Mindfulness and Regret: Finding Peace in the Present

Author/ Authors/ Presenter/ Presenters/ Panelists:

Hayley Stewart, Governors State UniversityFollow
Will Ravetto, Governors State University
Jade Groble, Governors State University

Type of Presentation

Poster Session

Location

D2400 - University Library

Start Date

4-16-2025 11:30 AM

End Date

4-16-2025 12:45 PM

Description of Program

A. Problem or major purpose: Research has shown that regret is linked to anxiety, depression, and cognitive distortions (Markman et al., 2009; Markham & Miller, 2006). Painful experiences stemming from past actions and decisions can lead to negative rumination (Olatunji et al., 2013). However, by reducing this rumination, there is potential to gain valuable insights from previous decisions, even those that were distressing. This study examines the potential of mindfulness to alleviate the intensity of regret. It was hypothesized that participants would report lower levels of regret after practicing mindfulness meditation.
B. Procedure: The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, participants were asked to recall a regrettable life event and rate the intensity of their emotional responses, including feelings of regret. After focusing on this memory, all participants took part in a guided mindfulness session. Following the session, they re-evaluated the recalled memory by completing post-session self-report measures, including a short 12-item version of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (Baer et al., 2006) and the 12-item Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2019). Participants were then instructed to practice the same meditation at least twice over the next week using an audio recording provided by the researchers. One week later, in the second phase of the study, phone interviews were conducted with the participants .
C. Results: Thirty students will participate the study for a partial course credit. We expect to find that participants will report experiencing significantly less amount of regret following guided meditation.
D. Conclusions or Implications: We expect that present study will demonstrate the mitigating effect of mindfulness on experience of regret. Future direction and implications will be discussed.