Over a year and a half ago, I began my Thesis research project for my Master of Science in Management degree. My research question was simple: Is Zen meditation an effective mindfulness technique to manage stress and enhance psychological well-being?
I’ve been training in Zen, sitting formally and informally, for years, always wondering: does this really work? While I knew in my heart that my training did indeed have a positive effect on me, the Thesis project provided an opportunity to research and test the theory that Zen meditation practice can help practitioners manage stress and their perception of well-being.
I’m not going to bore you with the entirety of the project. Research writing can be, well, dull and difficult to understand. I will give you a quick summary of the most significant findings.
Scope
This research study planned to understand the benefits of Zen meditation practice as a tool to help reduce stress. In addition to collecting information on the topic of mindfulness, and Zen training, this study attempted to measure stress using two groups of participants: the first group was participants engaged in mindfulness practice through Zen meditation and the second group of participants were not engaged in Zen meditation. However, both groups were Aikido practitioners. Length of time and frequency of practice was also taken into consideration with the group that practices Zen meditation. We take into consideration that frequency and length of training has a significant impact on how participants benefit from the practice.
Population
This study took place in several Aikido (Japanese martial art) schools in the United States where members have the option to study Zen meditation. These schools included Zenshinkan Dojo in Worcester MA, City Aiki in Providence, RI, Jikishinkan Dojo in Brooklyn NY, Kushinkan Dojo in Charleston, WV, Shinjinkan Dojo in Chicago, IL, and Logan Square Aikido also in Chicago, IL. The population not involved with Zen meditation were members interested in learning self-defense, be part of the community, and study martial arts in general but do not participate in Zen practice. A total of seventy-five participants were surveyed where sixty-four were identified as Zen practitioners and eleven as non-Zen practitioners.
Conclusion from the literature review
There are numerous factors that can cause stress. This literature review demonstrated that students and employees that have high-stress levels also suffer from poor performance. Mindfulness practice such as Zen meditation appears to be a helpful technique to enhance performance due to the ability to reduce stress by focusing on the present moment and raising awareness. However, we cannot overlook the conceptualization of mindfulness from the context of Buddhism—the source of modern mindfulness practice. From a Buddhist point of view, a mindful state is not just a state of acceptance and relaxation or a way to cope with our lives, but an active state of mind of realization of one’s true potential by removing the unhealthy state of minds.
Data Collection Tools
The data measuring participant’s perception of their stress levels and their ability to manage them was collected using a simplified version of HeartMath Institute’s Stress and Well-Being Survey. HearthMath Institute is a nonprofit organization aimed at helping individuals bring their physical, mental, and emotional systems into balance. The institute developed this comprehensive survey tool to help people to more fully understand how eight dimensions of their life (work, relationships, finances, social support, etc.) affect their levels of stress and well-being. Taking the survey will help pinpoint how they rank in each of the eight dimensions and how these factors influence their stress and well-being. The survey is an empirical evaluation of stress management and well-being. The 5-point rating response scale has anchors 1: never and 5: always.
The survey had 72 questions and only required about 7-10 minutes to complete. However, for the purpose of this study, only 27 of those questions were used. The questions chosen are to measure the following.
a. Meditation experience. The group participating in Zen meditation practice answered questions stating how long they have been training in Zen and how frequent they train.
b. Evaluation of well-being. To acquire an objective assessment of the effects on psychological and physical wellness the questionnaire included five questions to find perceived well-being of both groups.
c. Evaluation of stress. To acquire an objective assessment of the stress level of participants from both groups, the questionnaire included 22 questions that measure the physical levels of stress, life situations such as work, finances, social support feelings, and emotions as well as response to stress.
The mean from both sample groups was calculated using an independent two-sample t-test to learn if there was a statistical difference between the two groups.
Discussion of results
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Zen meditation as a mindfulness technique to manage stress and enhance psychological well-being. I was interested in finding significant differences in stress management scores between two groups of participants: Zen practitioners and non-Zen practitioners. Although I expected Zen practitioners’ scores to reflect better stress management abilities due to their meditation training, I did not expect that group’s scores to show higher physical levels of stress than non-Zen practitioners. Zen training focuses on breathing, the present moment, acceptance, and awareness. Therefore, I expected Zen practitioners’ scores to indicate they were less stressed by life situations, feelings, and emotions, and to show a higher sense of well-being than non-Zen practitioners. While this turned out to be the case, non-Zen practitioners weren’t that far behind. Their scores were too close to each other for results to show a significant statistical difference between the two groups. Interestingly, however, was that Zen practitioners did show a statistically significant difference in their ability to feel stress related to feelings and emotions. This difference suggests that Zen training can
affect how a practitioner deals with their feelings and emotions in different situations. I must mention that there is one significant component of this study that may be the reason why non-Zen practitioners’ scores weren’t that far behind Zen practitioners’: Aikido.
Both sample groups were Aikido students. Aikido training has a significant mindfulness effect. The majority of students who participated in this survey indicated that they have been training in Aikido for more than five years. Some participants even indicated they have been training for more than two decades. Previous research on Aikido and mindfulness have found a significant increase in mindfulness as practitioner advanced in rank and length of training. Since mindfulness is an effective technique to manage stress, Aikido seems to be quite an effective stress management tool to the degree of almost reaching the same level of mindfulness as Zen practitioners. Of course, these Zen practitioners were also Aikido students. Therefore, they are benefiting from both training methods and was clearly reflected in their scores.
This study suggests that Aikido training and Zen training may have the same benefits when it comes to stress management. Further research could analyze this difference in depth and compare how length and frequency of training in Aikido compare to duration and frequency of training in Zen in their abilities to manage different forms of stress.
The short and sweet conclusion was that the findings in this study suggest that among Aikido students, Zen meditation provides little difference in their abilities to manage the different areas of stress included in the survey. However, this difference may be more significant among a population not involved in Aikido or any other mindfulness practice.