Running head: BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS 1

Benefits of Mindfulness: Psychological, Educational, and Musical

Contemplative Life

Alysia Englert
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In today’s busy world, most people can hardly take a day off without feeling

incredibly behind. There is a constant demand and pressure to be more productive with

less time in the day. With the rise of technology in the last ten years, it can be more

difficult to unplug and unwind. Some of the people who face the most challenges

unplugging are students and, more specifically, college musicians. College students are

asked to do more and more each year with expectations rapidly increasing. Musicians

have performances, lessons, and recitals on top of their academics, jobs, and social lives.

This neverending lifestyle perpetuates a culture of stress and anxiety. In times that

students feel overwhelmed, they should have the coping mechanisms to manage all their

responsibilities. Mindfulness is one practice that could be incorporated into the

education curriculum to enhance the student’s overall quality of life which can be seen

in college music majors (musicians) by improving mental health and performance.

Mindfulness has become a buzz word or trend over the last decade or two because

of the recent interest and engagement in the topic. Dr. John Kabat-Zinn is credited as

the founding father of today’s modern mindfulness practice developed from Buddist

practices (Ackerman, 2020). Buddhism’s main principles focus on the three universal

truths, the four noble truths, and the eightfold path (​Buddhism: Basic Beliefs​ 2020).

The three universal truths are “(1) everything in life is impermanent and always

changing, (2) because nothing is permanent, a life based on possessing things or persons

doesn’t make you happy, and (3) there is no eternal, unchanging soul and self is just a

collection of changing characteristics or attributes” (​Buddhism: Basic Beliefs​ 2020). The

four noble truths are “(1) human life has a lot of suffering, (2) the cause of suffering is

greed, (3) there is an end to suffering, and (4) the way to end suffering is to follow the

Middle Path (​Buddhism: Basic Beliefs​ 2020). The eightfold path is “(1) right
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understanding and viewpoint, (2) right values and attitude, (3) right speech, (4) right

action, (5) right work, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right meditation

(Buddhism: Basic Beliefs 2020). Dr. Kabat-Zinn used these principles to develop

mindfulness into what it is today. He describes mindfulness as the “awareness that

arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally”

(Millett, 2018, p. 1). Langer (2000, p. 220) defines mindfulness as “a flexible state of

mind in which we are actively engaged in the present, noticing new things and sensitive

to context”. The one idea that both of these definitions have in common is that

mindfulness is about being in the present moment. It is a state of awareness.

Mindfulness can be used as a broad term or specific practice. For this essay’s purposes,

mindfulness is a general term that envelops other practices like meditation, deep

breathing, and yoga.

The psychological benefits of mindfulness are to improve mental health by

decreasing anxiety and depression, increasing positivity and reducing stress. According

to The American Institute of Stress (Daily Life, 2019) the top seven causes of stress in

the United States are job pressure, money, health, relationships, poor nutrition, media

overload, and sleep deprivation. As these stresses compial, people continue to look for

ways to relieve that stress. Buchanan (2017) states that mindfulness “demonstrated

effectiveness in reducing stress and increasing prosocial behavior” along with

“improving questioning and listening” for students (p.70). Davis (2012) identifies the

benefits of mindfulness to be reduced rumination, stress reduction, boosts to working

memory, focus, less emotional reactivity, more cognitive flexibility, and relationship

satisfaction. Kinder (2017) stated that “children today are faced with an unprecedented

amount of stress and anxiety [and] 25% of 13- to 18-year-olds will experience an anxiety
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disorder according to the National Institute of Mental Health” (p. 2). The increasing

number of children with anxiety disorders will continue into secondary education. These

anxiety disorders can affect students' education and academic success. The number of

students with anxiety disorders could be reduced with mindfulness practices

incorporated into the educational systems. It would provide students with the resources

to learn how to be present and limit stress. One way anxiety can affect students is with

testing anxiety. Students can become increasingly worried and stressed about tests. A

breathing exercise could be an easy solution to decrease testing anxiety. With lowered

stress and anxiety, students will be able to improve their test scores and perform to their

full level which increases their academic success.

