Effects of Mindfulness and Sufi Meditation on Anxiety and Mental Health of Females

The present study is designed to compare two different types of meditations, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Programme (MBSRP; Zinn, 2003) and Sufi Meditation (SM) in the treatment of neurotic anxiety and enhancement of mental health in female population. The study is comprised of a total of 200 participants upon whom Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS; Hamilton, 1959) was administered and two groups of subjects each comprising of 50 (n = 50) subjects with high anxiety and 50 (n = 50) with low anxiety scores (n = 100) derived, further bifurcated into four subgroups wherein 25 (n = 25) subjects with low anxiety randomly assigned to both groups and remaining 25 (n = 25) with high anxiety assigned randomly to each groups. Pre- and post-test measures on HAS and Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff, 1989) for both groups was obtained and analyzed. The overall results of study showed that Mindfulness meditation group showed significantly higher score on HAS as compared to Sufi meditation group. According to the results, Sufi meditation was more effective in lowering anxiety and enhancing mental health, since it matches the belief system of the population. Hence results provide a base for future research to combine both types of meditations developing a new healing dimension.