LOVING KINDNESS MEDITATION AND ITS IMPACT ON FORGIVENESS AND SUBJECTIVE WELLBEING OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Introduction: Loving Kindness meditation is an age-old practise which has a lot of potential benefits for the practitioners. The present study was conducted to assess the impact of 30-days practice of Loving Kindness Meditation in improving forgiveness and subjective well-being of the college students in Kerala.

Method: The study constituted an initial purposive sample of 300 college students, who were administered with Rye’s Forgiveness Scale and Subjective Well-being scale and 71 students (Men= 35, Women =36), who scored low on both the scales were randomly allotted to either an experimental group (Loving Kindness Meditation group) or a control group. The students in experimental group were given the treatment for 30 days while the control group did not receive any. The post-test measures were taken.

Statistical Analysis Used: The hypotheses were tested using paired sample t-test

Results: There was a significant difference in forgiveness and subjective well-being among the students in experimental group, while such a change was not found in the control group, when the pre-test and post-test scores were compared.

Conclusion: Loving Kindness Meditation was helpful in improving forgiveness and subjective well-being of college students.

Keywords: Loving Kindness Meditation, Forgiveness, Subjective well-being, College Student