Research Hit: Hope Beats Mindfulness in Stressful Times at Work
Recent research shows that hope seems to increase resilience and boost mental wellbeing whereas mindfulness did not during the pandemic
But isn’t there a lot of research showing that mindfulness and meditation is extremely beneficial?
Yes, there is! I wrote about some of the cognitive benefits combined with yoga here:
But the question is not whether it is in generally beneficial, but whether it helps during stressful times, particularly at work. And this is what Kristin Scott and colleagues of North Carolina State University reviewed with data taken from the start of the pandemic.
I’m intrigued now?
Yes, intriguing also because they specifically focused on this question of mindfulness, which is present focused, being in the moment, and hope, which is future focused.
They recruited 247 professional musicians and surveyed them multiple times in 2020 with a followup in 2021.
They wanted to find out the relationship between hope and being mindful and factors such as work engagement, work tensions, positive emotions, and how much distress they were experiencing.
And what were the results?
Well, quite simple: hope was correlated to better measures on the above - basically they were happier. Mindfulness saw no positive correlations!
That’s a surprise, isn’t it?!
Yes, and no. Yes because there is so much out there on how positive mindfulness can be. On the other hand I know the research is not quite as it is hyped up to be and this particular context is specific. A forward looking and positive outlook seems to be much more beneficial.
Of note is that professional musicians were particularly hard hit by the pandemic also (and also hence why the researchers focused on this group).
So what can we learn from this?
Well, simple, in tough times and times of high stress hope, and hence, also optimism, are more important and will contribute more to current and future happiness. Mindfulness and mediation is good for other factors and general health so if you like it, keep doing it!
And to clarify mindfulness and meditation are different right?
Yes, meditation comes in many different forms and so may have very different effects. Mindfulness refers to the concept of being in the present and, hopefully, being at peace with this. With the intention also to potentially stop worrying about those things that you can’t control - but as we are probably aware that is very difficult. It could be that for a Zen master the results would be different. But for us normal folk being hopeful is likely to be much better for our mental health.
Though this was conducted in a specific professional group, I imagine, and the authors do also, that this would translate to other contexts.
Here's hoping we can be hopeful in times of stress!
Yes, hopefully!
Kristin L. Scott, Emily Ferrise, Sharon Sheridan, Thomas J. Zagenczyk.
Work‐related resilience, engagement and wellbeing among music industry workers during the Covid‐19 pandemic: A multiwave model of mindfulness and hope.
Stress and Health, 2024
DOI: 10.1002/smi.3466