ABU DHABI // Mozah Al Saadi knows about stress. She is juggling the pressures of family life, looking after four children, and is in her final year of psychology studies.
The demands of home life and university studies took their toll on the 29-year-old Emirati.
“Stress affected my sleep and diet. I felt very nervous and I couldn’t control my thoughts. I started to mix everything together,” said the Zayed University student.
“The main trigger is balancing studies and family. I want to graduate with a high GPA [grade point average] and this requires a lot of effort.”
However, help was at hand on campus. Ms Al Saadi and 260 female students were invited to take part in trials of a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) technique.
It involved guided meditation and breathing to allow people to become more aware of their thoughts and feelings so as to choose constructive ways to respond to negative emotions such as stress.
Psychologist Dr Justin Thomas was keen to see how the techniques could be adapted to students in the Middle East, particularly those who pray.
“We adapted MBSR to the daily experience of students, such as praying,” he said.
“We also referenced ideas from Islamic culture such as ‘husn al dhun’ [or having a good opinion and questioning negative thoughts].
“Often we react to negative emotions automatically without thinking it can make situations worse. MBSR helps people explore more adaptive ways of responding rather than habitual reacting. Examples of daily stress triggers include construction noise, traffic, work, studies and communicating with people who speak languages foreign to yours.
Ms Al Saadi was surprised at how effective the sessions were.
“I started to notice my stress levels decreased, especially if I had to do presentations,” she said. “My studying became much better and I was able to control my stress.”
Ms Al Saadi is keen for more students to benefit from stress relief sessions, saying that the university should offer mindfulness sessions to first-year students.
For his part, Mr Thomas was impressed by how well the students were able to use the stress relief techniques in everyday life. “Several of them were transformed. It was obvious they had learned to see stressful situations in a whole new light,” he said.
The results show that stress relief courses should be made available to students.
“If we want well-rounded, resilient and well-prepared graduates, then we need to teach these skills,” said Dr Thomas.
“This will have a positive impact on academic performance, as stress interferes with learning. A big part of well-being or happiness is being OK with not feeling OK. This is what MBSR helps people to achieve.”
Psychologist Monique Raynor said the MBSR trials had been helpful to the participants.
“They were very vocal about the extent that daily life stress impacted on them,” she said.
“It was interesting to observe the impact participants had on each other when they realised that they experienced the same stress and through the use of MBSR came to conclusions on how best to manage their stress.”
mswan@thenational.ae
