Modeling Resilience with Mindfulness for Youth Well-Being in The Age of Disruption

Background - According to the 2015 National Health and Morbidity Survey, 29.9% of Malaysian teenagers, or 4.2 million persons, suffer from mental illness. In the past decade, problems have doubled. Urgent action is needed to prevent devastating consequences for the youngsters and their neighbours. The findings will enrich research on mindfulness and psychological resiliency. Mindfulness can promote pleasant emotions and positive feelings, reducing melancholy and stress. All these wonderful feelings help establish individual reserves to strengthen one's appreciation of life and build a shield against future hardship. Mindfulness helps people respond quickly to shifting environments and ambiguous situations. It improves mental agility and helps people turn inward to discover answers by inspecting and adapting behaviours in short cycles of relaxation, allowing for the rewiring of existing attitudes and the ability to think clearly to manage overwhelming crises. Mindfulness improves health. As well-being is addressed, resilience is fostered to prepare the next generation to lead via meaningful employment. This aligns with the 11th Malaysian Plan's Strategic Thrusts - Improving Wellbeing for All – and Sustained Growth Aim 3 – Health and Wellbeing for All. Purpose - The purpose of this research is to improve resilience, which includes psychological well-being. Regularly cultivating positive feelings and responding to unfavorable life circumstances provides a buffer against adversity and increases crisis-handling skills. Design/methodology/approach - This study is quantitative and deductive in nature. The respondents and participants for the course are Millennial. This is because this category of people will be facing the effect and outcome of the adversity. So, the unit of analysis is individuals. The first part is administering of the questionnaire to gauge the current well-being of the youth prior to the mindfulness intervention. The second part is introducing and provide guidance to the youth on the mindfulness intervention for 4 weeks (1 month). Once completed the practice successfully, progress to the third part, administering the questionnaire again to the youths to be completed. The questionnaire will provide inputs the experience of the youths after the mindfulness intervention. Findings/Expected Contributions - This research findings will add to research on mindfulness and resilience. Mindfulness may improve mental health, happiness, and well-being. Mindfulness boosts pleasant feelings that correct bad emotions including worry, regret, rumination, and anxiety. These good feelings can help create personal reserves, leading to a stronger appreciation for life and a protective screen against future adversity. The study's improved theoretical model can be applied to increase youth resilience in Malaysia. This will protect youngsters and teach them to be more resilient in the face of adversity. NGOs and learning institutions can apply the improve theoretical model to construct resilient youth curriculum. Research limitations - As psychology and resilience is an extensive subject and human perspective is different than each other so it is not possible to come up with the framework that is workable for everyone. It is considered as a limitation of this research. Originality/value - The value of this research is that it addresses how mindfulness and psychological wellbeing can enhance the resilience to the youth. Mindfulness helps people adjust swiftly to changing and unclear situations and learn faster. It encourages mental agility and introspection. Mindfulness helps agility projects and agile transformation with these benefits. It helps youth analyse and adapt their habits in short cycles to relax, rewire mindsets, and think rationally under adversity. Mindfulness eases uncertainty and ambiguity. Malaysian Youth who practice mindfulness will witness great benefits on individual youth welfare, societal progress, and country growth. Youth will carry the country forward, thus they need resilience to handle adversity