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Cultivating Mindfulness as an Occupational Therapy Student: Resources to Put Into Practice

Elisabeth Bahr, New York University

Mindfulness. We hear about it everywhere: in the news, books, research, and now, even in the classroom. But what is it? And why should you practice it?

The benefits of having a mindfulness practice are abundant. “People with almost any condition that involves suffering or has a stress-related component can benefit from the practice of mindfulness” (Elliot, 2015, p. 6). Mindfulness can help us become more aware of when we are running on autopilot, and open our awareness to all that the present has to offer.

Some may consider mindfulness synonymous with relaxation. However, mindfulness originated in the Buddhist tradition as a way of cultivating clarity of thought (Noone, Bunting, & Hogan, 2015). Mindfulness-based stress-reduction, or MBSR, is a meditation technique developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. It is defined as “paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally’’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4).

Gura (2010), proposed offering occupational therapy students the opportunity experience mindfulness to enhance self-awareness and self-care, improve focus and empathy, and reduce client judgment; this promotes carry-over to clinical interventions.  

Why begin a mindfulness practice now, as a student?

  1. Improve your test-taking skills. Students trained in mindfulness performed better on the verbal reasoning section of the GRE, and they also experienced improvements in their working memory. The training highlighted physical and mental strategies that help people maintain focus on the present moment, in the face of interrupting thoughts and perceptions (Mrazek, Franklin, Phillips, Baird, & Schooler, 2013).

  2. Think more clearly, and critically. Mindfulness may help improve your critical thinking skills. Being a mindful person appears to boost critical thinking skills by possibly strengthening your “inhibition muscle” in your executive function system (Noone et al., 2015). Research that examined short-form mindfulness training (7 hours over 7 weeks) in university students found that it helped reduce “mind wandering.” Additionally, participants had higher task accuracy and reported being more “on task” than members of the control group (Morrison, Goolsarran, Rogers, & Jha, 2014). Remember this during your finals.

  3. Reduce stress. Stress reduction is one of the more popular reasons individuals start a mindfulness practice. Research now supports that there may a physiological foundations to this idea. Being a more mindful person is linked with decreased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Prolonged stress may result in adverse effects on your mind and body. In this study, participants were taught attention skills such as being mindful of breathing, observing thoughts, and observing the mind (Jacobs et al., 2011).

  4. Be more forgiving, less angry, and more compassionate. Not only does mindfulness help you become a better student and clinician, but it also helps you become a well-rounded person. Evidence suggests that meditation-based stress-management practices reduce stress and enhance forgiveness among college undergraduates (Oman, Shapiro, Thoresen, Plante, & Flinders, 2008). Research shows that meditation may subjectively reduce anger in meditators and non-meditators. Meditators had less anger reactivity than non-meditators at baseline. After a single session, non-meditators showed the same physiology of regular meditators (Fennel, Benau, & Atchley, 2016).

  5. Prepare your temperament for future clients. It is accepted that mindfulness meditation is best received when delivered by an individual with his or her own meditative practice. An established personal practice is recommended prior to applying it in a clinical setting (Gura, 2010). AOTA (2011) states that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques that are used within the scope of occupational therapy practice may require additional training, competency examinations, certification, and regulatory knowledge.

Best of all, becoming a more mindful person can be low cost or even free! Life as a student can be an opportunity to become the best version of you. Many colleges have free meditation, yoga, or mindfulness courses online or on campus. With practice, you may find that you may even prefer to meditate autonomously.

The best way to begin a mindfulness practice is to “start by starting.” Check out these strategies and resources to develop a mindfulness routine:

  1. Visit local yoga and meditation studios. They may offer a sliding scale for payment or student discounts, or have a free community class.
  2. Search FitOn for free online yoga classes.
  3. Learn meditation basics from the University of California at Los Angeles’ Mindful Awareness Research Center, and the University of California at San Diego’s Center for Mindfulness.
  4. Explore a collection of Ted Talks on Mindfulness.
  5. Connect with Zen Habits blog, which outlines steps to make mindfulness a part of your everyday life.

Related OT Student Pulse Articles

References

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2011). Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) position paper. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, S26–S31. http://dx.doi.org/10.5014/ajot..2011.65S26  

Elliot, N. (2015). Exploring mindfulness meditation in occupational therapy: An introduction to basic practice. Occupational Therapy Now, 17(1), 6–8. Retrieved from http://www.caot.ca/otnow/jan15/mindfulness.pdf

Fennell, A. B., Benau, E. K., & Atchley, R. A. (2016). A single session of meditation reduces of physiological indices of anger in both experienced and novice meditators. Consciousness and Cognition, 40, 54–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2015.12.010

Gura, S. T. (2010). Mindfulness in occupational therapy education. Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 24, 266–273. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/07380571003770336

Jacobs, E. R., Epel, E. S., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. H., Wolkowitz, O. M., Bridwell, D.A., …Saron, C. D. (2011). Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36, 664–681. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.09.010

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

Morrison, A. B., Goolsarran, M., Rogers, S. L., & Jha, A. P. (2014). Taming a wandering attention: Short-form mindfulness training in student cohorts. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 897. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00897

Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science, 24, 776–781. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797612459659

Noone, C., Bunting, B., & Hogan, M. J. (2015). Does mindfulness enhance critical thinking? Evidence for the mediating effects of executive functioning in the relationship between mindfulness and critical thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 2043. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02043

Oman, D, Shaprio, S. L., Thoresen, C. E., Plante, T. G., & Flinders, T. (2008). Meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of American College Health, 56, 569–578. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JACH.56.5.569-578

Elisabeth Bahr is a second year MSOT candidate at New York University and holds a 500-hour certification in therapeutic yoga. Her research interests include complementary and alternative medicine, global health, and assistive technology. She loves creating, traveling, and being an aunt.

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