Improving Wellbeing of SHP Personnel at UAB (SHPwell)

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of a well-being program, SKY Campus Happiness, on well-being of students, faculties, and staff working/studying at School of Health Professional (SHP). SHP is leaning on the SKY Campus Happiness (SKY) program which is an integrative workshop format that includes both skill-building and group dynamics and may be critical for the effectiveness of the program. SKY is a university leadership and well-being program (campushappiness.org) that includes stress-management and tools for psychological resilience: yoga postures, breathing exercises, a breath-based meditation technique [Sudarshan Kriya Yoga]. SKY also includes positive psychology skills (e.g., gratitude, social connection, acts of kindness, meaning and purpose). In addition, the curriculum includes discussion and application of leadership skills and service learning. Relying on existing evidence of previous studies, we hypothesize that participating in this program will increase the well-being of people involved.

Students/staff/faculties of SHP will be offered to participate in the SKY Breath Happiness workshop followed by participating in a research program designed to study the potential effectiveness of the SKY Breath Happiness Program as a stress-management, resilience building wellness tool in this population. They will be given an informed consent form to sign if they choose to participate in the study. The course that the students are enrolled in is the SKY program, which is an evidence-based bio-psycho-social program that utilizes a multi-dimensional relationship between biology and behavior. It utilizes a unique set of standardized breathing techniques to rapidly reduce neuro-endocrine stress responses and the autonomic imbalance due to sympathetic overdrive, thus restoring autonomic homeostasis. These are interwoven with coping and stressor appraisal strategies, and simple stretching exercises. Classes will be 3 hours long on each of three consecutive days, and participants must be willing to attend all three sessions. There will also be one mandatory one hour follow-up session one week later. Participants will be asked to engage in daily 10 to 25 minute home resilience practice sessions performed five days per week. To support participants stabilization of the practices, optional daily guided practice will be offered online at a determined convenient time for all participants to allow full participation. The breathing techniques will be taught by certified instructors.

This is a single group design in which participants participants are assigned to a SKY meditation treatment intervention.

In person meditation classes will be 3 hours long on each of three consecutive days, and participants must be willing to attend all three sessions. An additional 7 online sessions will be delivered to participants in successive days after the initial in-person intervention. Participants will be asked to engage in daily 10 to 25 minute home resilience practice sessions performed five days per week. To support participants stabilization of the practices, optional daily guided practice will be offered online at a determined convenient time for all participants to allow full participation. The breathing techniques will be taught by certified instructors.

The intervention is a 3-day in-person meditation and mindfulness workshop using the SKY meditation approach. It utilizes a unique set of standardized breathing techniques to rapidly reduce neuro-endocrine stress responses and the autonomic imbalance due to sympathetic overdrive, thus restoring autonomic homeostasis. These are interwoven with coping and stressor appraisal strategies, and simple stretching exercises. Classes will be 3 hours long on each of three consecutive days, and participants must be willing to attend all three sessions with an additional 7 consecutive days of online sessions immediately thereafter. In addition, participants will be asked to engage in daily 10 to 25 minute home resilience practice sessions performed five days per week. They will complete a follow-up session once per week in the subsequent 8 weeks.

The Perceived Stress Scale(PSS) is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring the perception of stress. It is a measure of the degree to which situations in one's life are appraised as stressful. Items were designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives.

The Brief-COPE is a 28 item self-report questionnaire designed to measure effective and ineffective ways to cope with a stressful life event.

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is an effective instrument used to measure the quality and patterns of sleep in adults. It differentiates "poor" from "good" sleep quality by measuring seven areas (components): subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medications, and daytime dysfunction over the last month.

The Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire (MASQ) is an instrument containing a range of symptoms relevant to depression and anxiety.

This scale assesses the degree to which persons feel connected to others in their social environment.

The SF-12v2 is a health-related quality-of-life questionnaire consisting of twelve questions that measure eight health domains to assess physical and mental health.

Inclusion criteria: Healthy students/faculty/staff who at UAB, School of Health Professionals Willingness to complete all study interventional components Exclusion criteria: Inability to understand standard English Previous participation in a SKY intervention Pregnant persons Diagnosis of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia

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