RADP 210 Podcast

Mindfulness-based interventions can effectively reduce burnout and improve well-being in university students. Research studies show that these interventions, which include practices like meditation and yoga, lead to increased mindfulness and decreased burnout. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy also improves academic grit, enhancing students' resilience and perseverance. These findings suggest that universities should consider incorporating mindfulness into their environments to support students' mental health and academic success. Good morning and welcome to Caffeine for the Soul, a journey to wellness and rehabilitation. I'm your host Heather Rappen, mom, chicken whisperer, and current student at Castlevania University. The podcast where each week we grab our favorite mug, fill it with a steaming cup of coffee, and together we have some laughs while we journey into rehabilitation and wellness. Today we are asking the question, what is the efficacy of mindfulness-based infant interventions on university students in dealing with mental fatigue, burnout? And to answer this question, we are going to be using evidence-based research. Now before we get too far into the weeds on this question, let's clarify two things. What do I mean by mental fatigue and burnout? This refers to that feeling when your stress levels are skyrocketing and you can feel your well-being deteriorating and you just feel fatigued and exhausted and you may even begin to have increased feelings of anxiety and depression. What do I mean by mindfulness-based interventions? By those I mean just using the concepts of Buddhism as they are defined. Awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally to the unfolding experience moment by moment. Any of these interventions can include things such as yoga, tai chi, meditation. Moving on, so the first article I looked at was, do mindfulness-based interventions reduce burnout of college students in China? A randomized control trial by R. Zhang, J. Yu, and S. Chen, 2023. In this article, about 128 college students were randomized into two groups, intervention and control. The intervention control group consisted of about an hour and a half, once a week, small group session in a quiet, spacious, comfortable area. And then they also were required to do about 30 minutes, six days a week, of personal meditation as well. At the end of the study, participants in the intervention group reported a significant increase in mindfulness and a decrease in burnout compared to those in the control group. But Heather, what about me just sitting at home and watching Netflix? Won't that do the same thing? Well, let's look. My second article was a mindfulness-based intervention, reducing and preventing stress and burnout in medical students. A systematic review and meta-analysis, 2022, by C. Hafizard and K. Wernerich. In this article, the researchers looked at six separate studies that compared the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions. The sample size across these studies was about 689 medical students. All of these studies examined the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions for stress and burnout. The programs all shared very similar principles as well, with body scanning, awareness of thoughts and emotions, doing breathing exercises, walking meditation, sitting meditation, and coping with stress. And once again, the results were remarkably consistent across the studies. This is despite that the interventions having been taken in different countries and the variations in the length of the components, for example, all show the same thing in their final findings. All right, and the last article that we looked at was the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on academic grit among university students, by R. Choldeli, L. P. Mello, and I. Andrette. And yes, by grit, I, it's grit. That's that feeling of getting it done, that remarkable blend of resilience and perseverance and tenacity. It's that unyielding determination to keep pushing forward, even in the face of obstacles, setbacks, and challenges. And in my opinion, if you're suffering from mental fatigue and burnout, a student's amount of grit is going to be almost zero. So what did this article show us? This article investigated the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on university students, explored how practicing mindfulness may influence students' well-being, stress levels, and academic performance. The study aimed to examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in improving academic grit among university students. Thirteen students with low scores of grit participated in a six-session MDCT in a group format. Pre-test and post-test scores of academic grit consisting of passion and perseverance were compared. And what do you know? Once again, the results showed a significant improvement in academic grit and an increase in passion and perseverance. So we've just looked at three research articles using our evidence-based research, which means our podcast is just about done and my coffee is getting cold. So we have learned that mindfulness-based training programs in groups and done at home can effectively prevent student burnout and assist individuals in achieving their life goals with tenacity and enthusiasm. Mindfulness-based intervention done for about 30 minutes a day, three to five days per week, is about the sweet spot and has shown to reduce stress in students in short and in the long term. And I believe that universities really should look into investigating techniques for creating a more mindfulness-based environment in order to maximize academic prospects for their students. Thank you for coming to my podcast and I can't wait to talk to you guys next week. Bye!