The results do in fact agree with the hypotheses that practicing mindfulness positively increases quality of life. Each journal entry will be discussed below. Additionally, the table below will demonstrate how many times her mind stop being mindful of the present moment and wander off thinking of other things. It is important to note that one the fourth day she wondered off more times than the rest of the days, however, she also practiced being mindful for a longer amount of time on the foruth day than the other days. One the first day, the participant’s journal entry was short and to the point.
She explained she was confused on how to report her experience, she reported that she experienced the sounds of the snow-slush underneath her feet and the noises in a house. She also experienced a girl smiling at her. She explained that she thought it would be easier being mindful than it actually was. And she did not report any of her feelings she felt after the first day. The second journal, entry was better. She reported she started off being mindful of the sound of her own feet and the wind in her ears, but she quickly realized it was not going to work, so she decided to be mindful of the pugs themselves walking.
She then, reported experiencing the sounds of the short breaths of the pug puppy, as well as his pitter patter on the side walk. She also reported experiencing the sounds of the adult pug’s grunts and snores. She also reported the way the bodies of the pugs moved from side to side. This time she reported her thoughts and how she noticed she experienced much joy when paying attention to what she was doing with her pugs and not about her homework. Her after thoughts were feeling her anxiety subside during the walk. One the third day, she she wrote a lot more.
She wrote about how she felt the hot sun on her ears, and how she could hear the sounds of the pugs breathing. She also reported that on that day a group of little kids stopped her to pet the puppies and she was not able to stay mindful during the interaction, but when the kids left was able to go back to being mindful. Her after thoughts were that she loves the weather and it put her in a good mood, as well as, that she does like being mindful and it does make her understand just how much she is on autopilot. On the fourth day, instead of walking the dogs and being mindful she did something different.
She sat outside on an air mattress while the dogs played. She experienced the sun’s heat on her face, the smell of her left over sushi, the adult pug panting loudly. She noticed she had to keep putting on and talking off the blanket due to the wind. Her after thoughts were she felt very relaxed, “like she just went to the spa. ” One the fifth day, she went back to walking them. She explained that it was to hard to stay mindful when you’re not focused on something directly. She reported that she experienced that it was too hot to walk the dogs very long. She wrote about the shadows bouncing up and down as the dogs walked.
She reported that after doing the activity she noticed she was crabbier than usually when walking the dogs. But explained this by reporting she was overwhelmed by how much homework she had. On the sixth day, she experienced the weather being colder. She noticed the wind feeling chiller and noticed her dogs were not taking so kindly to the way the weather changed. She also ran into a lady who tried to avoid her dogs. She reported that it hurt her feelings and made her wonder off more because the girl was a distraction. She reported no feelings after the walk besides feeling hurt.
One the seventh and final day, she reported experiencing the cold and how she did not want to take the dogs out because of the weather. She reported that the dogs were happier than ever to walk in the weather, nonetheless. She experienced watching the leash twirl around in the wind and how cold her cheeks were when she got home. Her after feelings were that she felt better after the walk even though it was hard to actually go on the walk, and she realized she could control her mind easier. She stated her mind was able to let go of the stress and homework she was worrying about and enjoyed her time with her pugs.
Analyses revealed that practicing mindfulness while walking pugs increased the overall life quality in the participant. The analyses also revealed the subject’s anxiety and stress levels were reduced. On the first day of being mindful, the participant found it difficult to stay in tuned on being mindful, however, with the following six days it was easier for the participant to maintain being mindful. the participant also realized that being mindful increased the positivity in her life. The tables below show the exact amount of times the participant stop being mindful during the fifteen minutes.
As expected, results from this study suggest that practicing mindfulness does reduce stress levels, and anxiety levels, as well as, increases a positive outlook on life and the quality of life itself. Leading further support for our predictions, we observed the participant slowly improving on her moods each time she walked. We also observed the participant gradually starting to enjoy being mindful each day. As such, it appears that being mindful for fifteen minutes a day can contribute to enhancing the quality of life, the outlook on life, and reducing the stress and anxiety levels.
Nonetheless, a clear limitation of this study is that only one person was available to do the study. This weakens our study because it does not have any external validity and therefore we can not say that the results would be the same if this study was repeated with another female senior college student. It should also be noted that there was no comparison group in this study as well. This also weakens our study because one cannot be for sure if the results are because of the independent variable or if the results are from other confounding variables.
We also note that on day four of being mindful that participant did do a different activity with her pugs besides walking them. She decided to sit outside with them and watch them play instead. We had to take this into consideration when evaluating the amount of times, she wondered off because the activity she did was different from walking her pugs and the activity was a longer in time. To account for this, we took half of the amount of times she wondered off because she watched her pugs play for thirty minutes with is double the amount of time asked.
Once we did so, it accounted for the big leap in wondering off and results were as expected. Nonetheless, even with only one participant, the overall effects of being mindful were significant, suggesting the importance of practicing mindfulness everyday to reduce mental health issues, as well as, increase the quality of life. Overall, looking at this study and other recent studies involving practicing mindfulness, this study emphasizes how practicing mindfulness everyday can increase the overall quality of life, enhance one’s outlook on life, and reduce individual’s stress levels and anxiety levels.
Although further research is still needed to confirm the results, the findings from this study suggest that a greater focus on being mindful with young adults could improve young adults lives. Additionally, future studies and interventions should use more participants, in order to receive higher external validity. Thus, allowing the general population to see that mindfulness practice does in fact increase overall quality of life, the outlook on life, and reduce stress and anxiety levels.
