Scholarly Reflection

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Scholarly Reflection Paper

STUDENT NAME

Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta

INT D 249: The Science of Joy & Happiness

Karen A. Sylte

DATE

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Scholarly Reflection Paper

Up until recently, I knew that mindfulness had benefits, but I never knew their extent. I

also believed I didn’t have time for mindfulness, and that it wasn’t something I should make a

part of my daily routine. This class has taught me that in fact is not true. Mindfulness has so

many positive benefits, and many reasons why mindfulness is a great addition to daily routines.

Mindfulness has been suggested to improve mental health and well-being, resiliency, as well as

cognition, executive control, and attention, which is highlighted in a study by Yakobi et al.

(2020). It can also help cultivate feelings of happiness and joy and lead to its pursuit, as well as

reduce stress. An 8-week mindfulness-based study was done by Hjeltnes et al. (2015) which

evaluated university students, and one of the findings was that during the practice period students

reported they were able to find inner calmness when dealing with stress and anxiety. While I was

doing the practices, I noticed this feeling as well. Although I was stressed, I was able to calm

myself and relax more than I had previously been able to. Also, when I first started doing the

practices in this class or mindfulness practices in the past, I believed that my brain always had to

be completely blank and I should not be focusing on anything else, and I would get frustrated if I

started having other thoughts. However, I have since learned that mindfulness is

“moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness...paying attention in a specific way...as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as open-heartedly as possible” (Jon Kabat-Zinn, 2015).

I learned it was okay to have other thoughts, and just let them be and realize what I was thinking

and feeling instead of trying to control them.

Throughout this paper, I will include a reflection on my experience, specifically my

initial goals for the practices, as well as highlighting what I found went well for me and what did

not, also my overall motivation and dedication to the practices, and a goal for the future.

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Reflection on my goals

The first goal I set was: to do the mindfulness activities alone in my room, in a

comfortable position, with my headphones, every day in the evening around 9:00 pm before I go

to bed. I succeeded at completing the mindfulness practices every day, with my headphones, in a

comfortable position, however, the time when I would do them would change. Some days I

would do it earlier in the evening, or later in the night, and once I tried doing it in the morning.

The second goal I set was: to complete the practice logs by setting aside a few minutes of

my time every day right after doing the activities to ensure I truly remembered how I was

feeling. I was able to complete the logs and accurately document how I was feeling, although

some days I wouldn’t do them until later or even the next day, so I was not successful with that

aspect of my goal.

The third goal I set was: to do the required readings every Sunday afternoon, and ensure

my full focus is on them before the next week of learning for the next eight weeks to be

successful and stay on top of the workload. I managed to stay on top of the readings and the

workload so I was successful in that area, however, I did not do the readings all in one Sunday

for each week. Instead, I spread them out across the week and found a time when I was able to

instead of trying to cram them all into one Sunday plus my other classes.

What went well, what didn't, what I might change

I found that what went well for me was being consistent with the practices, and learning

to be more open-minded towards different types of practice. What I found didn’t go so well was

remembering to log everything. Something I might change in the future would be to try and do

mindfulness practices in the morning instead of the evening since I found some evenings I would

forget and end up staying up late, or I was really tired. I also want to try more different types of

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practice. Hjeltnes et al. (2015) propose that formal mindfulness practices (e.g. body scans or

pause practices) should be combined with informal mindfulness practices (e.g. mindful walking,

cleaning, eating) in order to get the most out of mindfulness and better incorporate mindfulness

into the daily routine. I plan to integrate more informal mindfulness practices into my day, in

hopes of mindfulness becoming more of a normality since it still feels like a separate part of my

day rather than happening naturally.

Motivation and dedication

Overall, my motivation and dedication to practice were well. I struggled at the beginning

with dedication, some days I forgot to do the practices. However, once I set reminders on my

phone and whiteboard and settled into a routine, the practices came naturally and became a part

of my daily schedule. Some days when I was super busy though, I found it difficult to find time,

but I would manage to always squeeze in a practice somewhere, even if that meant opting for a

5-minute pause practice versus a 15-minute body scan. I noticed at some points I lacked

motivation, such as in the beginning, during midterms, and during reading week, but I would

remind myself of the benefits that mindfulness would bring me, like stress reduction, calmness,

and pursuing/being happier, and that would bring me back on track.

Future goal

A long term goal for my future joy and happiness includes continuing with mindfulness

practices, whether formal or informal, such as getting an app for formal practices as well as just

doing activities that make me happy and reduce my stress for the next semester, and throughout

the rest of my years in university.

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References Hjeltnes, A., Binder, P., Moltu, C., & Dundas, I. (2015). Facing the fear of failure: An

explorative qualitative study of client experiences in a mindfulness-based stress reduction

program for university students with academic evaluation anxiety. International Journal

of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 10(1).

https://doi.org/10.3402/qhw.v10.27990

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2015). Mindfulness. Mindfulness 6(6), 1481–1483.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x

Yakobi, O., Smilek, D. & Danckert, J. (2021). The Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on

Attention, Executive Control and Working Memory in Healthy Adults: A Meta-analysis

of Randomized Controlled Trials. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45(4), 543–560.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10177-2