Probably the favourite part of my job is doing wellbeing work within topics. One of those topics invites students to take on a month-long wellbeing challenge and write about it. And I am chuffed that one of the participating students agreed to share their experience. It is a great account of the rationale, logistics and impact of setting up a regular mindfulness practice. My deep thanks to the student for sharing.
🌧️ Since Starting University
Since starting university in 2023, I have struggled with academic anxiety. Triggered by the unrealistic expectations I place on myself, fuelled by perfectionism, and intensified by assignment deadlines and workload pressures, anxiety has had a significant impact on my mental, physical and social wellbeing. At times, I have even sought professional support to help manage its effects.
Throughout my degree, I have generally relied on unhelpful coping strategies such as rumination and distraction. Rather than solving the problem, these habits often made it worse, contributing to procrastination and increasing my anxiety over time.
This year in particular has been especially stressful. When I was given the opportunity to undertake this project, I was experiencing a range of anxiety-related symptoms, including insomnia, nausea, racing thoughts and social withdrawal.
🎯 Why I Decided to Run an Experiment
As part of a university topic exploring happiness, wellbeing and positive psychology, students were invited to test a wellbeing strategy in their own lives. At the time, I was struggling with anxiety, poor sleep and a diminished sense of wellbeing, so I saw the project as an opportunity to do more than complete an assessment.
I hoped the experience might help me understand my own wellbeing more clearly and perhaps identify a practical strategy that could support me beyond the classroom.
🧘 Why I Chose Mindfulness
I chose mindfulness specifically due to the empirical evidence highlighting its capacity to reduce stress and anxiety. Given my experiences with academic anxiety, insomnia and social withdrawal, I was hopeful that engaging in mindfulness would minimise the impact of these challenges, while also supporting better sleep and social reconnection.
The Philosophical Perspective
The Buddhist view of happiness, or sukha, describes an “optimal way of being” that embraces both the joys and sorrows of life (Ricard, 2013). Within Buddhist philosophy, mindfulness is considered a core practice, playing an important role in the Eightfold Path towards enlightenment and the liberation of suffering (Boxer et al., 2025). Buddhist understandings of mindfulness have since been adopted by Western psychology, where mindfulness has emerged as a prominent therapeutic approach for both clinical and non-clinical populations (Guendelman, Medeiros & Rampes, 2017).
What Psychology Says
In psychology, mindfulness describes a practice, attitude and/or mental state, defined by Brown et al. (2007, cited in Malinowski, 2013) as “a receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experiences” (p. 335). Meditation is understood as a specific practice used to cultivate mindfulness. In this way, mindfulness can be understood as a skill that can be developed and trained (Malinowski, 2013). Mindfulness encourages individuals to attend to their present-moment experiences, taking notice of any thoughts, emotions or sensations that occur and observing them from a friendly, non-judgmental, curious and detached perspective (Malik & Perveen, 2023).
Mindfulness has been studied extensively and is frequently reported on in the psychological literature. While mindfulness is often outlined in terms of detailed, structured programs designed to target and treat a variety of mental health conditions, it has extended beyond this application and is now frequently promoted as an accessible, empirically grounded self-care strategy. Research suggests it can help reduce stress, increase resilience, improve general wellbeing, and foster a greater sense of meaning and purpose in people’s lives (Guendelman, Medeiros & Rampes, 2017; Ratnayake & Merry, 2018).
Numerous studies have highlighted how regular engagement in mindfulness practices can improve a range of outcomes, including “positive affect, cognitive functioning, self-regulation, positive reappraisal of thoughts and improved interpersonal interaction” (Ivtzan, 2016, p. 6). There is also a strong empirical link between mindfulness and reduced psychological distress, including anxiety, stress intolerance and depression, alongside a range of physical health benefits (Malik & Perveen, 2023).
One study conducted by Malik and Perveen (2023) explored the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety among university students. The research revealed a substantial negative relationship between anxiety and mindfulness, meaning participants with higher levels of mindfulness tended to report lower levels of anxiety. The findings also highlighted an inverse relationship between maladaptive emotional regulation strategies and mindfulness, as well as positive links between mindfulness and more adaptive regulatory capabilities (Malik & Perveen, 2023).
📋 Setting Up the Experiment
Before beginning my mindfulness practice, I completed the World Health Organisation Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), a subjective measure of mental wellbeing scored out of 25, with higher scores indicating greater wellbeing. I completed the measure again after four weeks. This allowed me to compare my wellbeing before and after the project, and consider what impact, either positive or negative, mindfulness practice may have had.
My chosen mindfulness intervention was the 40-day Mindfulness Daily course delivered by psychologists Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. The course combines psychoeducation with guided meditation sessions lasting between 10 and 15 minutes. Within the four-week project period, I completed 21 days of the course (53% completion), averaging 5.25 sessions per week.
🌿 How the Experiment Unfolded
What I Noticed First: Better Sleep
The most immediate and obvious effect I noticed after starting the Mindfulness Daily course was a change in my sleep quality and routine. I aimed to complete my daily mindfulness meditations at night, immediately before going to bed. I found the meditations incredibly relaxing, helping me unwind and release tension from both my mind and body after long days of work and/or study. In fact, they were so effective that, on more than one occasion, I actually fell asleep during them.
Completing mindfulness practice at night also helped me establish a healthier sleep routine, supporting my ability to fall asleep and stay asleep, even on days when I completed my meditations earlier. Previously, I would often distract myself from anxious thoughts by scrolling on social media or watching movies before bed, habits that tended to increase my alertness. Replacing these activities with meditation reduced my screen time and encouraged a more restorative evening routine.
