Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
This 2011 review looked at many studies on mindfulness and mental health. It defines mindfulness as paying attention in the present with nonjudgmental acceptance and says this involves both focusing attention and an open, curious attitude. The authors examined three kinds of research—correlational studies, intervention trials, and lab experiments—and concluded…
MBSR is able to reduce stress levels in healthy people. However, important limitations of the included studies as well as the paucity of evidence about possible specific effects of MBSR in comparison to other nonspecific treatments underline the necessity of further research.
This review defines self-compassion as being supportive toward yourself during suffering and presents a six-part model (more self-kindness and common humanity and mindfulness; less self-judgment, isolation, and overidentification). It summarizes a growing set of empirical studies that suggest self-compassion helps people handle distressing thoughts and emotions and is linked to…
Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), especially Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), teach people to pay nonjudgmental attention to the present moment. Reviews and randomized trials show MBIs can reduce anxiety and depression symptom severity across many groups, often doing better than non-evidence treatments or active controls and performing…
The source explains what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is and reports research comparing ACT with cognitive therapy (CT). In a randomized trial of 101 outpatients with moderate to severe anxiety or depression, people assigned to ACT or to CT showed large, similar improvements in depression, anxiety, daily functioning, quality…
In a remote, randomized trial (NCT05304000), people did one of three five-minute daily breathing exercises or five minutes of mindfulness meditation each day for one month. The researchers measured mood, anxiety, and physiological arousal (breathing rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability). Breathwork—especially exhale-focused cyclic sighing—produced bigger mood gains and…
This paper pooled results from 19 randomized trials with 1,173 adults to see if meditation and yoga change PTSD symptoms. Overall, these mind–body practices were linked to a small-to-medium reduction in PTSD symptoms (effect size = −0.39). The authors found no big differences by type of practice, who was studied,…
This randomized study tested a breathing-based meditation (Sudarshan Kriya yoga) in 21 male U.S. veterans of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Participants were randomly assigned to the meditation group (n = 11) or a waitlist control (n = 10). The meditation group showed reductions in self-reported PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and…
Meditation involves attentional regulation and may lead to increased activity in brain regions associated with attention such as dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined whether DLPFC and ACC were activated during meditation. Subjects who meditate were recruited and scanned…
This open-access review article (Jan 2023) looks at what self-awareness is, how it develops, and how researchers measure it. The authors summarize evidence on both benefits and costs (including the downsides of too much inward focus), offer a framework that links learning processes, and report a literature search showing educational…
This small randomized pilot study tested a therapy called Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) as an extra treatment for women in substance use disorder (SUD) care. Forty-six women were enrolled and those in the MABT group received eight weekly one-on-one sessions in addition to usual care. At the main…
This randomized trial put 74 adults with moderate-to-high perceived stress into either an 8-session mindful walking program over 4 weeks or a waiting-list control. After 4 weeks, the mindful walking group had a much larger drop in perceived stress scores than the control group. The study also reported better quality-of-life…
