An energizing microintervention: How mindfulness fosters subjective vitality through regulatory processes and flow experience at work.
Charlotte Hohnemann, Wladislaw Rivkin, Stefan Diestel
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology February 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000369 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental daily-diary study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 78 |
| Population | Employees |
| Dose | 10 minutes daily |
| Duration | 10-day daily-diary study with intervention during the final 5 days |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Citations | 13 |
| Key findings | Morning meditation indirectly increased evening subjective vitality through autonomous self-regulation and flow at work, but not through effortful self-control. |
Abstract
Can adopting one's morning routines influence employees' experiences throughout the day? To answer this focal question, we examine the daily effects of a brief meditation in the morning on well-being throughout the day considering spillover effects from the home to the work domain and back. To identify the dominant underlying mechanisms of this daily spillover, we draw on the personality systems interactions theory that distinguishes between autonomous self-regulation and effortful self-control as two psychological processes that reflect the regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in alignment or contradiction with one's interests, values, and goals. Accordingly, we hypothesized that meditating in the morning before work fosters autonomous self-regulation and reduces effortful self-control in the work domain, which subsequently facilitates the experience of flow at work and hence fosters subjective vitality in the home domain after work. A quasi-experimental daily-diary study over 10 days with a brief 10-min mindfulness intervention during the final 5 days with 78 participants (588 day-level data points) supported most of our predictions. More specifically, our data suggest a positive indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality in the evening via self-regulation and flow experience. However, there was no indirect effect of the intervention on subjective vitality via self-control. The results help to clarify how a mindfulness-based intervention can influence distinct regulatory processes and well-being, crossing boundaries between the work and home domains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
- The Impact of Morning Meditation and Sleep Quality on Affective and Health Outcomes in Healthcare Workers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health April 9, 2025
- Unlocking Flow Through Mindfulness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. The Journal of Psychology 2026