Using Mindfulness as a Tool To Assist Online Learning

The Value of Zoom

If you’re anything like us at Minded, over the last 18 months, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll have spent a lot of time online, for work, study and/or play. It would not be surprising to you that we have seen rise to a dramatic increase in videoconferencing usage, and their value has been continually highlighted during the shift to online learning, remote working, and online social communication.

We personally found, that videoconferencing platforms, such as zoom, are a valuable tool of communication. These platforms accommodate for distance and travel, as well as creating the flexibility to both work and study from home [4].  Through using zoom, we have had people join us from all over the globe, which has really warmed our hearts, giving us a true sense of the growing international yoga therapy community.

At Minded, we have found innovative ways to work, teach & study, whilst being able to reach a worldwide community that would have previously been limited: such as expanding our yoga therapy observations to the wider community, outside of our student intake; offering free breathing practices in morning; and being able to bring in world-leaders in the field from all over the world, without using air miles and increasing our carbon footprint.  It’s been a true revelation to experience this evolution in human communication during one of the most trying periods in the last century.

‘Zoom Fatigue’

Like everything in life, there are pluses and minuses: it is rare that we have the non-dual, except when speaking about Yogic Philosophy.  So, web-conferencing has also had its drawbacks. You may have noticed feeling high levels of fatigue after working or studying over videoconferencing tools, and this increase in associated complaints of fatigue has been well-documented. This has been coined the popular phrase ‘zoom fatigue’, even though we know zoom isn’t the only game in town

Communication online is novel in terms of evolution, and biologically, our bodies, brains, and mind are not adapted to communicate in this way

In-person human communication patterns (including non-verbal communication) have allowed for both survival and the ability to thrive: they promote bonding and safety, warning in danger, and a sense of overall understanding of the needs of the individual and society. Nuanced and highly developed communication distinguishes us from all species, allowing us to engage in unimaginable feats for other animals. By changing the playing field and moving to devices, much of these tonal messages and gestures are interpreted differently and influence our perception of connection.

Some zoom features promote delays in social feedback [6], such as the mute feature, which is commonly used to avoid extraneous noise whilst another speaker is talking. This short delay in ‘unmuting’ oneself before speaking, is unique to the world of online communication, which would not be a feature of natural human communication and may influence how we would organically express ourselves. On the other hand, within individuals with PTSD, this feature may benefit their ability to listen & concentrate, as these individuals may have difficulties in understanding human voice, due to hypersensitivity to background noises [10].

Although evolutionarily, we were not designed for online forms of communication, we can apply evolutionary tools to the online communication environment. Dr Stephen Porges, the father of Polyvagal Theory, is a pioneer in the world of Social Engagement. Porges expresses how different physiological states influence social interaction, and reciprocally, how social interaction shapes our physiological states. For example, he describes how different tones may induce parasympathetic or sympathetic states.  As online communication can affect the way we hear other voices, while also reducing usual cues, we need to be highly melodious in how we speak in order to convey connection, and to support parasympathetic activation for the other person.

This is an interesting point, as this allows us to almost self-reflect on how we convey our voice and language to the other person, actively observing the difference in communicating with an actual other person, compared to sending a text or an email for example.

“If you start feeling comfortable with me and my voice has positive prosodic features; my gestures are inviting; I’m not yelling at you; I’m not talking in a deep tone of voice; I’m not lecturing you or forcing you to accept information. If I follow these sequences, you’re going to start listening better and you’re going to calm down.”

– Dr Stephen Porges

In addition to influencing our sense of each other, web-conferencing has another impact: for the first time in human history we learn, teach, work, socialize, and entertain in front of the same screen [6]. We are becoming monolithic in a formerly rich landscape of experience and interaction. This may fatigue us and promote boredom.

Solis (2019) found that, while looking at their screens, viewers were often distracted by events in their environment, smartphone notifications (including social media), and email. This promoted multitasking: multitasking is functionally equivalent to distraction [11]. And there’s a whole host of research showing that it is better to focus well on one task than little on multiple tasks at once (in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras concentration is paramount and building it is essential for mental joy & cultivation)

Cognitive psychology tells us that we can only process a small amount of the information available in our environment, as we have a fixed amount of energy available within our brain, and this kind of neuronal activity involved in information processing demands high energy [12]. “Attention has evolved out of a necessity to focus this limited information-processing capacity on the most vital environmental information: once a target has been selected, attention modulates how well the information is processed, how fast and accurate a response is executed, and whether an event will be remembered later” [13].

