1. Stress Reduction: Mindful Mandalas
Eleke Bonsi, Carolyn Gillespie, Krystal Klag, Olivia Parrott, Jenn Smith
Faculty Mentor: Dr. DeAnna VanKuren
Good Afternoon, we are so glad we could be with you today to talk about stress reduction through mindful mandalas. We want to get started by showing you this short clip
INTRODUCE YOURSELF

3. GOAL: To introduce cost-effective, stress relief and coping skills for the helping profession, specifically in law enforcement
OBJECTIVES:
Educate law enforcement officers about what mindfulness is
Educate law enforcement officers about the effects of prolonged stress
Educate law enforcement officers about the research behind coloring mandalas and how it can reduce stress
Law enforcement officers will get hands on experience by coloring mandalas for the recommended minutes while incorporating other self-care activities

4. What is Mindfulness?
In essence, it is purposefully paying attention in the present moment, non-judgmentally.
To practice mindfulness, one needs to willfully keep awareness focused on whatever is present, without fixating on any particular part of that experience, or engaging in any secondary processing.
Awareness
Non-judgment
Present moment

5. Current Mindfulness Activities
What do you guys currently do to relieve stress?
Pre-presentation coping skill
New mindfulness activity to try
Right now I am gonna have you guys turn over the mandala over and write down one of the coping skills you use right now. And at the end of the presentation, we will have you write down a new coping skill you would like to try.

6. What Activities Encompass Mindfulness?
Brochure: Mindfulness through the Senses
There are many different ways to practice mindfulness that may appeal to you rather than coloring:
Meditation
Coloring
Listening to instrumental music*
Mindful movement
*Spotify playlist

7. What does Mindfulness do?
Research shows that practicing mindfulness can provide numerous psychological benefits, including:
Reduces stress
Decreases negative affect (e.g. depression, anxiety)
Allows for more effective emotion regulation
Increases focus
Mindfulness: the mind body concept
Focus: Mind over Body

8. Mindfulness and Police Officers
Police officers experience an enormous amount of stress due to their job.
Unmanaged stress in police officers can result in:
Adverse work outcomes
Disruption of family relationships
Burnout
Mental health problems
Research has found that practicing mindfulness can reduce these negative outcomes related to stress in police officers.
Adverse outcomes - such as serious errors, uncontrolled anger, excessive use of force, and absenteeism
Mental Health: depression, anxiety, PTSD
Burnout - feeling ineffective and exhaustive
Family disruption
Burnout - nursing language compassion fatigue

9. What is a Mandala Circular geometric pattern
Balancing visual elements, symbolizing unity and harmony
A mandala is more than coloring
Provides physical and mental rest

10. Mindfulness using Mandalas
Research has shown that coloring mandalas can:
Alleviate stress and anxiety
Improve mood
Cause physiological changes, such as decreasing heart rate.
Coloring can be used as mindful movement. While coloring, one must focus on the present moment, nonjudgmentally. You must color for about 15 minutes to reap the benefits of mindfulness.
While your mind mindfully moves along to the music you hear, i encourage you to mindfully move your pencil to the coloring page

11. Organizational Support
Organization’s concern led to introduction of cost-effective information and tools.
Cost effective research based tool
Supplies: Giant mandalas encourage teamwork; personal mandalas; informational brochure; colored pencils/sharpeners.

12. Response and Updates
Police Officers provided information about personal stress and anxiety reduction methods
At the end of the presentation Police officers listed new methods they would be willing to implement
Current use of materials at the station
If coloring doesn’t appeal to you we would like you to use this time to turn this paper over and journal. The prompt we have chosen is the word Stress. Go ahead and write whatever comes to your mind when you think of the word stress and whatever that means to you. And also at this time, go ahead and write down a new mindfulness activity that you would like to try!

13. References
Mantzios, M. & Giannou, K. (2018). When did coloring books become mindful? Exploring the effectiveness of a novel method of mindfulness-guided instructions for coloring books to increase mindfulness and decrease anxiety. Front. Psychol. 9(56). doi: /fpsyg
Trombka, M., Demarzo, M., Bacas, D. C., Antonio, S. B., Cicuto, K., Salvo, V., Claudino, F. C., Ribeiro, L, Christopher, M., Garcia-Campayo, J., & Rocha, N. S. (2018). Study protocol of a multicenter randomized controlled trial of mindfulness training to reduce burnout and promote quality of life in police officers: the POLICE study. BMC Psychiatry, 18(1).
Yeoman, B. (2017, June 14). Mindful policing: The future of force. Retrieved from