Christian Mindfulness and Mental Health: Coping through Sacred Traditions and Embodied Awareness

Mindfulness is increasingly implemented as a tool in mental health practice for coping and self-care. Some Christians worry that these practices might be in conflict with their own tradition, while other Christian contexts are reclaiming the contemplative aspects of the faith. Though clinicians are not trained to teach on religious topics and ethically must avoid pushing religion onto clients, conceptualization and research extend the benefits of mindfulness practices for religious clients. This paper will discuss the evidence for using mindfulness in mental health treatment and connect mindfulness to the Christian tradition. The authors explore how intentional awareness and embodiment of the present moment are supported in Christian theology through the incarnation of Jesus and God’s attention of the physical body in the Christian scriptures. The authors also discuss how sacraments and prayer naturally overlap with mindfulness practices for the dual purposes of emotional healing and spiritual growth. To bolster the benefits of mindfulness in the psychological and religious realms, the purpose of this paper is to empower therapists to address client concerns of whether mindfulness is in conflict with Christianity, support clients in expanding current Christian religious coping, and provide Christian leaders with more information about how mindfulness elements are already present in Christian rituals and beliefs.

Role of Mindfulness Practices in the College Classroom

The following study examined the effect of mindful practices on college student attitudes and learning comprehension using two sections of an introductory biology course taught by the same instructor. One section used lecture complemented with active learning formats while the other section additionally included mindful practices. Comparisons were made between the students’ surveys and quiz/exam scores. Students in the mindful section also kept journals. Results showed no significant differences in quiz and exam scores between the two groups; however, students in the mindfulness section found value in the practices both in and outside the classroom. Students reported a gain in their attitude towards the value of mindfulness practices as well as the use of mindfulness practices and reported a decrease in anxiety levels. Students identified these practices as helping them with focused attention, peace, and relaxation. At the end of the semester, over 90% of students agreed that mindfulness has a valuable place in the college classroom.

Meditation, Mindfulness, and Mental Health

In the last six decades, the concept of mindfulness has been widely studied, researched, and practiced in mainstream psychology, mental health, and health disciplines. Over a period of time, clinical practitioners have integrated meditation and mindfulness practices or techniques in the mainstream psychological interventions for emotional and behavioral disorders such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain, borderline personality disorder, and eating disorder. This chapter highlights the application of Mindfulness-Based Interventions in various clinical and non-clinical samples. It also covers the importance of mindfulness practices for the crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, discusses integrating technology into mindfulness training, and presents various issues and challenges related to mindfulness practices.

An Overview of Mindfulness and Its Implications for Children and Adolescents

Mindfulness is focusing on the present moment while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's thoughts, feelings, and body sensations as they are. The use of mindfulness practices on children and adolescents is burgeoning. This chapter covers the meaning and elements of mindfulness, their measurement, the various techniques, and exercises exclusive for children. Such techniques are typically individualized, tailor-made, personalized, contextualized, play-based, activity-oriented, reward-oriented, and maintained at the child's developmental level. Mindfulness parenting is vital. A mindful parent is aware of one's thoughts and feelings; is responsive to the child's needs, thoughts, and feelings; is better at regulating own emotions; is less critical of oneself or the child; is better at standing back from situations and avoiding an impulsive reaction. Issues related to professionalism, formal institutions for training mindfulness, and ongoing research on this theme, their achievements, and setbacks are listed before providing future directions for work in this area.

The Impact of Mindfulness Practices and the Implementation of Technology in Higher Education

Maintaining efficient time management and learning how to balance different facets of life can be difficult for undergraduate students. Students can have difficulty with maintaining their schedules and academic responsibilities, which can disrupt daily living functionality. Mindfulness is an evidence-based practice that can help students establish a self-care routine. Additionally, establishing a mindfulness regimen can help to improve students' academic performance. With the inclusion of technology, mindfulness mobile applications have gained popularity over the past decade and have provided a convenient method for students to engage in guided meditations.

