The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Meditation as an Intervention for Well-Being in the New Normal of COVID-19: A Review

The COVID pandemic has generated unprecedented discomfort and uncertainty among people all over the world (WHO, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020). It has affected work, family, and social life, devasted the physical and psychological well-being to an alarming degree. In this situation, our potent weapon is undoubtedly our mental capacity and strength. Strengthening the mind will endow us with the ability and conviction to deal with the current situation (Wu et al., CMAJ 192:E459–E460, 2020). At present, there are various techniques and tools available for this purpose like pranayama, physical exercise, music and, yoga and meditation (Torre et al., Journal of Clinical Medicine 9:1–13, 2020) depending upon one’s individual preferences. Today, meditation is considered as a useful tool to quieten the chattering mind, which is preferred by many individuals (Nalawade and Pradhan, 2016), and therefore, it is gathering momentum as a useful intervention in health care. Of the different types of meditation practices in use today, mindfulness meditation practice has originated from the Buddhist tradition and has been taught by the Buddha 2500 years ago to make the mind calm, focused, and strong. Being mindful means, being fully present in the present moment. Research has shown that being mindful reduces the tendency to be reactive and to become more equanimous and enables one to come out of suffering. Especially in the healthcare domain mindfulness interventions have proven to be effective in enhancing psychological and physical health. This literature review is focused on benefits of mindfulness practice as an intervention, which is cost-effective and non-intrusive in nature. For this purpose, a systematic review was conducted to understand and highlight advantages and applications of mindfulness. The literature review has reiterated the ability of mindfulness practice to help one handle trying situations with equanimity by modulating one’s behavior effectively (Antonova et al., 2020). This study highlights a few clinical case studies and discusses the scope for future studies and limitations faced by researchers in this area. Also, some of the cases where it has been implemented effectively in COVID-19 situations are enumerated with the hope that it will highlight the usefulness of this intervention in the trying and stressful situation at present as well as in future. The limitation of this study is the lack of the availability of long-term research data at present describing the benefits of mindfulness practice in the current pandemic situation.