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ERIC Number: EJ1057588
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 2
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2162-3104
EISSN: N/A
Multi-Cultural Expedition into Mindfulness among High School Students
Owen, Jonathan; Kalavala, Prathyusha
Journal of International Students, v2 n1 p85-86 Spr 2012
In this article, the authors explain their experience in helping high school students deal with stress. Many international college students know first-hand that striving for academic success can be stressful, and American high school students are no exception. A recent study reported the percentage of students reporting good or above-average high school emotional well-being declined from 55.3 percent in 2009 to 51.9 percent in 2010 (Nauert, 2011). In an attempt to curb this trend, during the fall semester of 2011, a local high school psychology teacher (Arkansas, USA) invited the authors to speak with her four psychology classes about stress and relaxation. Jonathan Owen, an undergraduate psychology student involved with research on mindfulness and biofeedback, explained mindfulness to each class as simply being attentive to one's thoughts and feelings, whereas biofeedback is the real-time measurement of physiological functions increasing individual awareness of internal processes through the use of "EmWave" technology. The emWave uses heart rhythm information to calculate coherence, or balance, between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Through bringing the awareness onto these processes, mindfulness limits the stress-related impact of negative rumination on the body, diverting the attention away from distressing thoughts. Prathyusha Kalavala, a graduate student hailing from India, the homeland of "Yoga and Mindfulness," followed with a brief explanation of yoga's origination and development within a spiritual and cultural Indian context. In contrast to ancient Indian societal values, American culture has until recently offered very few constructive outlets for dealing with the stresses and anxieties of day to day life. The authors were thrilled to receive dozens of thank-you letters from the students who attended the presentation, some filled with references to how the mindfulness and yoga techniques had begun to help them relieve stress. Both authors were inspired to read that their presentations were making a difference.
Journal of International Students. 4005 Spurgeon Drive #6, Monroe, LA 71203. Tel: 318-600-5743; Fax: 318-342-3131; e-mail: jistudents.submission@gmail.com; Web site: http://jistudents.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Arkansas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A