How can mindfulness training and meditation practice benefit our mental health and well-being? In today's world of constant distractions, it seems harder than ever to live in the present moment with sustained focus while managing the stress of daily life. In a recent study, Etown College's Assistant Professor of Psychology, Dr. Elizabeth Dalton and Associate Professor of Engineering and Physics, Dr. Tomás Estrada collaborated to explore the impact of formal mindfulness training on the well-being of 48 undergraduate engineering students.
In this episode, we discuss the concept of mindfulness and its usefulness both in the classroom as well as in one's personal life to manage stress and improve one's overall quality of life. Estrada and Dalton also provide some background information on how they developed an interest in this area of research and what conclusions they reached through their study, "Implementation and Feasibility of a Group Mindfulness Intervention for Undergraduate Engineering Students" which they published in a recent issue of Advances in Engineering Education.
Some books on mindfulness training that we discuss in this episode and which might be of interest to listeners include Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness and Bob Stahl and Elisha Goldstein's A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook.