Mindfulness Practice versus Physical Exercise in Enhancing Vitality

Wei Yan, Zhongxin Jiang, Peng Zhang, Guanmin Liu () and Kaiping Peng ()
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Wei Yan: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Zhongxin Jiang: Applied Psychology Programme, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen 518712, China
Peng Zhang: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Guanmin Liu: Institute of Applied Psychology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China
Kaiping Peng: Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-13

Abstract: Vitality is important for subjective well-being and performance, which makes strategies for its enhancement an important research issue. While prior research showed that mindfulness practice and physical exercise are both effective at enhancing vitality, no study has compared their efficacy. This study aimed to address this issue. Seventy-one Chinese adults participated in the study and were randomized to one of the intervention groups, i.e., mindfulness practice or physical exercise. The mindfulness practice group completed guided mindfulness trainings, while the physical exercise group completed self-chosen aerobic trainings for seven days. The levels of vitality and its four factors at three time points (baseline, post-intervention, 7-day follow-up) were measured and compared. Compared with physical exercise, mindfulness practice showed stronger effects in enhancing vitality and maintaining the improvements. The findings suggest that guided mindfulness practice is more effective than self-chosen aerobic physical exercise at enhancing vitality and maintaining its improvements.

Keywords: vitality; mindfulness; physical exercise; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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