Article Title: Should You Meditate?

Article Summary

In this article, the author speaks about meditation and its benefits. She says the answer to “should you meditate” is complicated and although there is promising evidence showing improvements with mindfulness on our ability to focus and attend to task-relevant information, the findings call for a healthy amount of compassionate skepticism. Some studies showed that the group practising meditation showed the same improvements as another group engaging in some other active exercises—like relaxation, book reading, or even health education. However, there are reasons to approach this skepticism with compassion. The author says that advanced technologies will enable researchers to learn more about the promise of mindfulness and meditation practices, particularly how, where, and when they work best and for whom. Lastly she says that akin to exercising muscles, mindfulness necessitates a lifestyle change and reaping benefits from mindfulness practices may require consistent engagement, both through formal and informal practices.