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ABSTRACT
College students in the present times report feeling overwhelmed and stressed. The current study hence intends to explore whether mindfulness training help alleviate anxiety feelings in a non-clinical sample. Further, would mindfulness training also affect the well- being of the participants. Sixty high anxiety scorers (as measured by State Trait Anxiety scale by Speilberger et al., 1983) were selected for the study. The experimental group were given mindfulness meditation training for five months. A pre and most measure of anxiety was taken. All participants' subjective well-being was also measured at the end of the study. Results indicated that participants in the experimental or treatment group experienced significant reduction in their anxiety (t(58) = 6.00, p<0.00l). Also the experimental group reported higher subjective well-being in comparison to the control group (t(58) = 2.12, p<0.05). The implications of the study is further discussed.
Key words: State Anxiety, Trait Anxiety, Mindfulness, Subjective Well-Being
INTRODUCTION
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994) mindfulness means "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally". Shapiro et al. (2006) coined the term "Reperceiving". It involves a shift in perspective. Instead of getting carried away in personal chaos, one can step back and witness it. One can view the moment-to-moment experiences because he/she can disidentify from the contents of consciousness. A number of empirical studies have been conducted to test the efficacy of mindfulness. When participants practised mindfulness meditation over a 10-week stress reduction programme, it was found that the meditation facilitated detachment observation from the affective/ cognitive evaluative alarm reaction that resulted in significant reduction in chronic pain of 51 patients who did not show any improvements with the traditional medical care (Kabat-Zinn, 1982). The efficacy of mindfulness on the cognitive and affective function was also tested in another study. When a non-clinical experimental group of 20 novice meditators were given a rigorous 10-day mindfulness training, it was seen that there was a significant reduction in the depressive symptoms and rumination, and enhancements in working memory, and sustained attention of the participants (Chambers & Allen, 2007). Shapiro et al. (2006) when divided college students into meditation-based interventions, Mindfulness based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and Eight Point Program; and a wait-list control group, they found that...