Recalibrating occupational stress and well-being: Junior high school teachers' retrospective accounts of mindfulness training.

Quantitative research has reported associations between mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and teacher stress and well-being, but less is known about how teachers themselves retrospectively experience and make sense of learning mindfulness. This interpretative phenomenological study examined eight Chinese junior high school teachers' retrospective accounts following a four-week standardized mindfulness program. Participants described an initial struggle with a "busy mind" and physical discomfort, followed in some accounts by a more noticeable capacity to pause before responding to classroom pressure, attend to bodily sensations, savor everyday moments, and adapt practice to demanding work and family contexts. An idiographic case account of P5 illustrates how these meanings were shaped by physical discomfort, perceived health limitations, and the practical realities of teaching. Across cases, participants interpreted mindfulness as a way of relating differently to stressors rather than as a means of removing them, while also describing situations in which the practice seemed difficult to use. The findings therefore offer an experiential account of how teachers retrospectively understood mindfulness in context, while avoiding claims that the training itself caused the reported changes.