Mindfulness Activities and their Effects on Emotions

Kyle Ballinger

Saanvi Somani

8th Grade Science

Miss Cradock

March 10, 2017

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Abstract

The reason we decided to do this experiment has to do with our interest in mindfulness.

After a brief introduction to what it is and its benefits, we decided to do some more research on it

and make it our experiment. We saw quite a bit of research on mindfulness and how it was really

helpful to some people, and we wanted to see if that supported by this experiment as well. We

decided to approach this experiment by have participants who volunteered fill out a form for

sixteen days based on the frequency of their negative emotions (stress, anxiety, anger,

frustration, and sadness were the ones we had focused on). For the first testing period (8 days),

they did not use mindfulness but instead just tracked their emotions throughout that time. For the

second period, they used a mindfulness activity (meditative breathing was chosen by all) at least

once daily and as close to whenever those emotions were felt. The majority of the results of this

experiment did support the hypothesis (that mindfulness would reduce the negative emotions

felt), however some did not. This experiment also supports the idea that mindfulness activities

that bring awareness to a persons well-being and emotions do help reduce the effect of those

emotions on a person by reducing the amount of times they experience those emotions.

Question

Does doing mindfulness activities affect the frequency of negative emotions?

Background Research
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Mindfulness and meditation are both very old techniques to help mental health that are

now being brought back to light. Mindfulness includes meditation, yoga, coloring (the closest

thing that has been found to meditation), journaling, and mindful breathing, There are many

people that use these techniques as well as many people who truly believe that practicing

mindfulness works. Many people are starting to practice mindfulness, and teach the techniques to

both young and old. Some teachers also have started using mindfulness techniques in classes,

both to spread awareness and to help calm down their class.

Mindfulness has a long history, and just recently started to become popular. The

definition of mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are

and what were doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by whats going on around

us.Mindfulness is something people do every day, from the little things like taking a moment to

think and relax, to bigger things like yoga. Many say it originates in Buddhism, as many

practices of Buddhists are similar or involve aspects of mindfulness.

There is a lot of research that also shows the side effects of negative emotions, including

the emotions depression, frustration, anger, anxiety, and stress. In an article by Huffington Post,

there was evidence of how bad a episode of anger can be to the human body: Research also

shows that even one five-minute episode of anger is so stressful that it can impair your immune

system for up to 6 hours (Thaik). However, anger is not the only emotion that can cause serious

and uncomfortable reactions for many. Anxiety disorders, for example, are the most common

psychiatric illness in both adults and children, affecting an estimated 40 million adults in the

United States, regardless only about a third of those people are treated (Understand). Anxiety is

defined by constant worry that is really intense; it has the potential to cause a person to
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experience unpleasant physical reactions, such as a panic attack or vomiting (Understand).

Depression, in addition, can affect a persons daily life by ruining their mental health, by

affecting the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and functions (Understand). Also, stress has

been linked to many emotional and physical disorders including depression, anxiety, heart

attacks, stroke, hypertension, immune system disturbances that increase susceptibility to

infections, a host of viral linked disorders ranging from the common cold and herpes to AIDS

and certain cancers, as well as autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and multiple

sclerosis (Stress).

There is also new research being done on the topic of the Brain-Gut Connection, which

is the idea that the digestive system has another brain that is a little simpler in how it reacts to

things; the digestive system and big brain use neurons to communicate and because of this, the

body has both hormonal and physiological reaction- thats why a person feels butterflies in

their stomach (Komaroff). A connection has been found between the brain and the gut, and how

stress as well as other emotions, affect it. This connection is also affects the GI tract, which is

why bowel movements can be affected when a person is feeling stressed (Kamaroff).

All of this research, as well as things that people have noticed over the course of their

lives, show that negative emotions do truly affect a person and their body, but it has also shown

that mindfulness and being aware of ones emotional, mental, and physical health can help a

person deal with other aspects of health as well as just deal with life in general.

Variables

Independant: Doing mindfulness activities; what mindfulness activities are done

Dependant: The frequency of episodes of negative emotions

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Control: Types of mindfulness activities, age (30+), time spent on mindfulness each day, the

form/survey used to track

Hypothesis

Doing mindfulness activities will positively affect the frequency of negative emotions (meaning

that the frequency will go down) because mindfulness increases awareness of ones emotions

and will help a person react to them.

Materials

Participants

Forms to fill out

Supplies for mindfulness activities

Guided Meditations

Sheets for coloring

Procedures

1. Have participants not practice mindfulness for 8 days, and record negative emotions and

their frequency.

2. Repeat step 1 daily for 8 days

3. Have participants choose one or two forms of mindfulness activities. Have them then use

an activity at least once a day, and to try to use the activities (or activity) whenever they

feel negative emotions (or as close to that time)

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4. Have participants record negative emotions felt and their frequency. Repeat steps 3 and 4

daily for 8 days.

