From body to mind: how body-mind axial awareness training enhances body awareness, mindfulness, positive embodiment and mental health in healthcare students.

Abstract

Healthcare students face intense emotional and academic stress, leading to anxiety and poor mental health. Body-Mind Axial Awareness (BMAA)-a movement-based, body-centered practice-integrates bodily awareness and interoceptive attention to promote mind-body regulation and mental health. A pretest-posttest controlled design was used with 38 students in the BMAA group and 27 in the control group. Group differences arising from non-random enrollment were statistically adjusted using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and within-group changes were examined using paired t-tests and repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Participants completed eight weeks of BMAA training involving weekly two-hour sessions and daily home practice. Assessments before and after intervention included four domains of psychological functioning, measured using validated instruments: body awareness (Body Awareness Ability Inventory; Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness), mindfulness (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale), positive embodiment (Experience of Embodiment Scale), and mental health (Adult Mental Health Scale; Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait; Satisfaction with Life Scale). After controlling for baseline differences, the BMAA group showed greater gains than the control group in body awareness, mindfulness, positive embodiment, and mental health. Within-group analyses further indicated that BMAA participants demonstrated significant pre-post improvements across most body awareness and mindfulness subscales (except Not-Distracting and Not-Worrying), as well as across embodiment dimensions (except Resisting Objectification), along with enhanced emotional awareness and expression, reduced anxiety, and higher life satisfaction (p < .05 for relevant comparisons). Despite the absence of random assignment and modest group-size imbalance, ANCOVA and within-group findings demonstrated consistent effects. The findings demonstrate that BMAA training enhances multiple facets of body-mind functioning, including bodily awareness, mindfulness, positive embodiment, and mental health. As healthcare students encounter cognitive and emotional demands, BMAA may offer a feasible embodied approach for strengthening psychological resilience and adaptive stress management during professional training.