The Psychological Effect of the Grateful Meditation Program Following the Anxiety and Stress Caused by COVID-19

Abstract

Purpose: In order to address the problem of human alienation due to anxiety, stress, and economic polarization in our society, meditation programs have emerged as an important means in the fields of psychology and psychiatry, and hence, this study was conducted to verify the effect of grateful meditation program on the psycho-logical variables. Method: This study is a literary analysis study, and by examining 8 papers on grateful meditation programs conducted in Korea, the contents of gratitude and meditation methods used for these studies were analyzed, and the effects of these programs on the dependent variables. Results: First, as for the contents of gratitude used for these programs, the greatest number of gratitude was for one’s own body (8th paper), one s own existence (7), family (6), neighbors (5), nature (5), friends (4), and ob-jects (2) were analyzed as the most, respectively Second, as for the meditation method adopted for the grateful meditation program, it was analyzed that breathing meditation was used for the preparation phase, visualization meditation or mantra meditation was primarily used for the development phase, and motion meditation was partially used for the finishing phase. Third, the grateful meditation program was analyzed to be effective across all dependent variables (satisfaction of life, positive and negative emotions, self-esteem, anger, disposition of grati-tude, and interpersonal relationships) set for 8 studies. Conclusion: First, the future grateful meditation program ought to change the contents of the gratitude according to age. Second, the method of meditation ought to also change according to age. Third, the contents of gratitude or the method of meditation ought to be changed according to the dependent variable to be improved through the grateful meditation program. Fourth, if the ‘time of consideration for myself’ is preceded by the grateful meditation preparatory program for palpating my cognition, emotions, and actions, it would be possible to proceed more effectively and in depth during the development phase, grateful meditation. Hence, the grateful meditation program is a powerful program in promoting the cognitive, emotional, and the behavioral changes for the participants, and hence, it ought to be more systematic and widely used moving forward.