Mindfulness and the Elderly

With growing life expectancy, age-related mental health issues are rising in the elderly. Whether normal aging or pathological senility, mindfulness practices are useful, economic, and accessible. The elderly experience many forms of anxiety with varying severity. There can be stress, anxiety, depression, and negative emotions. Quality of life and sleep, cognitive impairments, chronic pain, decreased social contacts are common concerns of the elderly. There is growing evidence that mindfulness practices mitigate their suffering. This chapter covers details on mindfulness-based tools for the elderly, their practices, exercises, and techniques. The recommended techniques are group-based, participatory, age-appropriate, and reflective. Given the vulnerability of the elderly, the chapter cautions about latent medico-legal and ethical issues in using mindfulness for the elderly. They must be blended with cultural, religious, moral, and spiritual elements to derive optimum benefits for the individual or small groups of such persons. A future road map is given.

Spirituality and Mindfulness Practices of Early Childhood and Elementary Preservice Teachers: A Snapshot

This paper describes the results of a research survey that interpreted the patterns of mindfulness and spirituality within a convenience sample of preservice teachers at a Midwest teacher education institution. Mindfulness and spiritualty represent topics of developing interest in teacher education that serve to increase candidate focus and revision of practice. Respondents completed a survey as part of a semester’s project that interpreted the results of a semester-long mindfulness intervention on student mindfulness and spiritual attitudes and practices. The findings determined that participants had senses of mindfulness and self the emphasized themselves, and their external worlds, let weak connection with a higher spiritual entity. Significant differences were observed between early childhood and elementary majors.

Effectiveness of health-oriented leadership interventions for improving health and wellbeing of employees: a systematic review

Aim To identify and summarize the evidence for the effect of health-oriented leadership interventions on health and well-being outcomes at the employee level following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement (Moher et al. 2009). Subject and Methods A systematic search of relevant studies was conducted in multiple databases. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), cluster-randomized controlled trials (cRCTs) and controlled before–after studies (CBAs) were included based on the following criteria: interventions that addressed supervisors, to raise awareness for the importance of health issues, teach mindfulness practices for conscious awareness, reduce stress and promote resources at the level of individual behavior, and evaluated the effect on at least one outcome of psychomental stress, absenteeism and well-being on the employee level. Results Of 6126 publications retrieved, ten studies were identified for analysis. Significant effects of leadership training were reported on exhaustion tendency, self-reported sickness absence, work-related sickness absence and job satisfaction in studies comparing health-oriented training programs to no intervention. Studies comparing health-oriented leadership training to other training did not report significant effects. Risk of bias was judged to be high in seven studies and unclear in three studies. Conclusion Evidence for the effectiveness of health-oriented leadership interventions on employees’ stress, absenteeism or well-being is judged to be low, clearly indicating the need for more and higher-quality research.

The Impact of Education and Implementation Tools on Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes About Classroom-Based Mindfulness

A growing body of research suggests that incorporating classroom-based mindfulness interventions in elementary schools can lead to improvements in student behavior, self-regulation, and measures of mental health and wellness. This quality improvement project explored the impact of an educational intervention on pre-service teachers’ perceptions, attitudes, and intentions to implement mindfulness interventions in their classrooms. A brief educational intervention and website resource were provided to multidisciplinary teaching credential students. Participants completed a pre- and post-intervention survey to evaluate their intentions to implement mindfulness practices, as well as their perceptions about the acceptability, reasonableness, and effectiveness of incorporating mindfulness interventions in the classroom. Significant differences in pre- to post-intervention survey scores indicate that exposure to mindfulness concepts, practices, and resources may increase the willingness of pre-service teachers to adopt these practices in their classrooms.

Managing the Emotional Intensities of Gifted Students with Mindfulness Practices

The emotional intensities of gifted students affect not only their learning, but also the way they live and see the world. This article examines the Theory of Positive Disintegration of Dabrowski to explore the inner world of the gifted. The five levels of development and five overexcitabilities of Dabrowski represent an abundance of physical, sensual, creative, intellectual, and emotional energy that cause inner turmoil but can result in creative endeavors. The benefits of mindfulness practices to meeting the emotional needs of gifted students are presented with examples of deep listening, gratitude, and storytelling as mindfulness practices. A culminating activity of storytelling illustrates the integration of deep listening and gratitude and its effect on the sense of identity of gifted students.