Be Happier, More Resilient, and Less Stressed with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“There is no way to happiness — happiness is the way.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Being mindful increases happiness, improves the ability to bounce back from difficulties, resilience, and reduces physiological and psychological responses to stress. These effects are well established. But it is not known how mindfulness, resilience, and stress interact.
In today’s Research News article “Resilience and Stress as Mediators in the Relationship of Mindfulness and Happiness.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.771263/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_1816931_a0P58000000G0YfEAK_Psycho_20220215_arts_A ) Bajaj and colleagues measure mindfulness, resilience and stress in college students and find that mindfulness is associated with greater happiness not only by directly promoting happiness but also indirectly. First it is associated with increased resilience, and this is associated with higher happiness and second, mindfulness is associated with less stress and being less stressed, not surprisingly, improves happiness.
This suggests that be happier mindfulness should be practiced, to be more resilient and thereby happier mindfulness should be practiced, and to be better at dealing with stress and thereby happier mindfulness should be practiced.
“Happiness, not in another place but this place… not for another hour, but this hour.” – Walt Whitman
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Bajaj B, Khoury B and Sengupta S (2022) Resilience and Stress as Mediators in the Relationship of Mindfulness and Happiness. Front. Psychol. 13:771263. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.771263
The aim of the present study was to examine the mediation effects of resilience and stress, two perceived opposite constructs, in the relationship between mindfulness and happiness. Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, Subjective Happiness Scale, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales short version-21 were administered to 523 undergraduate university students in India. Structural Equation Modeling with bootstrapping was applied to test the mediating effects of resilience and stress. Results showed that resilience and stress partially mediated the mindfulness-happiness relationship. In addition, resilience partially mediated the relationship of mindfulness to stress. Findings suggest that mindfulness may play an influential role in enhancing happiness through the mediating effects of resilience and stress.