# data[].attributes.body
Sensory Memory

Primary types are visual, auditory, and tactical

Lasts from milliseconds to a few seconds

Directly connected to the senses

Filters sensory input before passing it to short-term memory

Importance in Education

Crucial for helping students retain what they see and hear momentarily

Supports quick attention and immediate recall

# data[].attributes.body
American Psychological Association. 2019, October 30. Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress. https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Mindfulness meditation can improve both mental and physical health.

Cite This Article

American Psychological Association. (2019, October 30). Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress. https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation

People have been meditating for thousands of years, often as part of a spiritual practice. But in more recent years, mindfulness has become a popular way to help people manage their stress and improve their overall well-being - and a wealth of research shows it's effective. Psychologists have found that mindfulness meditation changes our brain and biology in positive ways, improving mental and physical health.

What is mindfulness meditation?

Meditation can be defined in many ways. But a simple way to think of it is training your attention to achieve a mental state of calm concentration and positive emotions.

Mindfulness is one of the most popular meditation techniques. It has two main parts: attention and acceptance.

The attention piece is about tuning into your experiences to focus on what's happening in the present moment. It typically involves directing your awareness to your breath, your thoughts, the physical sensations in your body and the feelings you are experiencing. The acceptance piece involves observing those feelings and sensations without judgment. Instead of responding or reacting to those thoughts or feelings, you aim to note them and let them go.

Mindfulness classes and mindfulness-based therapies provide the tools to put those concepts into practice. Such programs might include breathing exercises, yoga and guided lessons to help you become aware of your body sensations, thoughts and feelings.

Much of the research on mindfulness has focused on two types of interventions:

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapeutic intervention that involves weekly group classes and daily mindfulness exercises to practice at home, over an 8-week period. MBSR teaches people how to increase mindfulness through yoga and meditation.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a therapeutic intervention that combines elements of MBSR and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat people with depression.

Researchers reviewed more than 200 studies of mindfulness among healthy people and found mindfulness-based therapy was especially effective for reducing stress, anxiety and depression. Mindfulness can also help treat people with specific problems including depression, pain, smoking and addiction. Some of the most promising research has looked at people with depression. Several studies have found, for example, that MBCT can significantly reduce relapse in people who have had previous episodes of major depression. What's more, mindfulness-based interventions can improve physical health, too. For example, mindfulness may reduce pain, fatigue and stress in people with chronic pain. Other studies have found preliminary evidence that mindfulness might boost the immune system and help people recover more quickly from cold or flu.

How mindfulness works

How could simply tuning into your thoughts and feelings lead to so many positive outcomes throughout the body? Researchers believe the benefits of mindfulness are related to its ability to dial down the body's response to stress.

Chronic stress can impair the body's immune system and make many other health problems worse. By lowering the stress response, mindfulness may have downstream effects throughout the body.

Psychological scientists have found that mindfulness influences two different stress pathways in the brain, changing brain structures and activity in regions associated with attention and emotion regulation. Scientists are also beginning to understand which elements of mindfulness are responsible for its beneficial effects. In a review of meditation studies, psychology researchers found strong evidence that people who received MBCT were less likely to react with negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress. They also found moderate evidence that people who participated in MBCT or MBSR were better able to focus on the present and less likely to worry and to think about a negative thought or experience over and over.
[Related: 6 mental health tips psychologists use]
How to get started

Ready to give it a try? Learning mindfulness is easier than ever. Mindfulness classes and interventions are widely available in settings including yoga centers, athletic clubs, hospitals and clinics, though the classes can vary in their approach. Find a therapist trained in MBSR or MBCT - interventions that have the most evidence of benefits.

A number of mindfulness-based interventions are now available online or through smartphone apps as well, although more long-term research is needed to explore how they affect the body and the brain. Still, early studies have found that online mindfulness-based interventions can have a positive effect on mental health.

It can take a little while for mindfulness meditation to feel natural and to become a part of your regular routine. But with practice, you may discover a powerful tool for relieving stress and improving well-being.

Thanks to psychologists J. David Creswell, PhD, and Bassam Khoury, PhD, who assisted with this article.

