Benefits of Being Present - Essay Example

The article, ‘The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being’ by Brown and Ryan would hugely help me in my research proposal. My research focuses on the mindful based stress reduction techniques that impact anxiety in victims of bullying. Bullying is broadly defined as offensive behavior through spiteful, cruel, or humiliating attempts to demoralize an individual or group of people (ILO, 1998). It adversely impacts the self-esteem of the victim and often results in serious socio-psychological problems like anxiety, depression, anger, violence, suicide etc.

(Nansel, 2001). The research therefore, examines the relationship between mindfulness and well-being and investigates its effect on the anxiety levels of bullying victims. Brown and Ryan have established positive correlation between mindfulness and overall well-being of individuals and discuss how it can be used for reducing anxiety levels in individuals. The scholars propose that mindfulness is a state of consciousness that helps in redirecting thoughts and behavior into premeditated and endorsed behavior.

Hence, it can directly contribute to well-being and happiness of individuals. This is a very pertinent finding that can be used to reduce anxiety levels of bullying victims. The researchers have investigated mindfulness as an attribute that varies between individuals and studied its effect on the level of their well-being and happiness. MAAS or Mindful Attention Awareness Scale has been used as an instrument to assess the present level of well-being. Moreover, the efficacy of MAAS was also tested for predicting stress amongst the participants.

It was found that more mindfulness resulted in higher well-being and reduced anxiety which corroborates my research hypothesis.(words: 263)ReferenceBrown, Kirk Warren., & Ryan, Richard M. (2003). The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (4), 822-848.International Labor Organization. (1998). Violence on the job: a global problem. Retrieved from http://www.ilo.org/public/english/bureau/inf/pr/1998/30.htmNansel, T. R., et al. (2001). Bullying behaviors among US youth prevalence and association with psychosocial adjustment.

Journal of the American Medical Association, 285 (16), 2094-2100