Implementing Mindfulness on Campuses: Innovation, Imitation, or Creating Greater Mental Health Harm?

This article showcases a few campuses' intentional investments in their students' inner well-being and what they are discovering because of their efforts. In the fall of 2016, researchers disseminated a survey exploring the implementation of mindfulness practices on campus. The survey was designed around what businesses had been doing, and left room for institutions to explain other manners in which they were implementing mindfulness practices. As a follow-up, in the spring of 2018, one of the authors interviewed 22 leaders from 18 campuses (including 10 campus visit sites) identified by mindfulness colleagues in higher education, as well as survey participants, who showed evidence of having implemented mindfulness activities for students on their campuses. Beyond yoga, mindfulness, and meditation classes, the integration of contemplative practices into classroom and campus activities has become more visible. The need for campuses to consider continual emerging neuroscience findings and the increased focus on mental well-being has led to more recent interest in mindfulness practices. When the authors examine how Corporate America has implemented their mindfulness-based programs, the authors notice that Corporate America too have an infrastructure of support for their mindfulness-based programs, have properly trained their practitioners who administer these practices, and they evaluated their efficacy.