A brief mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) intervention: Investigating the effects with recreational runners

MINDFULNESS HAS GROWN in popularity and evidence shows that mindfulness-based interventions have beneficial effects on decreasing anxiety symptoms (Hoge et al., 2013), reducing depression and stress (Khoury et al., 2013), and promoting awareness. To this end, offering an approach that helps people to realise that their habitual mental responses are based on unhelpful habits of the mind (Crane et al., 2017). Mindful meditation techniques help individuals to focus on the present experience ‘without being judgmental, meaning that feelings, emotions, or unwanted thoughts are accepted in a non-judgmental way rather than avoided’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p.4). In sport, mindful based programs have been shown to reduce the risk of injury (e.g., Ivarsson et al., 2015), enhance sport performance (e.g., Bernier et al., 2009), and promote positive functioning in highly demanding situations (Röthlin et al., 2016). Not limited to sport, the use of mindfulness has emerged in exercise settings. A cross-sectional study reported that mindfulness is related to sustained physical activity (PA) because being mindful helped participants to become more aware of the positive aspects of PA, and this satisfaction led to sustained physical activity (Tsafou et al., 2016).