References

The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines and Western Psychology: A Mutually Enriching Dialogue Walsh, et. al., American Psychologist 2006

Mindfulness-Based Therapy: A Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Khoury, B., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2013

Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Goldberg, S.B., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2018

Mindfulness Interventions Creswell, J.D., Annual Review of Psychology, 2017

Mindfulness Training and Physical Health: Mechanisms and Outcomes Creswell, J.D., et. al., Psychosomatic Medicine, 2019

Mindfulness and Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Chronic Pain: Differential Effects on Daily Pain Reactivity and Stress Reactivity Davis, M.C., et. al., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2015

Mindfulness Meditation and The Immune System: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Black, D.S., et. al. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2016

Meditation or Exercise for Preventing Acute Respiratory Infection: A Randomized Controlled Trial Barrett, B., et. al., Annals of Family Medicine, 2012

The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation Tan, Y.-Y., et. al., Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2015

How Do Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Improve Mental Health and Wellbeing? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Mediation Studies Gu, J., et. al. Clinical Psychology Review, 2015

Effectiveness of Online Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Improving Mental Health: A Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials Spijkerman, M.P.J., et. al., Clinical Psychology Review, 2016

Recommended Reading

Six Things Psychologists are Talking About

The APA Monitor on Psychology ® sister e-newsletter offers fresh articles on psychology trends, new research, and more.

Speaking of Psychology

Subscribe to APA's audio podcast series highlighting some of the most important and relevant psychological research being conducted today.
Subscribe to Speaking of Psychology and download via:
Apple

Spotify

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mindfulness meditation: A research-proven way to reduce stress

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Psychologists have found that mindfulness meditation changes our brain and biology in positive ways, improving mental and physical health.

# data[].attributes.body
Short-Term Memory

Holds information temporarily

Lasts for about 15–30 seconds

Primarily located in the prefrontal cortex

Crucial for tasks that involve immediate information use

Importance in Education

Key to understanding, processing, and following instructions

# data[].attributes.body
Long-Term Memory

Stores information over extended periods

Unlimited capacity

Explicit memory: Conscious recall, like facts and experiences

Implicit memory: Unconscious recall, such as procedural memory

Importance in Education

Retain and retrieve knowledge over time

Implicit Memory: Aids in skill development and task automation

Explicit Memory: Supports academic learning and knowledge recall

# data[].attributes.body
Retention: Ability to hold onto new information in long-term memory

Conscious attention

Organize information in a meaningful way

Rehearsal, chunking

Transfer: focuses on the ability to apply information in a new situation

# data[].attributes.body
Retention

Helps establish a solid knowledge base

Helps learners make connections

Transfer

Helps learners to apply and adapt knowledge in real-world situations

Flexible and adaptive learning

Together

Retain knowledge deeply = better equipped to transfer it

# data[].attributes.body
Amygdala Activation

Boosts memory encoding for emotional or traumatic events

Contributes to heightened fear and anxiety responses

Fight, flight, or freeze

Hippocampus Impact

Chronic stress or repeated trauma makes it shrink

Impairs the ability to store new information

Fragmented or incomplete memories

Difficulty with recall

Prefrontal Cortex Impairment

Impairs the ability to interpret memories accurately

Impairs the ability to maintain control over emotional responses

Difficulty processing trauma

# data[].attributes.body
Improves memory, focus, and overall cognitive function by...

Enhancing attention

Changing brain structure

Reducing stress

Regulating emotions

Examples:

Meditation

Body scan

Focused breathing

# data[].attributes.body
Connects new information to information already stored in long term memory

Organizes details more efficiently in memory

Makes use of mental visualization

Supports focus and reduces anxiety

Examples

Mnemonic devices: acronyms, songs, rhymes

Chunking: breaking information up into smaller parts

Association: making connections between memories

# data[].attributes.body
Grand Canyon University. 2022. How the brain learns. (6th. ed.).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A simple, intuitive reader app that makes learning more effective

# data[].attributes.body
Psychology Today. (n.d.). Memory. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/memory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Memory is the faculty by which the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information. It is a record of experience that guides future action.

# data[].attributes.body
Encoding: Information enters the brain through the senses, is processed in sensory areas, and then moves to the hippocampus. The hippocampus helps turn short-term memories into long-term ones by strengthening neural connections.

Storage: Once encoded, information is stored in different brain areas. This storage process, consolidation, stabilizes memories over time, especially with sleep.

Retrieval: When we recall a memory, the brain reactivates its original neural patterns. Strong, well-established pathways help with effective recall.