Mindfulness Meditation can be intermixed with Humor to help any walk of life during anxiety. Humor is infectious. It lightens burdens, inspires hope, connects us to others, increases our insight, keeps us grounded, focused, alert, and happy. Laughter is a universal language that stimulates both sides of the brain. It allows us to get messages quicker and remember them longer. We all learn more when we are having fun. Becoming more mindful of flow of duty and desire in our lives, we become more able to redeem more from our lives, and rediscover the humor that lightens our days.
Here’s a thesis abstract of a study done on nursing students in clinical practice proving positive effect of humor and mindfulness on anxiety:
Abstract:
By O’Brien, Denise A., Ph.D., CAPELLA UNIVERSITY, 2013
Clinical nursing practice requires intensive education, yet anxiety can interfere with student learning. A gap exists in the nursing literature on how nursing students can manage anxiety during clinical practice. Since the clinical portion of nursing education may be especially anxiety provoking for nursing students, a new teaching strategy has been developed to help reduce anxiety during clinical practice. In this quasi-experimental research study, a new teaching strategy known as mindfulness meditation intermixed with humor was used for four weeks with nursing students to examine whether there was a reduction in anxiety during clinical practice. A sample of 73 male and female junior and senior nursing students from a nursing program at a university in the southern region of the United States completed pretest and posttest questionnaires, which included the Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), and the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS). One-way ANOVA and correlation analysis were conducted to assess whether gender, race, and age were significantly related to the measures of STAI, MSHS, and MAAS scores. The findings indicated there was a significant reduction in STAI scores when participants were exposed to the new teaching strategy, which indicated a reduction in anxiety levels of junior and senior clinical nursing students. The results also signified a significant increase in the MAAS and MSHS scores, which revealed that participants became more mindful and humorous when exposed to the new teaching strategy. Implications include the use of mindfulness meditation intermixed with humor being implemented by nurse educators as a teaching strategy in clinical nursing courses to help reduce anxiety levels.
Mental Health & Mindfulness 