Hope tends to be more helpful than mindfulness in assisting people in managing their stress and maintaining their professional engagement during extended periods of high stress at work.
The ability to focus attention on the present in a way that is open-minded, interesting, and nonjudgmental is known as mindfulness. The capacity to live completely in the present.
The study emphasizes how crucial it is to think forward rather than focusing on the present moment when things are difficult (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Work-related resilience, engagement, and well-being among music industry workers during the Covid-19 pandemic multi-wave-wave model of mindfulness and hope
). “A lot of people talk about the advantages of mindfulness, but there are two drawbacks when you’re experiencing stress,” says Tom Zagenczyk, a management professor at North Carolina State University’s Poole College of Management and co-author of the paper.
Effect of Hope and Mindfulness on Well-Being
First of all, being aware is difficult when you’re under stress. Secondly, you don’t necessarily want to focus too much on the experience you’re going through if it’s a hard time.
Because mindfulness is about accepting the present moment and hope is essentially forward-looking, Zagenczyk explains “We wanted to see how each of these two mindsets influenced people’s well-being and professional attitudes during difficult times. Unexpectedly, the COVID outbreak gave us a valuable opportunity to investigate this subject. Additionally, as the performing arts were particularly affected by the pandemic, we decided to concentrate on them.”
247 professional musicians were chosen for the study by the researchers from MusiCares, and they were asked to participate in two surveys, set one month apart. In September 2021, the first survey was conducted. Study participants were questioned about their views and experiences from March to August 2020, when the epidemic first started, in addition to providing general demographic data. They were also questioned between September 2020 and March 2021 to find out their level of hope and mindfulness.
Hope in Managing Work Stress
To gather information about study participants’ work engagement, work tensions, level of positivity, and degree of distress, a second survey was conducted on October 2 021. Next, the researchers employed statistical methods to find connections between hope, mindfulness, and results about their attitudes toward work.
Advertisement
“Our results fundamentally indicate that hope was linked to people’s happiness, while mindfulness was not,” says Kristin Scott, a Clemson University management professor and co-author of the study. Additionally, people who are positive and happy report feeling less anxious, more engaged at work, and less tense about their careers.
Living in the moment and practicing mindfulness can be very beneficial, according to Sharon Sheridan, co-author of the study and assistant professor of management at Clemson University. But it’s critical to keep a positive mindset, especially while under a lot of stress for a long period. People need to maintain a positive yet cautious mindset and hold to the idea that there is still hope.
Advertisement
Although the study concentrated on artists in extremely difficult situations, the researchers believe there is an issue that applies to other areas of the industry.
According to Emily Ferrise, a Clemson Ph.D. student, and research co-author, “it’s important to be hopeful and forward-looking whenever we have high levels of job stress.” Any organization can benefit from integrating hope and forward-thinking ideas into its corporate culture through organizational communications, job conditions, etc. High-stress periods occur in every industry, according to Zagenczyk. Additionally, every business needs to care about having employees happy and motivated by their jobs.
Reference:
- Work-related resilience, engagement, and well-being among music industry workers during the Covid-19 pandemic multi-wave-wave model of mindfulness and hope – (https:onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smi.3466)
Source-Medindia
