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Relieve stress and stay focused with this easy, do-anywhere meditation
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Updated March 27, 2024
Mindfulness techniques help you relax and refocus. Doing them regularly can combat the long-term effects of stress.
Devoting just a few minutes a day to a mindfulness practice like the STOP technique (which was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic, now the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Memorial Health) may support your brain health. One study of 42 adults ages 1845, published in Behavioural Brain Research in 2018, found that those who meditated for 13 minutes per day for eight weeks saw greater improvements in mood, attention and memory than those who were assigned to listen to podcasts. Mindfulness techniques have also shown promise in the fight against cognitive decline. In a 2020 pilot study of 28 older adults with mild cognitive impairment, published in Clinical Interventions in Aging, those who underwent an eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (also developed by Kabat-Zinn) felt less depressed and had better immune system function compared to those who were assigned to an eight-week cognitive training program.
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