Breath Awareness: Creative Media Design Process Leads to Resilience Mind Based on Buddhist Psychology

Abstract

This research aims to 1) investigate the suitability of using creative media to promote learning to attain inner peace, 2) produce media based on Buddhist psychological principles in order to increase breath awareness and mental resilience, and 3) investigate the production process of creative media to promote breath awareness and mental strength. The four elements were used as media design principles to connect humanity and reflect the nature of the world. The Five Spiritual Faculties were also used to create a resilient mind for the design process. They were combined with psychological theories involving cognitive and behavioural therapy through thinking, practising, and feeling to create a learning experience that brings about mental change.

The research methodologies were divided into three phases. The first phase was to explore media design through a literature review. In addition, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire to undergraduate students of Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) to complete. In the second phase, different media formats were created. Then, a breath awareness process was developed using in-depth interviews and a Resilience Quotient (RQ) assessment adopted from the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand (2023). In the third phase, the developed media were tested with the target group of thirty RMUTL students from RMUTL. Each of them participated in the activities for about one hour. A resilience quotient assessment form was used before and after participation in the activity. The participants’ opinions on the three rooms of thinking, practicing, and feeling were collected with a questionnaire. Paired-sample t-test, mean, and standard deviation were used for statistical analysis of the data.

The research results revealed that the overall opinion of the participants regarding the design of the breath awareness process of the three rooms, was at a high level of 4.01, with a standard deviation of 0.705. In addition, breath awareness increased the mental strength of the students with an average score of 3.13 points. Twenty-three students, or 79.97 percent, showed an increase in mental strength. Six students scored less on the assessment, representing 20 percent. One student’s score remained stable at 3.33 percent.

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