Effect of Mindfulness and Mindful Art on Beginners and Experienced Meditators
arXiv Preprint Archive August 24, 2023 Koonlin Eunice Chan, Joy Bose
A pilot study compared a beginner meditation group (21 participants) with an experienced group (9 participants, >1 year of practice) that also engaged in mindful art. Over 21 days, with twice-weekly 90-minute remote sessions and daily home practice, blood pressure, pulse, breathing rate, and subjective relaxation were measured. The experienced group showed larger average within-session improvements in breath rate and relaxation. The beginner group showed greater improvement over the whole study period, though their average scores remained lower than the experienced group. The findings suggest mindful art may enhance meditation benefits for experienced practitioners, while beginners gain more from standard meditation alone.