Our mind will wander. Even the pros get distracted by thoughts during meditation and forget to follow their breath, because no matter how practiced we are, the mind is always going to think.

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Imagine a photocopier slowly moving over us, from our head to our toes, detecting any sensations in the body. As we scan down, we notice which parts feel relaxed or tense, comfortable or uncomfortable, light or heavy.

Mindfulness can help combat bias: Even a brief mindfulness training can reduce our implicit biases and the biased language we use. One way this works, researchers have found, is by attenuating the cognitive biases that contribute to prejudice.

In one study, people with pre-hypertension were randomly assigned to augment their drug treatment with either a course in mindfulness meditation or a program that taught progressive muscle relaxation.

If you find yourself getting sleepy during meditation practice, open a window to let in some fresh air, or try meditating outside.

How does it work? To find out, researchers in the United Kingdom interviewed 11 adults who had experienced three or more episodes of severe depression, and had undergone MBCT within the previous three years. They analyzed the interviews to create a model, published in the journal Mindfulness

While you often hear about “clearing your mind” through meditation, the truth is you can’t really clear or empty your mind. Thinking is what these big ol’ brains of ours do! And stopping thinking isn’t the goal of meditation, anyway—not getting caught up in those thoughts is.

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It doesn’t take long to feel the benefits of a regular meditation practice. Research shows that Headspace can reduce stress in 10 days. And thousands of studies have shown mindfulness and meditation can positively impact mental and physical health.

To start, aim for three meditation sessions per week, and increase that number over time. As you begin to notice its effects in your meditative mind life, you’ll look for any opportunity to meditate!

To better understand the power of focus and awareness, consider an affliction that touches nearly all of us: email addiction. Emails have a way of seducing our attention and redirecting it to lower-priority tasks because completing small, quickly accomplished tasks releases dopamine, a pleasurable hormone, in our brains.

JM: I think that’s definitely a risk. But given that stress is a reality in many people’s working lives, I think mindfulness can be an effective tool to buffer its negative effects. And ideally, mindfulness may even help change workplaces for the better. Research suggests that mindfulness training helps make people more compassionate and empathetic toward others. By improving the way people relate to one another, ideally it can change corporate culture for the better, creating a more supportive, friendlier workplace with better relationships.

That said, yoga is an example of an activity often done prior to meditation, and specifically helps prepare both mind and body for the pratice. Meanwhile, at least one found that meditating before doing moderate aerobic exercise may help counter depression.