A Case Study on the Effects of Meditation on the Well-Being and Leadership Abilities of Educational Leaders

This qualitative case study provided an in-depth examination of the inner (personal) experiences of seven educational leaders who meditate. It studied the effects of meditation on their well-being, leadership, and ethical and authentic development. The results of this study show that meditation helped these educational leaders across all areas of their lives including emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, developmental, ethical, social, and more. Meditation also impacted their leadership abilities and relationships with others; they felt that meditation helped them live lives alignmed with their life’s purpose and made them happier, more balanced, positive, open, focused, less reactive, and mentally clearer. Through this study, the theory of Ethical Ecology Theory (EEcT) is proposed; EEcT proposes that action, such as meditation, is ethical if it benefits both the individual and those around the individual. EEcT captures the dual motivation behind the participants’ choice to continue meditating to help both themselves and those in their community by being a better version of themselves. This study did not pre-select a certain kind of meditation practitioner and has added to the field of research by showing that many different kinds of meditation have similar positive effects. Ultimately this study shows how a group of highly successful educational leaders benefits from a daily meditation practice across all areas of their lives, including helping them to grow, prosper, manage stress, be more present, and develop into better, stronger, and thriving leaders. Considering the state of burnout and stress among today’s educational leaders, the findings of this study can be used to help inspire educational leaders to meditate