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Immediate Effects of Practicing Meditation on Secondary School Students

Ramanjeet Kaur, Latika Sharma

International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research September 16, 2025 DOI: 10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i05.55843 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Qualitative study Peer reviewed
Population School students
Intervention Meditation
Topics Meditation
Key findings Most school students in this qualitative study reported feeling calm, relaxed, stress-free, and peaceful after meditation, with some describing it as a good or great experience and noting benefits for personal or academic life, reduced stress and overthinking, or spiritual well-being. A few students reported disliking meditation or finding it boring. The authors conclude that, with a few exceptions, most students observed improvements and enjoyed the practices.

Abstract

Meditation is a practice that combines the mind and body, aiming to increase calmness and physical relaxation, improve psychological balance, and enhance overall health and well-being (Kiefer, 2021). The present study was qualitative in nature and aimed to collate the responses of school students regarding their experiences with meditative practices. As meditative practices impact every individual differently on subtle levels, the students were given journals in which they had to record their everyday experiences of meditative practices. They felt calm, relaxed, stress-free and peaceful after practising meditation. For some of them, the meditation was amazing, and they enjoyed these sessions. Most of the students reported that they felt it was a good experience in their lives, and some of them reported it as a great experience. Some of the students said that meditative practices were helpful for them either in improving their personal life or academic life. A few also felt a decrease in their stress and overthinking. In addition, some unique responses were also obtained from the students, which count for their spiritual well-being. Along with all the positive responses obtained from the students as above, some of the negative responses were also recorded, such as a few of the students reported that sometimes they didn’t like to do meditation, or they felt bored. So, it can be concluded that with a few exceptions, most of the students observed improvements in themselves and enjoyed the meditative practices.

Comparable studies

Other qualitative studies on meditation, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
The varieties of contemplative experience: A mixed-methods study of meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhists Western Buddhist meditation practitioners and experts in Theravāda, Zen, and Tibetan... 2017 Qualitative study with mixed-methods
The Effects of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Nurse Stress and Burnout Nurses in a hospital system 2004 Implementation study with mixed methods
An exploratory mixed methods study of the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness -based cognitive therapy for patients with active depression and anxiety in primary care Primary care patients with recurrent depression or recurrent depression and anxiety 2006 Exploratory mixed methods study n = 13
A qualitative study of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy for depression Participants in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in a mental-health context 2001 Qualitative study n = 7
Effortless awareness: using real time neurofeedback to investigate correlates of posterior cingulate cortex activity in meditators' self-report Meditators 2013 Qualitative study using grounded theory methodology

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