Efficacy of mindfulness meditation on mental health during the times of COVID’19- A mixed-method study

Pages: 281-287
Sarika Khandelwal (Department of Home Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

The current study aims to evaluate the impact of a two-week Online Mindfulness Meditation (MM) intervention on levels of Depression, Stress, and Anxiety and gain insights into participants’ motivation and experiences of the intervention. Twentyfive participants (16 females & 9 males) were recruited through web-based advertisement using a random purposive sampling technique. DAS scale was administered before and after the intervention period to identify quantitative changes over time. Further, ten participants (6 females & 4 males) who exhibited significant changes in their quantitative measures were interviewed via video conferencing to understand the particular motivators and experiences of participating; where the responses were analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Change in outcome measures over time was examined using Mean, S.D., and paired t-test. Results revealed significant improvements in reducing the severity of depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms significantly (all p >0.001) and improvement was sustained at three months follow- up. The qualitative analysis depicted Spiritual inclination and Experience of stress and loneliness as motivation themes for enrolling. Moreover,the lived experience of the participants exhibited three overarching themes – a. Self- awareness, b. Insight development, c. Social cohesion. The study provides evidence in support of the effectiveness of brief, MM in a non-clinical population and suggests that low-intensity intervention can be used for modulating negative psychological states through easily accessible and non- physical contact training mode. However, more research is needed to confirm and better understand these results and to test the potential of such interventions.