Being able to reduce my insomnia and improve my overall sleep quality made a significant difference to my wellbeing during the four-week intervention period. Although it can seem like a minor change, waking up feeling rested significantly improved my motivation, mood and tolerance for everyday stressors. I felt more equipped to cope with difficult situations and negative feelings without letting them become completely debilitating.
What I Noticed Next: Managing Anxiety Differently
The Mindfulness Daily course exposed me to numerous strategies designed to develop mindful living and behaviour. In particular, the skills of breath anchoring, body anchoring and thought diffusion, which were practised regularly throughout the meditation sessions, became techniques that I began to use in my day-to-day life.
I found myself using my breath anchor to centre myself when my anxiety started to escalate, something I became better able to recognise through the body scan meditations. For example, before an in-class oral discussion, I took some time to bring myself into the present moment through breath awareness. This helped me step back from unhelpful thoughts about how the discussion would unfold, whether I had a strong enough grasp of the material compared to my peers, and what grade I would receive. I found this grounding and it enabled me to participate more effectively.
The simplicity of breath awareness makes it extremely accessible and practical in almost any situation. It is a skill that I have consciously employed in various settings to remain level-headed and quiet my overactive mind, whether before completing assessment tasks or spending time with friends and family. The development of these transferable emotional regulation strategies has been one of the most beneficial outcomes of mindfulness training.
What Surprised Me
Although I will admit that the practice did not reduce the frequency with which I experienced anxiety, stress and other negative affects, it was however extremely useful in reducing the intensity and duration of these feelings, supporting me to regain a sense of control over my body and mind, which previously felt quite unsafe and volatile.
⚠️ The Challenges
Sitting with difficult feelings
While my experience with mindfulness was overall very positive, there were definitely some exercises and aspects of the practice that were uncomfortable and caused slight distress.
Mindfulness teaches us to focus on the present moment, fully acknowledging and experiencing the range of physical sensations, emotions and thoughts that emerge and pass during that time. For someone like me, who had developed a habit of avoiding or distracting myself from these experiences in the hope that they would go away, being asked to confront them head-on was particularly difficult.
However, this discomfort was generally short-lived, and being guided through the process offered some reassurance. While I had expected the distress to linger after the meditation, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could regain my sense of equilibrium using my breath anchor.
Building a consistent practice
When considering the usefulness of mindfulness as a positive psychology technique, it is also important to consider its practicality, specifically how easy it is to implement and integrate into existing routines. Whilst I attempted to complete my Mindfulness Daily sessions every day, there were occasions when I missed a practice. However, I believe that my inability to fully embrace mindfulness as a consistent daily practice was more of a personal challenge than a drawback of the technique itself.
Working in hospitality, my shifts can vary considerably. At different times I work early mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights, sometimes finishing as late as 1 or 2 a.m. The variability of my schedule, which can also change from week to week, has made it difficult to establish a structured routine. Looking back, I think this lack of stability made it harder to develop mindfulness into a regular daily habit.
📊 The Results
Reviewing my WHO-5 scores provided an opportunity to compare my wellbeing before and after the four-week intervention. My initial score on the WHO-5 was 9 out of 25, reflecting my diminished mental wellbeing at the beginning of the project. By the end of the intervention, my score had increased to 19 out of 25, indicating a substantial improvement in my perceived wellbeing
✨ What I Took Away
Overall, I found my experience of engaging in mindfulness practice worthwhile and enjoyable.
Honestly, I am not sure that mindfulness alone can account for the changes I observed over the course of the project. It is highly likely that improvements in my mental wellbeing were also influenced by a reduced university workload as I approached the end of the semester. This gave me more time to attend social events and engage in activities I enjoy.
Despite this, it is undeniable to me that mindfulness helped me cope more effectively with stress and anxiety throughout the semester. It was impossible to avoid assignments and ignore my university responsibilities, but mindfulness offered a more constructive way of responding to these stressors. Rather than relying on rumination or distraction, I developed practical strategies that helped me manage difficult thoughts and emotions when they arose.
References
Boxer, A., Shawyer, F., Coghlan, I., Ling, D., & Meadows, G. (2025). Mindfulness-based interventions: what more can the West learn from Buddhism? A fieldwork study. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1579575. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1579575
Guendelman, S., Medeiros, S., & Rampes, H. (2017). Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation: Insights from Neurobiological, Psychological, and Clinical Studies. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 220. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00220
Ivtzan, I. (2016). Mindfulness in positive psychology: An introduction. In I. Ivtzan & T. Lomas (Eds.), Mindfulness in positive psychology: The science of meditation and wellbeing (pp. 1-12). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315747217
Malik, S., & Perveen, A. (2023). Mindfulness and anxiety among university students: Moderating role of cognitive emotion regulation. Current Psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.), 42(7), 5621–5628. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-01906-1
Malinowski, P. (2013). Flourishing Through Meditation and mindfulness. In I. Boniwell, S. A. David, & A. C. Ayers (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Happiness. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557257.013.0030
Ratnayake, S., & Merry, D. (2018). Forgetting ourselves: epistemic costs and ethical concerns in mindfulness exercises. Journal of Medical Ethics, 44(8), 567–574. https://doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2017-104201
Ricard, M. (2013). A Buddhist View of Happiness. In I. Boniwell, S. A. David, & A. C. Ayers (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Happiness. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557257.013.0027