Students that practice mindfulness can also see benefits in other academic areas.

There was research on mindfulness in schools that showed students who practiced

mindfulness scored higher in math, had 24 percent more social behaviors, and were 20

percent less aggressive (Kinder, 2017). These improved test scores were seen as a result

of the incorporated practices for that research group. Students excelled in areas of

attention, memory, emotional regulation, optimism, stress levels, and empathy (Kinder,

2017). Zenner (2014) conducted a meta-analysis to provide insight into the benefits of

mindfulness. After a thorough and extensive research process, they found 24 studies to

review. The analysis suggests an increased cognitive capacity of attending and learning

by nearly one standard deviation due to mindfulness-based interventions (Zenner,

2014). The studies with more mindfulness training and home practice had a more

substantial effect than studies with less training time (Zenner, 2014). This concludes

that the more extended mindfulness session relates to more benefits.

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Another study done by Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that stress

levels went down for students who received mindfulness training (Trafton, 2019). The

study was focused on 100 sixth-graders, half of which received mindfulness training

every day for eight weeks. Researchers also took brain scans for 40 of the students in

this study to measure the activity in the amygdala (Trafton, 2019). It was found that

students with more amygdala activity when seeing fearful faces had higher levels of

stress. According to Ackerman (2002), the amygdala is “a key stress-responding region

in our brain” and it has “an important role in helping us cope with anxious situations”

(p.9). Taren et al. (2013) found that the amygdala decreases in size with long-term

mindfulness practices. This is significant because it proves that mindfulness leads to less

stress and anxiety. The amygdala decreases because there is less activity due to lower

levels of stress and anxiety. The reduced stress leads to better well being and improved

physical and psychological health (Tarren et al., 2013). Another study was completed

with 97 fourth-graders over a 12 week period (Falter, 2016). Researchers found that

mindfulness practices that included yoga poses, breathing techniques, and guided

mindful exercises showed “a positive effect on involuntary responses to social stress”

(Falter, 2016, p. ). This study supports the psychological benefits of stress reduction in

an education setting due to mindfulness. It also suggests that a larger study should be

conducted to find even more conclusive results with a more significant sample size.

Musicians can benefit significantly from mindfulness practices because

psychological health is often an overlooked aspect of musician health and wellness

(Cornett, 2015). With just a little regard to psychological well-being, musicians can see

improvement in this area through mindfulness. Performance anxiety is something that

almost all musicians will face at some time in their careers. Performances that
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musicians have can create stress, anxiety, self-doubt, destructive self-criticism, and

depression, which may lead to physical side effects, negative self-talk, substance abuse,

or self-sabotage (Cornett, 2015). Mindfulness is a way to practice being present and

calm instead of allowing the fears to control your thought process. Khalsa et al. (2009)

states that musicians “experience high levels of stress, performance anxiety, and

debilitating performance-related musculoskeletal disorders” (p.279). A study was

conducted over a two month period to analyze the benefits of yoga or meditation. The

participants were all musicians and all volunteers. They were placed in randomized

groups to practice yoga and meditation or just yoga. (Khalsa et al., 2009). This study

concluded via self-evaluation that performance anxiety decreased for both groups but

remained the same for the control group (Khalsa et al., 2009).

Mindfulness has also been found to increase student listening sensitivity in music

education according to Anderson (2012). This study consisted of 36 students in grade

five from a single school located in an urban environment (Anderson, 2012). Students

received 45 minutes of weekly music instruction in which the experiment was conducted

(Anderson, 2012). The students were split into two groups of 18 each in which they were

to listen to the same music by two different groups (Anderson, 2012). The control group

was not provided any insight on mindfulness practices, while the mindful listening

group was instructed to pay special attention to the story the music might tell

(Anderson, 2012). Anderson (2012) found statistically significant outcomes with this

experiment suggesting that mindfulness in a music education classroom can increase

students’ listening sensitivity. It is important to note that the small sample size is a

limitation on these findings.

