Art-of-Living Training: Developing an Intervention for Students to Increase Art-of-Living.

BACKGROUND: Art-of-living describes a mindful and self-determined way of dealing with one's self and way of life. It is related to measures of well-being. Art-of-living is based on strategies and attitudes which can be learned and therefore can be changed. Two types of training for students to increase art-of-living were developed and tested in two studies to determine the effects on art-of-living measures.

METHODS: Study 1 dealt with the initial examination of whether it is possible to enhance the art-of-living by training selected art-of-living strategies. Therefore, training with three conditions was developed and conducted with secondary school students (ages 16-19). In Study 2, a second art-of-living training was developed and conducted with children from primary school (ages 8-11).

RESULTS: In Study 1, the art-of-living measures increased significantly for the training conditions compared to a control group. In addition, Study 2 showed that higher levels of the art-of-living lead to a better quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the training successfully enhanced art-of-living. Limitations on and benefits of utilising the art-of-living training are discussed.