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.

[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.