Meditation and college students' self-actualization and rated stress

This paper concerns the efficacy of meditation and relaxation in promoting self-actualization and changes in self-reported stress among 62 college students. Two groups were given mantra meditation and a yogic relaxation technique referred to as Shavasana. Pre- and posttest measures were taken on the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Behavioral Relaxation Scale. Both groups showed significant increases in scores on self-actualization; however, no differences were found between groups. Meditation training was associated with larger gains in scores on measures of systematic relaxed behavior than of the relaxation training.