The problem here is that in our modern-day lives, we are subject to so much information (such in the case of ‘information overload’), that it is difficult for our brains to determine which piece of information in the environment is the most important, and therefore it is difficult to keep focus on one thing as other notifications in our environment pop up (e.g., email and social media notifications in the corner of your screen).

Further to this, Solis found that the digital distractions caused people to respond to twice as many devices with half as much attention. This process is called semitasking: meaning getting twice as much done half as well [6].

In contrast, online learning does well in combatting distraction from non-verbal cues, such as whole-body movements of (face, head, arms, and hands), which sometimes distracts the speaker or listener [3].

It is also useful to note here, that those of us able to focus well on one task (the many of us here who are well versed in mindfulness & meditative techniques), who are less susceptible to outside distraction, will likely be unaffected by this.

We were interested to find out whether those well-established in mindfulness techniques would be less susceptible to this ‘zoom fatigue’ in online learning, than the general population. This would be an interesting application for continuing to learn via online platforms such as ‘zoom’ in the years to come.

Mindfulness & Online Learning

Those well-practiced in mindfulness have been shown to promote higher productivity and creativity in online learning [7]. This may be due to the noted improvement attention toward work and learning tasks when working or studying online, when practiced in mindfulness. Which, therefore, improves performance [5].

Knox (2021) found a person with greater mindfulness skills reported less stress, less burnout, less multitasking, and greater social presence. These mental faculties would all set us up for extracting the best of video conferencing, so not to be as affected by its drawbacks. Unsurprisingly therefore, the study predicted reduced Zoom fatigue with the practice of mindfulness.

As greater trait mindfulness scores often reflect the frequency of practice, Knox (2021) suggested that individuals who practice mindfulness more often and for longer may experience less Zoom Fatigue.

Insights

We already know much of the value mindfulness has in the context of mental health, and its practical applications.

We are in a world that is operating with new rules, requiring new cognitive abilities to manage changes in a way that promotes, rather than detracts, from well-being. By applying mindfulness practice, we can derive many of the benefits of web-conferencing in this new era, while jointly taking advantage of the positive.

At Minded we are thrilled to continue connecting with students all over the world via zoom and look forward to meeting in-person also, where we can take in the essence of each other in the old-fashioned way!

For mindfulness to be applied in the context of creating an online learning space through video conferencing, along with the marked benefits of creating a diverse & accessible learning space, we can look at the future with hope that learning online will continue to create a vibrant, creative environment whereby individuals can be equipped with the tools to keep themselves fully emersed in content and less influenced by external distractions.

References

1. Brown, K.W., & Ryan, R.M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822–848.
2. Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 144–156.
3. Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible action as utterance. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
4. Knox, L. (2021). Zoom Mindfully: An Investigation of the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Videoconferencing Fatigue. A thesis paper. California State University, Northridge.
5. Mariana Toniolo-Barrios, Pitt, L. (2021). Mindfulness and the challenges of working from home in times of crisis. Business Horizons, 64 (2), 189-197, ISSN 0007-6813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.09.004.
6. Peper, E., Wilson, V., Martin, M., Rosegard, E., and Harvey, R. (2021). Avoid Zoom Fatigue, Be Present and Learn. NeuroRegulation, 8(1), 47-56. https://doi.org/10.15540/nr.8.1.47
7. Shirish, A., Chandra, S., Srivastava, S. (2021). Switching to online learning during COVID-19: Theorizing the role of IT mindfulness and techno eustress for facilitating productivity and creativity in student learning. International Journal of Information Management, 61, 102394. ISSN 0268-4012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102394.
8. Solis, B. (2019). How managers can help workers tackle digital distractions. MIT Sloan Management Review, 60(4), 1–3. Retrieved from https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how- managers-can-help-workers-tackle-digital- distractions/?gclid=CjwKCAiA25v_BRBNEiwAZb4- ZRuImr0A9EtQgRLl9FXmmALLPdMAjaFDDVAJSpwo7ta8vE PLW147XRoCmO8QAvD_BwE
9. Stephen Porges (2021). Healthflix Lecture: HARNESSING A NEUROCEPTION OF SAFETY IN A FEARFUL WORLD https://www.healthflix.online/lesson/harnessing-a-neuroception-of-safety-in-a-fearful-world/
10. Stephen W. Porges (2017). The Pocket Guide to The Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London.
11. Aagaard, J. (2019). Multitasking as distraction: A conceptual analysis of media multitasking research. Theory & Psychology, 29(1), 87-99.
12. Carrasco, M. (2011). Visual attention: The past 25 years. Vision Research, 51(13), 1484–1525.
13. Chun, M., Golomb, J., & Turk-Browne, N. (2011). A taxonomy of external and internal attention. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 73–101.