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Mindfulness

Meditation has become increasingly popular at Chinese universities.

Tsinghua University assistant professor of psychology Li Songwei recommends a program called “mindfulness-based stress reduction”.

MBSRwascreatedbyUniversityof Massachusetts Medical School professor of medicine Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979 and is backed by clinical research. It has been introduced in several Chinese colleges, including Tsinghua.

The method has been found to change brain functions in specific ways over just a fewweeks, enabling the body to better respond to stress, insomnia and chronic pain.

“MBSR requires practitioners to focus on the current moment,” says Li.

“The program allows the subjects to honestly observe their current anxieties — where they’re coming from and how to dispel them. It offers many techniques to help people deal with their situations.”

Anxiety has benefits

Li, who also works as a psychologist at the university’s counseling center, identifies stress as an instinctive behavior that reacts to such external factors as threats or danger.

Constant stress not only makes people feel miserable but also causes such problems as sleep and eating disorders.

“There’s a limit to how much stress a person can take,” says Li.

“When it becomes unbearable, the person needs to consider saying no to certain things and learn to lower expectations.”

Li warns that many widespread means of stress release are harmful.

“Certain common strategies, such as smoking, drinking and drugs, are extremely addictive,” says Li.

“Activities like shopping, gaming and eating junk food provide instant gratification” but may have long-term consequences, says Li. But stress has its upside. People can tweak their mindsets to transform anxiety into energy that helps them perform under pressure.

“Stress forces people to live in the moment,” says Li.

“I have friends who take advantage of the feeling of working under stress, which allows them to complete projects in the shortest possible time. So they don’t have to spend too long feeling worried.”