I recently completed a 9-week course on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota. This is my second MBSR course; I took the first one at the Duke Integrative Medicine Program at Duke University a few years ago. Both experiences have been incredibly beneficial.
Mindfulness is an awareness that occurs by paying attention on purpose to the present moment without any judgement. Mindfulness is about being completely present, it’s an awareness of what’s happening in our lives right now, noticing what we feel in our bodies and observing our surroundings without judging them as good or bad accepting without the need to make the experience any different from what it is. It is a way to fully experience the moment instead of operating on autopilot or getting lost in distractions and thoughts. Often, our minds race, pulling us away from the present moment.
Mindfulness meditation helps us practice staying grounded by focusing on our thoughts, actions, and emotions as they arise. The goal is not to judge but simply to notice and acknowledge what’s going on.
Mindfulness meditation provides a range of documented benefits. According to the American Psychological Association (2010), this practice enhances positive affect while reducing anxiety and negative affect. Empirical research indicates that participants engaged in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) report significantly lower levels of anxiety, depression, and somatic distress. Additionally, these individuals demonstrate reduced emotional reactivity and improved selectivity in their responses to events and interpersonal interactions.
Meditation is also associated with decreased rumination, thereby facilitating improved focus. Evidence suggests that reduced rumination correlates with lower rates of depression, and heightened focus contributes to enhanced concentration. Furthermore, those who meditate exhibit greater working memory capacity and sustained attention during task performance.
Studies have shown that regular meditators possess greater cognitive flexibility and self-observance, allowing them to respond adaptively to present moment input rather than relying exclusively on automatic patterns shaped by prior experience. These individuals also return more rapidly to baseline levels of emotional regulation following adverse experiences (Davidson, 2000; Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000).
Mindfulness has also been identified as a predictor of relationship satisfaction. Individuals who practice mindfulness display effective coping mechanisms in response to relationship stressors, increased emotional awareness, and enhanced communication with their partners.
Research further demonstrates that mindfulness meditation can alter neural processing related to pain, frequently resulting in lower pain severity and increased pain tolerance. For example, a 2016 study published in JAMA found that participants practicing mindfulness meditation reported a 30% reduction in pain severity compared to controls. Additionally, mindfulness practices have been linked to significant reductions in blood pressure, as evidenced by a meta-analysis in Hypertension(2013), which observed notable decreases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure among meditators. Rather than making broad claims about aging and illness, studies indicate that meditation is associated with slower cellular aging—reflected in longer telomere length—and improved immune response in patients with chronic illnesses. Moreover, meditation has been shown to induce changes in neuronal pathways and to increase activity, connectivity, and volume in brain regions associated with memory and advanced cognitive functions, as reported in neuroimaging studies such as Hölzel et al. (2011) in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
There are countless ways to meditate. To start, objectively observe your present experience with a sense of curiosity and openness, carefully noting what you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste in the current moment. Just be with it without trying to make it into anything different. Next time I will share with you some techniques on how to mindfully to manage stress.
