Perceived benefits of a remote yoga and mindfulness program for student musicians during COVID-19.

This qualitative study was conducted with participants from a previous investigation that explored the applicability and perceived impact of a program based on yoga, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and positive psychology, to enhance student musicians' health and well-being during the lockdown. This program is named CRAFT, the acronym of which stands for the following Spanish terms that constitute its 5 elements: Consciencia, Relajacion, Atencion, Felicidad, and Transcendencia. The current study aimed to gain a greater understanding of participants' CRAFT-based practice implementation experience and their perceived benefits derived from it during the lockdown. Participants were higher education student musicians (n = 26) attending CRAFT-based elective subjects of Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence, once a week for 1 hr throughout the academic year 2019/2020;at a Royal Conservatory of Music in Spain. Participants' responses to an open-ended question were content analyzed following a deductive approach guided by the framework of the 5 CRAFT elements. The content analysis revealed 6 overarching themes, 1 for each CRAFT element and an additional 1 labeled "other." Participants' perceived benefits aligned with the 5 CRAFT elements and included developments such as enhanced conscious awareness, emotional self-regulation, psychological distress, mind clearance, relaxation, concentration, wellness, vitality, hope, transforming attitudes, equanimity, positivity, and resilience. These findings suggest that curricular exposure with the CRAFT program was beneficial among higher education student musicians to cope with their health and well-being lockdown demands, having thus relevant implications in both higher education and clinical settings for health and well-being promotion, support, and prevention during stressful pandemic times. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)