Effects of the healing beats application on anxiety, stress, and well-being in hemodialysis patients in Korea: a randomized controlled trial.

In order to help athletes achieve optimal competitive and psychological states during competition, sport psychologists have conducted extensive research on effective intervention methods and target populations (). Emotion regulation plays a central role in athletes’ psychological functioning and competitive performance (). Emotion regulation refers to the process by which individuals influence what emotions they experience, when they experience them, and how these emotions are felt and expressed (). It encompasses both explicit regulation and implicit regulation. For athletes, emotions exert a significant influence on their sport performance. Athletes frequently encounter high-pressure situations, including training demands, competitive uncertainty, and external expectations, which can evoke intense emotional responses such as anxiety, frustration, and fear of failure. The ability to regulate these emotions effectively shapes not only immediate performance outcomes but also long-term mental health and career sustainability (). Adaptive strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal and acceptance, support athletes in maintaining focus, recovering quickly from mistakes, and sustaining motivation under adversity. By contrast, reliance on maladaptive strategies, such as suppression or rumination, has been linked to heightened stress, impaired decision-making, and increased risk of burnout. With growing recognition of the value of mental skills training, enhancing athletes’ capacity to regulate emotions has become a key focus of contemporary sport psychology research and practice (). From a theoretical perspective, Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Emotion and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping provide a conceptual framework for understanding how athletes’ interpretations of competitive demands influence their emotional responses and performance outcomes (). According to these models, athletes cognitively appraise competitive situations as either challenges or threats. Threat appraisals often elicit maladaptive emotions such as anxiety and fear, whereas challenge appraisals are associated with optimal arousal and superior performance under pressure. Mindfulness may play a critical role in this appraisal process by cultivating nonjudgmental awareness of internal experiences and fostering acceptance of competition-related stressors (). Through this mechanism, mindfulness enables athletes to reframe stressful events as manageable, thereby reducing competitive anxiety and facilitating adaptive emotion regulation that supports optimal performance. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are believed to enhance emotion regulation through multiple mechanisms. First, mindfulness practice strengthens attentional control and present-moment awareness, allowing individuals to more readily perceive their thoughts and emotions and to identify distressing feelings that require regulation (). Second, common mindfulness exercises such as observing and describing emotions promote greater emotional awareness and differentiation, which helps individuals recognize and distinguish among various emotional experiences and reduce automatic affective reactions and intensity (). Third, the nonjudgmental and accepting attitude cultivated through mindfulness fosters greater tolerance and willingness to experience negative emotions without suppressing or avoiding them (), thereby enhancing resilience to fear of failure and other aversive emotional states.