Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation

Nature-Based Mindfulness: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Support for Self-Regulation

Abstract: Self-regulation is pivotal for human well-being and mental health. In this qualitative study, we followed a randomized controlled trial and explored how a five-day residential mindfulness program in a restorative natural setting supported self-regulation among university students experiencing moderate to severe stress. Six participants were interviewed post intervention and at three months' follow-up on how they experienced the retreat. Through interpretative phenomenological analysis, four interrelated themes emerged: "supportive conditions", "attitudes of mindfulness", "connection" and "physical and psychological balance." These themes reflected the outcomes of the retreat that participants valued in stressful situations. A progression occurred during the retreat through the themes, with emphasis developing from the supportive conditions of the setting, to cultivating mindful attitudes, over connection to both self, others and nature, to changes and effects on the physical, psychological and even spiritual level. In addition, participants emphasized experiences of positive emotions, energy, calmness, meta-awareness and the feeling of being part of the web of life. In conclusion, participants' experiences with a five-day nature-based mindfulness intervention revealed a range of qualities of both physical, psychological, social and spiritual nature that are supportive for self-regulation.

One. Introduction

Staying in nature may be associated with mental health qualities, such as reduction in symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety and promotion of attention, emotion regulation and positive emotions. For healthcare to benefit from these qualities, a variety of nature-based interventions were developed, including green care and ecotherapy. Over the last decade, a growing interest emerged for incorporating mindfulness into nature-based interventions, since mindfulness also promotes awareness and attention, self- and emotion-regulation, and reduces symptoms of depression and perceived stress. Examples include forest bathing, wilderness therapy and interventions with nature and mindfulness for students and healthy workplaces. However, this field is still in its infancy.

Mindfulness was defined as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally". It is an innate capacity that can be trained, e.g., through the mindfulness-based stress reduction program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn. The health-promoting effects of mindfulness-based interventions were extensively documented in recent decades and include reduction in symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. Attention and self-compassion were shown as key mechanisms from studies on mindfulness-based interventions and they allowed and supported self-regulation and mental health. Most studies of meditation were based on programs with weekly sessions, but retreats also showed positive effects on, e.g., symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and on quality of life.

In recent years, interest developed to include mindfulness in nature-based interventions and vice versa to improve efficacy. A recent meta-analysis comparing mindfulness-based interventions indoors versus in nature revealed that nature-based mindfulness was moderately superior to mindfulness conducted in non-natural settings. Furthermore, nature-based mindfulness interventions revealed a medium size effect when combining psychological, physiological and interpersonal outcome variables. One of the included studies that examined manual-based mindfulness training in nature showed positive effects on awareness of a six-week mindfulness class in a natural setting. Furthermore, qualitative studies found that meditation supports the experience of connection to nature, and that attitudes of mindfulness promotes awareness of the natural environment. More studies found that combining mindfulness training with nature-based activities integrates the qualities of being mindful with connecting to nature, and improves measures of mental health. Among the few mixed-methods studies in the field of nature-based mindfulness interventions, one study on mindful walks in nature showed positive changes in mindfulness and affect. Mindfulness training and experiencing nature was documented to affect self-compassion and awareness, which both support self-regulation. The added effect of training mindfulness in natural settings may stem from participants more easily connecting with sensory impressions improving their experience of connectedness to nature and allowing them to benefit more from the restorative processes offered by the natural environments. Additionally, the enhanced awareness of seeking restorative environments may explain positive results in follow-up studies.

Self-regulation is pivotal for well-being and mental health and the question how nature-based mindfulness supports self-regulation is the focus of this qualitative study. Self-regulation is referred to as the psychological process that unfolds with a purpose of regulating emotions, thoughts and actions in a desired and intended way. Self-regulation also is referred to as a quality or part of attention and awareness, prone to depletion just like attention and awareness per se. Both meditation and staying in nature were shown to be sources of strengthening an individual's potential for self-regulation and executive functioning through enhanced attention, with meditation supporting attentional, emotional and behavioral self-regulation.

The five-day nature-based mindfulness intervention retreat presented in this article also was evaluated by quantitative methods. The findings of that evaluation were improved self-compassion, attention, awareness, and a buffering of increasing stress levels during the semester, for both an indoor and an outdoor mindfulness retreat setting. To gain wider knowledge on how this nature-based mindfulness intervention was experienced, and to triangulate the quantitative findings, interviews with participants were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Interpretative phenomenological analysis is a method inspired by phenomenology, hermeneutics and ideography, and the method was shown to be well suited to produce rich data on participants' personal lived experiences.

The aim of the present study, thus, is to qualitatively investigate whether and how the nature-based mindfulness intervention retreat affected the participants' experience of support for self-regulation, with specific emphasis on the following:

How did participants in a manual-based five-day residential mindfulness retreat experience mindfulness training, nature and the group as supporting self-regulation, and what sense did they make of this?