Seafarers are chronically exposed to a unique confluence of challenges in the maritime environment, including chronic stress, social isolation, and sensory monotony. These factors pose a significant challenge to their psychological resilience, directly impacting their mental well-being and maritime safety. While traditional mind-body interventions have shown some efficacy, they often suffer from low appeal and poor adherence due to a perceived disconnect from the seafarers’ lived context. This study aims to design and validate an innovative, contextualized psychological intervention — “Maritime Imagery-Integrated Tai Chi (MIIT)”—to effectively enhance the psychological resilience of seafarers. This program synergistically combines Tai Chi, a proven mind-body exercise, with specifically designed positive maritime imagery, guiding seafarers to transform their neutral or negative perceptions of the ocean into an empowering internal resource. This paper first systematically reviews the current state of seafarer resilience and its challenges, followed by an in-depth analysis of the theoretical foundations and mechanisms of Tai Chi and imagery training as psychological interventions. Based on this, a theoretical model of synergy between maritime imagery and Tai Chi is constructed, proposing that through this integrated mind-body practice, positive attributes of the ocean—such as its “serenity”, “power”, and “vastness”—can be internalized as individual psychological qualities. To validate this model’s effectiveness, a 12-week longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT) is proposed, dividing seafarer participants into three groups: the MIIT group, a traditional Tai Chi group, and a blank control group. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) will serve as the primary outcome measure, supplemented by secondary measures including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS), administered at pre-, mid-, and post-intervention time points. We hypothesize that, compared to the traditional Tai Chi and control groups, seafarers in the MIIT group will demonstrate the most significant improvement in psychological resilience and show superior outcomes across other dimensions such as stress perception and emotional state. This research not only aims to provide a novel, low-cost, and easily disseminable intervention tool for promoting seafarer mental health but also seeks to provide theoretical and empirical support for the design and application of contextualized psychological interventions, deepening our understanding of the interplay between environment, body, and mind.

Mengjiao Guo, Haonan Zheng. Integrating Maritime Imagery into Tai Chi Training: An Intervention for Enhancing the Psychological Resilience of Seafarers. Frontiers in Sport Research (2025), Vol. 7, Issue 4: 36-42. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSR.2025.070406.

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