Just 10 minutes of meditation can help anxiety

Daily, mindful meditation can prevent your mind from wandering and is especially effective against repetitive, anxious thoughts, a new study says.

The research, conducted by the University of Waterloo, showed that an advanced awareness of the present reduced worrisome, distracted thinking - a key characteristic of anxiety.

"Our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals," said Mengran Xu, a PhD candidate from the school. "We also found that meditation practice helps people to shift their attention to the present-moment, which enables better focus on a task at hand," he said.

By "mindfulness," Xu is referring to the act of "paying attention on purpose," and decisively being in the present.

Volunteers of the study were asked to complete tasks on a computer while experiencing distractions in order to gauge their level of focus. They were then divided into two random groups: one that meditated for 10 minutes and one that didn't, before being tested again.

Researchers found that the subjects that were placed under stress with no opportunity to re-center themselves experienced negative affects to their ability to learn, complete tasks and, generally, just to function.

"It would be interesting to see what the impacts would be if mindful meditation was practiced by anxious populations more widely," Xu said, referencing the study's small sample group. "Mind wandering accounts for nearly half of any person's daily stream of consciousness," he said.