University can often be a stressful and worrying time with so many different things to juggle. Things like – getting used to new ways of working, taking in vast amounts of new information, and working to tight deadlines as well as managing finances for the first time, living away from home, and making new friendships, can all add to student stress levels.
Mindfulness is a technique which involves paying attention to the present moment – to your own thoughts and feelings, and to the world around you.
Backed by science, mindfulness meditation has gained popularity over recent years as a way to significantly improve well-being and mental health. It can be a great tool for students to help them reduce stress, maintain focus, and improve productivity.
How mindfulness can help students to thrive with their studies
Students who make mindfulness part of their daily routine have found that it can have a huge impact on their studies. Mindfulness helps student to –
- DECREASE STRESS LEVELS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
It is estimated that one third of university students suffer from depression and anxiety.
Whether it’s helping students to cope with the stress of deadlines and workload or living away from family and friends for the first time, mindfulness can provide great coping strategies and a well-being tool kit for students. At university especially there is also a lot of critical analysis, feedback, questioning and reflection and it can be easy to become self-critical and anxious.
Mindfulness can help all students (who might be struggling or not) be more productive and motivated; it can help reduce depression, low moods, stress, and anxiety; it increases well-being, self-compassion and increases emotional resilience.
2.) INCREASE FOCUS AND CONCERNTRATION
Being able to focus and concentrate is an important skill for all students. Without focus and concentration our mind isn’t fully in the present moment ready to receive information or complete important tasks. It has been found that individuals who practice meditation have higher resistance to distractions and can remain focused for longer.
3.) IMPROVE CREATIVITY
One of the many benefits of mindfulness is increased creativity. So, whether that’s coming up with a topic for a report or exploring new ideas for a visual project, creativity is important. One of the benefits of mindfulness is an increase in cognitive flexibility. Being more cognitively flexible lends itself to advanced creativity.
4.) IMPROVE INFORMATION RETENTION
Students are constantly experiencing information overload. Mindfulness has been shown to help with the retention of the information which is vital to academic success.
At universities as well as other academic settings, the effects of mindfulness have also been proven to increase:
- Social skills and self-regulation
- Self-esteem
- Healthy sleeping habits
- Compassion and gratitude
- Academic achievement
- Focus on the present moment
At Mindful Me Health & Wellbeing we design and deliver bespoke online Mindfulness courses to meet the needs of clients working in the education sector. We offer an exciting, fresh approach to delivering empowering mindfulness programmes to alleviate the negative effects of stress and improve emotional health and well-being of both teachers and students.
To find out about the packages that we offer for schools, colleges, and universities, pleases contact us here.