Promoting the Development of Resilience in University TeachersThrough 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 with stressful situations when communicating with colleagues, students and family members. The data were obtained from semi-structured interviews. The statements were recorded four times a year for 19 years. A total of 9,424 interviews were performed. The standard content analysis method was applied in case studies to analyse and interpret the data. The participants subjectively reported considerably calmer responses in their communication with students and colleagues during important meetings and registered an improved work performance, as they were not stressed about unsuccessful meetings. The study revealed that the regular practice of mindfulness, promoting concentration, immersion and performance, plays a positive role. The phenomenon of com-plete immersion in a performed activity is described as “flow” in the specialised literature.