178 Full time employees.  2x daily practice for 10 minutes + 1 hour teaching twice weekly.  Significant decreases in occupational stress symptoms & depressive symptoms (Manocha, Black, Sarris & Stough, 2011).
 

Modern mindfulness interventions have been shown to be effective for depression (Marchand, 2012).

One of the strongest effects of meditation is on reducing anxiety & other negative emotions (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).  TM seems to be more effective than mindfulness or other approaches for this (Sarris, Moylan, Camfield, Pase, Michoulon, Berk, Jacka & Schweitzer, 2012).

Reduced depression for school students (Waters, Barsky, Ridd & Allen, 2014)

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Effects on emotions
 

One of the strongest effects of meditation is on reducing anxiety & other negative emotions (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012). TM seems to be more effective than mindfulness or other approaches for this (Sarris, Moylan, Camfield, Pase, Michoulon, Berk, Jacka & Schweitzer, 2012).
 

Reduced negative affect in school students (Waters, Barsky, Ridd & Allen, 2014)

Meditation increases the frequency of positive emotional states (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

Meditation improves empathy (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

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Emotional regulation
 

 Regular mindfulness meditation practice enhances one’s emotional regulation and reduces emotional reactivity (Kasniak, 2011; Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012; Waters, Barsky, Ridd & Allen, 2014).
 

Loving kindness meditation increases positive emotion, social connectedness, and life satisfaction.  This has been found to be true even after only 2 minutes of LKM (Kasniak, 2011).

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Cognitive Effects

 

Meditation practice enhances one’s attention and presence (Kasniak, 2011).  Mindfulness seems to be more effective than TM or other approaches in this regard (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

 

Meditation practice increases self awareness. TM seems to be more effective for this than mindfulness or other approaches (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

 

Meditation improves memory and learning. TM seems to be more effective for this than mindfulness or other approaches (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

 

Zen meditation (mindfulness) – regular practice seems to protect against age-related cognitive degeneration.  One study found that while the control group had reductions in attention and brain volume, the group of regular meditators did not. (Kasniak, 2011).

Increased cortical thickness in brain areas associated with internal body awareness, somatosensory processing and attention regulation.  Increases in cortical thickness are correlated with amount of meditation practice.  Cortical thickness has also shown to be associated with lower pain sensitivity in meditators (Kasniak, 2011).

 

EEG measurements of brain function indicate that mindfulness meditators were less inclined to experience neurological wind-up as a result of pain anticipation.  These changes were apparent when the meditators were not meditating, suggesting that meditation causes lasting brain changes (Zeidan, Grant, Brown, McHaffie & Coghill, 2012).

 

Mindfulness Meditators have a greater activation of brain regions associated with sensory elements of the pain experience than non-meditators, and brain regions associated with cognitive regulation of pain and emotions (Zeidan, Grant, Brown, McHaffie & Coghill, 2012).

 

14 Patients with Parkinsons engaged in 8 weeks of mindfulness-based intervention.  Significantly increased density of grey matter was found in the neural networks that are believed to be dysfunctional in parkinsons disease (Pickut, Hecke, Kerckhofs, Marien, Vanneste, Cras & Parizel, 2013).

 

There have been a small number of studies that look at the relationship between meditation & academic achievement.  The majority of studies seem to suggest that meditation has a significant positive impact on academic achievement (Waters, Barsky, Ridd & Allen, 2014).

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Behavioural regulation

 

Meditation has a significant effect on reducing negative personality traits.  Mindfulness seems to be more effective than TM or other approaches in this (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

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Physiological effects

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Workers showed increased immune response (Kasniak, 2011).

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Increased repair of DNA (telomerase activity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells) (Kasniak, 2011).

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Meditation has been shown to be effective for reducing blood pressure (Marchand, 2012).

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General Wellbeing

 

The strongest effects of meditation are for improving the quality of interpersonal relationships (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).

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Meditation improves wellbeing (Sedlmeier, Elberth, Schwarz, Zimmermann, Haarig, Jaeger & Kunze, 2012).  TM has more consistent significant effects on wellbeing in comparison with mindfulness (Waters, Barsky, Ridd & Allen, 2014).

 

Modern mindfulness interventions have been shown to be effective for improving general mental health (Marchand, 2012).