It’s no secret that everyone on a college campus deals with stress to some extent. As a current student, I wanted to look deeper into one approach to combat stress: meditation apps. Meditation is a practice of participating in mindfulness; focusing on a thought, object, or the body that allows full attention to achieving a clearer emotional state of awareness. As technology has become more innovative it’s no surprise that meditation apps have become popular.
Kelly Arruda |Courtesy
We are constantly busy with the world around us, which can make it difficult to take time for ourselves. The convenience of the app can make it easier to take a few minutes a day to give back to ourselves. Meditation apps have made a positive impact on obtaining good mental health strategies. One app, in particular, that is making a large impact is Headspace. Headspace offers a variety of different guided and unguided meditations options and blogs focused around sleep, productivity, stress, kindness and much more.
The American Psychological Association published an article in 2018 entitled Mindfulness On-The-Go: Effects of a Mindfulness Meditation App on Work Stress and Well-Being … The study focused on participants who experienced high levels of work stress. The intervention participants were instructed to go through a 10-20-minute meditation, though the Headspace app, once a day for the trial period, 8 weeks. The control group was given a link to online advice for work stress article.
Results from this study concluded that the use of the app throughout the matter of 8 weeks improved well-being, decreased distress, improved global well-being, daily positive affect, reduced depressive symptoms, and job strain. These effects were sustained even two months after the initial experiment and were recorded through post-surveys. The study also found that the participants that completed a greater number of sessions had the greatest health benefits (Bostock, 2018).
Although this study cannot conclude how the continual practice through the app could affect people with clinical diagnoses of depression, hypertension, heart disease, or cancer; it does provide many positive reasons for people dealing with job strain or other stressful situations (Bostock, 2018). Headspace was rated the number one mindfulness app when compared to twenty-three on criteria including engagement, functionality, visual aesthetics, and information quality. The app can be used with or without a subscription and even offers a student discount for a yearly subscription.
Meditation is a challenging new skill that is a fun, continuous learning experience and there are many options on campus to help support students looking to explore meditation. The University of Idaho (U of I) has a drop in Mindfulness session every week on Wednesdays from 12 p.m. 12:20 p.m. in the Teaching and Learning Center, room 029. U of I also has locations on campus that people can utilize as a quiet, calm space. Alice’s room is on the 4th floor of the Idaho Commons has a beautiful view and a calming atmosphere, the Well Space located within the Student Recreation Center, or even the quiet floor of the library (4th floor). See if meditation is something you want to try guided, unguided, in person or on an app.
We, as a society, are always plugged in; always connected to work and a screen. It’s important to just take a few minutes and take time for yourself.
By Kelly Arruda, Vandal Health Education