Attending to selfAttending to self in this paper focuses on self-care activities. For the purposes of this analysis Pincus's (2006)) definition of self-care, as what one does to improve a sense of subjective well-being to enable positive outcomes, has been adopted. The benefits of attending to self more effectively were linked by students to their ability to study more efficiently. Within this theme, a number of sub-themes were identified as follows:
oSelf-awarenessSelf-awareness is integral to the student recognising their heightened level of stress and enabling effective utilisation of the stress management and mindfulness practices that had been taught.It helps you recognise when you get to that level of stress that you need to calm down and take your time and…If you stress you are not going to get anything done, you are not going to remember anything. You are better off doing an hour's calm study rather than just rushing it and…It's just recognising it.The mindfulness practice of ‘observation of thoughts’ likewise enabled increased self-awareness.…the bit that I have probably enjoyed the most is the non-judgement of thoughts and I do not think I am a particularly judgemental person, but you realise how much judgement you put on thoughts and how much value you put on that being a good thought or a bad thought, or a good situation or a bad situation.For one student, mindfulness practice focusing on awareness and acknowledgement of negative thoughts was beneficial.I really appreciated it when we did the negative thoughts and acknowledging those. Not that I'm a negative person or anything but I feel like negativity has overwhelmed me in the last few weeks so then when I acknowledge that and I go: Oh no, stop…try and be positive. I think that's helped me more than anything.