Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants
- Participants were active bachelor’s or master’s degree students at Danish universities or University Colleges;
- Participants experienced elevated stress at the time of enrolment, indicated by a PSS score of 16 or above;
- No known psychiatric diagnosis such as severe depression, severe anxiety, adjustment disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, personality disorder or psychosis, and no known autism or untreated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;
- No self-reported risk of suicide or addiction to alcohol, tobacco or drugs.
2.2. Intervention
2.3. Interviews
- Tuning in:
- How are you today?
- How have you been during recent days/since the retreat?
- Have you experienced any challenging situations during recent days/this period?
- What was helpful when dealing with these issues? (If this was not mentioned by participants themselves, probing questions were:
- In your own approach?
- From other people?
- From the environment?)
2.4. Data Analysis
- All transcripts were read and coded for emotion-laden words or sentences, and emergent patterns (themes) were identified;
- A “dialogue” between the coded data and our a priori knowledge of psychology and mindfulness was developed through discussion in two rounds;
- This “dialogue” continued until the meanings and themes seemed clear and were decided upon;
- Related transcript extracts were grouped for each theme; some could be included within two themes;
- The relationships between the themes were structured;
- A narrative was developed based on the structured transcript extracts, and a figure was drawn.
3. Results
- “Supportive conditions” included how participants experienced the setting of the retreat; this theme had the subthemes “having a break” and “sensing nature”;
- “Attitudes of mindfulness” involved the experience of the central attitudes of the MBSR program;
- “Connection” included three aspects of experiencing connection: “connection to the group”, “connection to nature” and “connection to oneself”;
- “Physical and psychological balance” included the subthemes “calm and focus”, “energy and happiness” and “insight”.
3.1. Supportive Conditions
3.1.1. Having a Break
Jane: “When you go outside, you get a distance from all the stimulation you find indoors. Maybe that is why you do not need to concern yourself with it. Then, it is just pure nature, which you in fact do not need to make any judgments about.”
3.1.2. Sensing Nature
James: “The soundscape, you can suddenly hear some owls, or you notice the wind moving some leaves or how the stream moves and finds its way. It is just something that really encapsulates the moment and just makes you happy that you are just there in that moment and not really thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow or what has happened before.”
3.2. Attitudes of Mindfulness
Silvia: “We are relating to each other, the others are here, we want to relate, and we want the best for each other—but I am freed from thinking whether anything I said might be stupid, and I don’t have to evaluate the others.”
James: “A knot I had inside, which I have never had contact with before, was dissolved in an explosion of different emotions: happiness and sadness and anger and other emotions which slipped away and evolved into a sense of freedom.”
3.3. Connection
3.3.1. Connection to the Group
James: “You felt a community. Even though you did not see them or spoke to them, there was still this sense of community, because you felt you were doing this together, and you were not alone, and it was okay to feel the feelings that you had.”
3.3.2. Connection to Nature
James: “Suddenly, I stared at a leaf and started to cry—because of the leaf, which just lay there by itself, and I found that there was something deeper going on. It seemed that calm and presence allowed one to connect to nature by stepping out of clock time and becoming immersed in one’s experience.”
3.3.3. Connection to Oneself
Jane: “A totally relaxed feeling where I can have an overview of things, and I can feel what is good and what is bad [for me], and I do not let myself be overwhelmed by the world around me and things I must do.”
3.4. Physical and Psychological Balance
3.4.1. Calm and Focus
Silvia: “Twenty-four hours of silence, together with people you felt safe with, gave me such a sense of peace.”
James: “It gives me a sense of stability, I feel more solid, and it makes me go less into my thoughts.”
3.4.2. Energy and Happiness
Jane: “It makes me feel blissed out, I get happy. It’s just like being back, I mean all the way back to the starting point, before all the impact from outside, which did all sorts of things. It is just me.”
Silvia: “I am more aware of how nature affects my mood, and if I am low on energy, it can be energizing to take a walk, or to be in nature and get a bit happier.”
3.4.3. Insight
Laura: “Thoughts are not reality. […] I was really surprised by the difference between a little fear, where I could manage my thoughts, and then when they got overwhelming and dominating.”
Olivia: “I am more aware of myself and able to say no in situations where I am uncomfortable, where in the past I would have gone further and put up with too much.”
Silvia: “I feel like life—I mean as I see it now, I don’t know how I would respond later—but I think that life is not that complicated, it is much simpler than what we make of it.”
4. Discussion
4.1. Theme 1: Supportive Conditions
4.2. Theme 2: Mindfulness Attitudes
4.3. Theme 3: Connection
4.4. Theme 4: Physical and Psychological Balance
4.5. Strength and Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Djernis, D.; Lundsgaard, C.M.; Rønn-Smidt, H.; Dahlgaard, J. Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation. Healthcare 2023, 11, 905. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060905
Djernis D, Lundsgaard CM, Rønn-Smidt H, Dahlgaard J. Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation. Healthcare. 2023; 11(6):905. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060905
Chicago/Turabian StyleDjernis, Dorthe, Cecilie M. Lundsgaard, Helle Rønn-Smidt, and Jesper Dahlgaard. 2023. "Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation" Healthcare 11, no. 6: 905. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060905