Anapana Meditation’s Response-Buffering Role Among Office Workers: A Convergent Mixed-Methods Studies on Mindfulness and Wellbeing

This research examines Anapanasati or Breath Awareness as a response buffer to unhealthy mental, emotional, physiological, and behavioral triggers. This convergent mixed-methods study utilized Charmaz’s (2004) Constructivist-Grounded Theory (CGT), together with Baer’s (2003) Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Scale (KIMS) and Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1994) Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-42). The inductive process of CGT revealed mindfulness transformation and wellbeing transformation as two major themes, with the emergence of breath awareness as a response buffer among the five office workers. The findings of this single-group experiment are supported by the rich narratives of the participants, and the simultaneous increase in KIMS and decrease in DASS-42 in their raw scores participants. While the sign-test did not yield significant results in Depression (DEP) and Anxiety (ANX) scales, the overall sign-test for KIMS and DASS-42 yielded significant results, along with the subscales of Describe (DES), Act with Awareness (AWA), and Accept without Judgment (AWJ) for KIMS, and Anxiety (ANX) subscale for DASS-42. Thus, this study positions Breath-Awareness Response (BAR) theory as a potential framework to augment mental health wellbeing not just in the workplace, but also in diverse populations, as viewed from the lens of stimulus-response theories, and supporting neurobiological and psychophysiological frameworks. This study uses Anapanasati, breath-awareness, and meditation interchangeably.