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Music can also be a useful tool during mindfulness practices. Millet (2018) found

in one study that infants’ heart rates decreased after music was presented. This can

imply that music itself is a form of mindfulness. As stated earlier, mindfulness can

incaptivate many arrays of calming activities including yoga and breathwork. This study

suggests that with the presence of music similar mindfulness benefits are found as

demonstrated with the decrease in heart rate, implying stress reduction in infants. The

same study also found that parent’s stress levels decreased due to the music (Millet,

2018). This directly correlates that music reduces stress as does mindfulness. Therefore,

it could be argued that listening to music is a mindfulness practice.

With all the benefits of mindfulness mentioned like stress reduction, increased

mood, and improved test scores, it is still not practiced more frequently because of

misconceptions about the practice. One myth about mindfulness is that in order to pay

attention to something you need to hold it still and focus on it (Langer, 2000). This

misunderstanding directs people to avoid mindful activities that could have a lot of

benefits to their life. People do not practice mindfulness because they believe that they

do not have enough time to set aside for it. On the contrary, mindfulness is relatively

easy to adapt to your everyday life. One can start seeing benefits with just five minutes

of daily practice. Unlike what people may assume, it does not take an hour a day for a

month to start seeing the benefits. Mindfulness can easily be incorporated into your life

by sitting still for just one minute a day or being present during an afternoon walk

listening to the sounds of nature. Other practices that fall under mindfulness as a broad

scope are yoga practice, meditation, and deep breathing. All of these activities bring you

into the present moment and provide the same positive benefits of mindfulness.
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Another reason that mindfulness is not as popular is because of the belief that the

practice is a conspiracy theory. According to Purser (2019), founder of the mainstream

mindfulness practice, Dr. John Kabat-Zinn proclaims that mindfulness “may actually be

the only promise the species and the planet have for making it through the next couple

of hundred years” (p.1). This is one reason people do not believe in mindfulness because

they see it as a big hoax with preposterous claims. The media perpetuates false

advertising of mindfulness with Time magazine’s 2014 cover with a blissful blonde

woman under the words “The Mindful Revolution” (Purser, 2019, p.1). These

advertisements create bad rapport for the mindfulness community because it continues

to spread false beliefs and claims of a quick fix for all of one’s problems. Another reason

people believe that mindfulness is a conspiracy is because it is nothing more than basic

concentration training which is “stripped of the teachings on ethics” that accompanied

the Buddist beliefs (Purser, 2019, p.1). It can be argued that mindfulness is only an

element of Buddhism and without all the components of Buddhism mindfulness is

nothing. Purser (2019) explains that mindfulness is nothing more than a “tool of

self-discipline, disguised as self-help” (p.1). With this belief, it could be said that any

self-discipline could provide similar results to mindfulness. Regardless of these beliefs,

the data supports the benefits of mindfulness.

Mindfulness has a wide variety of benefits across disciplines that are not limited

to psychology, education, and music. Trafton (2019) explains that mindfulness is like

going to the gym, “it’s a form of mental exercise that needs to be sustained” (p.4). If you

stop going to the gym, the effects or benefits will not last, but if you are working out

frequently, they will last. Mindfulness is a practice that needs to be continuously

exercised to maintain positive consequences. Because of these benefits, mindfulness

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should be used more in daily life. Mindfulness is accessible to everyone because of the

many different ways to aid in being present in the current moment. Other practices like

meditation and deep breathing provide a deep understanding of living in the moment. It

can take less than five minutes a day to start being mindful and creating change in your

life. Requiring mindfulness to be taught in the education system would prepare students

to remain calm and focused under everyday life pressures.

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