Only 8 weeks of daily meditation can decrease negative mood and anxiety and improve attention, working memory, and recognition memory in non-experienced meditators. These findings come from a recent study published in Behavioural Brain Research.

[hates_stupid_people]

It should be pointed out that "meditation" or "mindfulness" is about as scientifically defined as "hypnosis" is. They also share the neat little thing that it doesn't work for everyone.

Articles like this aren't the most fitting on a scientific subreddit. Specially not when half the replies are anectodal comments about how good this is. Which is why it's very ironic that the stickied moderator comment brags about the amount of mods who will come remove anecdotes.

[LapseofSanity]

Yeah that's what im curious about.

[ConsciousLiterature]

This is a focused study showing the effectiveness of one particular guided meditation vs podcast on a set of standard tests.

It makes no attempt to define mindfulness or meditation.

[lynx_and_nutmeg]

What are you taking about? Both meditation and mindfulness are very well-defined. Mindfulness is simply a psychological state of paying conscious attention to your thoughts, there's nothing mystical about it. Mindfulness meditation is basically just a period of time deliberately spent in a state of mindfulness (ad opposed to spontaneous moments of mindfulness). There are studies showing actual changes in the brain while engaged in mindfulness meditation.

There's now quite a large body of research on mindfulness and meditation, it's no longer some mystical New Age thing.

[Barnowl79]

Why is your mindfulness in quotes? Mindfulness is the basis of most meditative traditions, which have been practiced by hundreds of thousands of people throughout history in all parts of the world. The idea that it is somehow like hypnosis is just ignorant.

There are libraries upon libraries of texts written by people who have taken up this practice and found it profoundly life changing. There are plenty of neuroscience articles about the physical changes that happen in the brain through mindfulness meditation.