Mindfulness initiative to improve the wellbeing of North-east students

It is the latest initiative at the North-east university to improve the wellbeing of its campus community, following the signing of a Student Mental Health Agreement last year.

The project began with first-year students from the School of Health Sciences answering a questionnaire on mindfulness, resilience and wellbeing.

From these answers, the highest and lowest scorers from each course were invited to take part in a series of focus group sessions, which start this month. These sessions will explore what mindfulness and resilience means to them, as first year students adjusting to higher education life.

The results from the research will be used to create an intervention, helping students to manage attention focus when learning in the classroom context. Lecturers will help students through the use of a range of strategies such as active listening, silence and breathing.

The initiative is the brainchild of Neil Buchanan, lecturer in Applied Sport and Exercise Science at the School of Health Sciences.

Neil regularly practices mindfulness as part of his teaching sessions, as well as in his personal life, and has completed further mindfulness training with NHS Grampian.

Speaking on its effectiveness, he said: “Mindfulness has a positive impact on all aspects of a person’s life.

“Within an academic setting, the practice of mindfulness is shown to positively enhance levels of concentration and be correlated with academic confidence. It is hoped the practice of mindfulness can further permeate outside the classroom into other areas of life, to help facilitate desirable thoughts and emotions.

“RGU has a longstanding commitment to developing the workforce of tomorrow and improving our students’ employability, and it is also important that we do what we can to ensure that their wellbeing is looked after.”

In addition, as part of the initiative with students, Neil will begin delivering mindfulness training to further RGU staff members this term.