Benefits of Mindfulness in Education

Scholarly research finds that mindfulness practice decreases stress and anxiety, increases attention, improves interpersonal relationships, strengthens compassion, and delivers a host of other benefits.

• • Attention – Numerous studies show improved attention, including better performance on objective tasks that measure attention. Mindfulness practice teaches students how to pay attention in a particular way, and on purpose.
• • Emotion Regulation – Mindfulness is associated with emotion regulation across a number of studies. Mindfulness creates changes in the brain that correspond to less reactivity, and better ability to engage in tasks even when emotions are activated.
• • Compassion – People randomly assigned to mindfulness training are more likely to help someone in need and have greater self-compassion.
• • Calming – Studies find that mindfulness reduces feelings of stress and improves anxiety and distress when placed in a stressful social situation.