Promoting the Development of Resilience in University Teachers Through the Practice of Mindfulness

Abstract

This article describes the results of a longitudinal study on the effects of the regular, everyday practice of at least 20-minute-long mindfulness meditation sessions on coping with stressful situations among academic staff. University teachers were selected with respect to the high stress of their occupation and their frequent statements of difficulties with responding adequately to stress arising from the necessity of communicating with students, colleagues and family members every day. They stated that they could not cope adequately and had problems concentrating on other activities such as writing, giving lectures and attending work meetings. At the beginning of the study, the academic staff were offered mindfulness meditation therapy training. The study took place from 2002 to 2020. A total of 124 university teachers were monitored. The research group consisted of 97 teachers at Czech universities (53 men and 44 women) and 27 teachers at Slovak universities (14 men and 13 women). The study’s main objective was to identify the effect of an everyday 20-minute mindfulness practice, which 113 participants performed in the morning and 11 in the evening, on the development of their psychological resilience for coping This article describes the results of a longitudinal study on the effects of the regular, everyday practice of at least 20-minute-long mindfulness meditation sessions on coping with stressful situations among academic staff. University teachers were selected with respect to the high stress of their occupation and their frequent statements of difficulties with responding adequately to stress arising from the necessity of communicating with students, colleagues and family members every day. They stated that they could not cope adequately and had problems concentrating on other activities such as writing, giving lectures and attending work meetings. At the beginning of the study, the academic staff were offered mindfulness meditation therapy training. The study took place from 2002 to 2020. A total of 124 university teachers were monitored. The research group consisted of 97 teachers at Czech universities (53 men and 44 women) and 27 teachers at Slovak universities (14 men and 13 women). The study’s main objective was to identify the effect of an everyday 20-minute mindfulness practice, which 113 participants performed in the morning and 11 in the evening, on the development of their psychological resilience for coping