Data

Table 1: Frequency of Emotions Recorded During Testing

Emotions Total Frequency, All Total Frequency, All

Participants, No Mindfulness Participants,
(Testing Period 1 (8 days)) With Mindfulness (Testing
Period 2 (8 Days))

Stress 30 16

Frustration 28 7

Anger 6 1

Anxiety 1 6

Envy 6 0

Sadness 16 3

Annoyance 11 12

Concern 2 0

Exhaustion 16 15

Shame 6 13

Disappointment 0 2

Total of Emotions 122 75

per Week

Graph 1: Negative Emotions

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Analysis

Unfortunately, the experiment was not as controlled as possible due to the time restraint. Because

of this, the data was not exact. During the first testing period, with no mindfulness, the total

amount of negative emotions felt was greater than the second week. Most emotions were felt in

greater number when mindfulness was not used, for example, stress, frustration, anger, envy,

concern, and exhaustion. For those emotions, in the second testing period, there was a significant

decrease. For other emotions, such as anxiety, disappointment, shame, there was an increase,

however, in some it was not significant.

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Conclusion

The purpose of this experiment was to find whether or not mindfulness activities impacts

the frequency of negatives emotions. The hypothesis, that the mindfulness activities would

positively affect the frequency, was supported; however, it was not fully supported because some

emotions had an increase rather than a decrease. Despite this, the hypothesis was mostly

supported by the remainder of the emotions. Emotions such as stress, frustration and anger were

decreased during the second testing period, while others like shame and disappointment.

In this experiment, participants recorded their emotions for eight days, which was the

first testing period, without doing any mindfulness or changing their daily activities (other than

filling out the form). This was to be used as a control, to see how the emotions changed over

time. Then, for the second testing period, which was the same amount of days, the participants

did mindfulness activities; they tried to use the mindfulness activities they chose at least once a

day and as close to the time they felt those emotions as possible. Interestingly, all the participants

decided to use meditative breathing; some added on meditative writing as well.

The experiment results showed that the majority of the emotions decreased in the way

that the hypothesis predict. A greater total amount of all emotions between all participants was

recorded in the first testing period compared to the second testing period. The total went from

122 to 75. Furthermore, the majority of each individual emotion also decreased; the only ones

out of the eleven emotions recorded that did not decrease were anxiety, annoyance,

disappointment, and shame. The rest of them (stress, frustration, anger, envy, sadness, concern,

exhaustion) did decrease, although, exhaustion did not have a significant decrease.
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The end result of this experiment supported the idea that mindfulness does in fact reduce

the frequency of negative emotions. However, because of time restraint, the experiment was not

as controlled as it could have been. Two participants joined the experiment in the second week,

and the forms were a little difficult to understand -- some of the responses were not how the form

was set up, for example, on the question What negative emotions did you feel today? some of

the participants responded with yes rather than the emotions they did feel that day. Also, on the

question [What was the] frequency of these emotions[?] people responded with only a few

times and a couple times rather than an exact number. Also, the meditative breathing was not

controlled; most people used an app on their phone or on their Fitbit/Smartwatch. The majority

of these uncontrolled variables were because of the time restraint that was caused by a lack of

participants interested and the difficulty of finding them. From this experiment, more could be

found out on what types of mindful activities work best for people, and what is the best length of

time to complete the activities. It would also be beneficial to redo the experiment with more

people and more controlled variables.

Acknowledgments

Thank you for participating!

Erin Craddock
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Diana Hudgens

Mary Wood

Terra Poetzscher

Lauran Mitchell

Bernadette Brogan

Works Cited

Congleton, Christina, et al. Mindfulness Can Literally Change Your Brain. Harvard Business

Review, HBR, 8 Jan. 2015,

hbr.org/2015/01/mindfulness-can-literally-change-your-brain. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.

Foster, Dawn. Is Mindfulness Making Us Ill? The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 23

Jan. 2016, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill.

Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Heffernan, Virginia. The Muddied Meaning of 'Mindfulness'. The New York Times, The New

York Times, 14 Apr. 2015,

www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/magazine/the-muddied-meaning-of-mindfulness.html?_r

=. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Komaroff, Anthony L. The Gut-Brain Connection. Harvard Health, Harvard Health Letter,

www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-gut-brain-connection. Accessed 20

Mar. 2017.
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Thaik, Cynthia. Toxic Emotions Can Lead to Serious Health Problems. The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 4 Feb. 2014,

www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-cynthia-thaik/emotional-wellness_b_4612392.html.

Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.

Mind/Body Connection: How Your Emotions Affect Your Health. Familydoctor.org,

American Academy of Family Physicians, 21 Oct. 2016,

familydoctor.org/mindbody-connection-how-your-emotions-affect-your-health/

Mindfulness Definition. Greater Good, GreaterGood,

greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/mindfulness/definition. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.

Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity. Harvard Business Review, Harvard, 14 Aug. 2014,

hbr.org/2014/03/mindfulness-in-the-age-of-complexity. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Stress Effects. The American Institute of Stress, AIS, 4 Jan. 2017,

www.stress.org/stress-effects/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

Understand the Facts. Understanding The Facts, ADAA, 2016,

www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety. Accessed 19 Mar. 2017.

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