The Headspace Guide to: Mindfulness & Meditation

by Andy Puddicombe

What the research shows 1 Meditation related to self control Researchers investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness found that after just five days of meditating for a very short time, participants showed increased blood flow to the area of the brain that helps to control emotions and behaviour. After eleven hours of meditation had been completed, actual physical changes in this part of the brain had occurred. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, in preliminary studies mindfulness has been shown to be effective in the treatment of drug addiction, smoking and eating disorders. In one such study, binge eating decreased by over 50% in just forty-two days. 2 Mindfulness improves performance under stress Neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania investigated whether mindfulness could help offset the loss of mental performance of Marines in stressful situations. In the words of the lead researcher, ‘Building mind-fitness with mindfulness training can help anyone who must maintain peak performance in the face of extremely stressful circumstances, from first responders, relief workers and trauma surgeons, to professional and Olympic athletes.’ 3 Meditation can halve the time it takes to get to sleep Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Medical School developed an effective approach to sleep which incorporated meditation as an integral component. The study found that 58% of diagnosed insomniacs reported significant improvements and 91% of those using medicatio...