Heartfulness Meditation reduces vengeful attitude in Youth through increase in positive motivation and minimizing negative motivations that lead to revenge – says study

Hyderabad, 27^th August 2021: Heartfulness Meditation’s HELP program has a positive impact on students’ motivation as per a study published in International Journal of Current Research. It concluded that Positive motivation (Benevolence) leads to rewards and negative motivation (Revenge & Avoidance) towards pain. Students must develop Positive Motivation to cultivate a healthy society. HELP Program significantly decreases Negative Motivations (Revenge and Avoidance) and shows a greater improvement on Positive Motivation (Benevolence) amongst students that can eventually raise a healthy & a positive generation.

Revenge is a very powerful emotion, and its effect is but counterproductive to the wellbeing of the individual as well as the society. Revenge is one of the main reasons for Cyber bullying especially against women, that causes anxiety, major depression and may even push victims to commit suicide.

Revenge attitude not only harms the other person, but the one who holds it. For those who harboured the feelings of revenge are often subjected to adverse psychological issues such as depression and reduced life satisfaction. School students often commit serious crimes such as school shootings, genocide, civil war atrocities, homicide-suicide, rape and harassment etc., which are in turn motivated by revenge. 

Statistics from Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) have figured out that among revenge victims, 93% reported significant emotional distress, while 82% reported suffering significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Over half (51%) of victims indicated that they had even considered committing suicide. With regard to their occupation, 55% of respondents feared that their professional reputation would be tarnished, while 39% said that the crime actually affected their professional life. Moreover about 300 acid attacks are reported in India each year. A latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that the IT hub reported 106 revenge murders last year.

The Study

In an article published in the International Journal of Current Research, authors Dr Raja Amarnath, Dr Jaya Prashanthi, Aiswarya Ravichandran, Gyaneshwar Dayal Sarin, Dr Asuwathy Sivasubramaniam, Poornima Chinnadurai and Anjali Bapat from Apollo Hospital, Sree Balaji Medical College, Madha Medical College & Research Institute and CIPACA Institute of Research in Chennai have drawn a comparison between meditation and positive motivation among students from a study they conducted.

The study was conducted by CIPACA Institute of Research decided to assess the effect of HELP program amongst Junior College Students in Andhra Pradesh. Out of 4,038 students who participated in the study, 3084 students were taken into statistical analysis. Among them, 48.4% were females and 51.6% were males. Most of them were from Rural areas (59.4%), followed by Urban (20.9%), Sub-urban (10.3%) and Metro (9.4%). More students reported from Nuclear family (81%) system than Joint family (19%).

Dr Raja Amarnath said: “Very few researchers have explored the benefits of meditation in lowering revenge motivation. This study is one of its kind. “

Community will prosper if the vengeful attitude is eradicated from every individual. It is important to nullify this vengeful attitude from a young age itself. To commemorate the purpose, we have conducted a research study on reducing vengeful attitude among students through Heartfulness Meditation.

HELP program: potential to transform the youth

HELP (Heartfulness Experience Life’s Potential) is a course for students on life-skills and holistic wellbeing through Heartfulness practices for self-development and inner excellence. It facilitates positive social behaviours and social relationships during the school years, reduces behavioural problems and psychological distress and helps to prepare young people to succeed in college, work, family and society.  HELP is imparted free of cost to over a million students across 10,000 government and private academic institutions in the country. These institutes are using the program to help the students manage their emotions and mental wellbeing more effectively.

The study purported to observe the pre & post effect of Heartfulness “HELP” Program on the levels of various motivation levels such as Benevolence Motivation (BM), Revenge Motivation (RM) & Avoidance Motivation (AM).

The results revealed that based on students’ residential place that there was a significant improvement in Benevolence Motivation for the students from Sub-urban areas whereas on the other hand, there was improvement recorded in students hailing from other areas although it was insignificant. The AM levels significantly reduced for the students from metro, urban and rural areas. On other hand, the reduction remained insignificant for the students from sub-urban areas. Irrespective of their residential place, RM levels in students reduced significantly.

The study stated that HELP Program has significantly reduced Revenge and Avoidance motivation among students irrespective of gender disparities which will probably help society to have a crime-free generation. Dr Raja Amarnath and his team figured out that meditation helps to reduce harassment which is also an outcome of RM.

The findings encourage integrating HELP program in school’s curriculum to help in the holistic development of students.