Structured Meditation Before Studying: Its Effects on Focus and Emotion Regulation: Systematic Literature Review (SLR)

Abstract

The crisis of diminished concentration and emotional dysregulation among students has emerged as a systemic issue in contemporary education; however, the synthesis of empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of structured meditation as a pre-learning intervention remains highly limited. This study aims to analyze and synthesize empirical evidence on the effects of structured meditation prior to learning activities on students’ learning focus and emotional regulation capacity. The study employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method following the PRISMA protocol, with literature searches conducted across Scopus, Semantic Scholar, and PubMed databases using Boolean operator strategies. Of the 1,097 articles initially identified, 49 met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed using thematic synthesis. The findings indicate that meditation or mindfulness interventions lasting 5–15 minutes per day for a minimum of eight weeks consistently enhance sustained attention, working memory, and executive functioning, while also strengthening adaptive emotional regulation strategies among learners from early childhood to higher education levels. Effect sizes are generally categorized as small to moderate, with effectiveness influenced by moderating factors such as participant age, intervention duration, and facilitator competence. Bibliometric analysis identified five thematic clusters, with mindfulness functioning as the central hub node. This study concludes that structured meditation can be appropriately positioned as an evidence-based pre-learning ritual, particularly within the context of education grounded in Buddhist values in Indonesia, which remains a significant research gap.