Definitely kinder to myself: a study of university students’ experience of mindfulness meditation

Research supports the effectiveness of Mindfulness meditation in a number of applications including: reducing stress, managing chronic depression, improving concentration and impulse control and in the treatment of eating disorders (Brown, Ryan & Creswell, 2007). Six university students took part is a student researcher led six week programme of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (Williams & Penman, 2011); the practice of daily meditations were interwoven into everyday life which included coursework deadlines and end of semester exams. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant. Thematic Analysis (TA) (Braun & Clarke, 2013) was performed on the resulting transcripts. Three main theme clusters were identified as: Positive Change, Congruity with Mindfulness Practice, Increased Subjective Well-being. Results suggest that Mindfulness enriched the lives of each student participant; the practice increased positive affect, self-acceptance, and reduced stress with increased coping, all of which have the potential to enhanced academic achievement. These findings indicate that there may be merit in the introduction of an organised, structured, facilitator led programme of Mindfulness, accessible to both students and staff throughout the university