;

  • increased attention and focus

  • increased clarity in thinking and perception

  • increased resilience 

  • reduced problem behaviours and anxiety (Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2010)

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Educators and teachers can also benefit from Minduflness since they are tasked with teaching the next generation of leaders. Often their working conditions lack the support that is needed to ensure their success, which can lead to decreased productivity and creativity. This can escalate further into frustration, anxiety, dissociation, fatigue and burnout. 

Here are a few ways mindfulness can help teachers:

  • Set up a positive learning environment

  • Help teachers understand and control their own emotions 

  • Strengthen relationships with students and colleagues

  • Help manage internal stress

  • Communicate more effectively

Here are a few tips to maintain being mindful: 

  • Focus on one task at a time – to improve your performance, always focus on one thing at a time rather than multiple tasks. This also enhances the quality of the task and reduces mind wandering and scattered thoughts. 

  • Spend time outside – get some fresh air, take a walk among nature providing much-needed “me-time” with yourself. This will help release happy hormones such as dopamine.

  • Meditate – connect with your mind through meditation providing relaxation and stress relief.