Are you are feeling stressed about finals and studying vigorously for hours and days on end? Have you tried taking breaks but just don't seem productive afterward or find yourself getting distracted? Meditation could help solve these problems for you. It is a non-time consuming activity that has lots of research to back up its useful and calming effects and is also perfect for doing during breaks while studying.
Recent studies have suggested that months to years of intensive and systematic meditation practice can lead to improved attention. However, the lengthy amount of time required to continually practice and monitor accurately has made it difficult to use random assignment of participants to conditions to confirm these findings. Instead, some researchers from China as well as the University of Oregon focussed on the more immediate effects meditation and mindfulness has on a person’s mental health. The test group was 40 Chinese undergraduate students who were given five days of 20-minute meditation routines and training. After the five days, they found that the undergraduates reported lower anxiety, depression, anger, and fatigue, higher ratings on mood scales, and a significant decrease in stress-related cortisol.
All of those benefits came just from 20 minutes a day of meditation practices over the course of five days. Finals can be stressful and studying can cause you to burn out. When you take a break, try meditating for 20 minutes before going back to work and see how you feel.
The research referenced in this article can be found here.
This study, published by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA, is not the only study reporting such large benefits from short meditations and mindfulness practices. More research and information can be found from Stress Reduction through Mindfulness Meditation and Meditation Lowers Stress and Supports Forgiveness Among College Students.