College students who learned either Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction or the Eight Point Program showed increased mindfulness eight weeks later, compared with a waitlist group. Greater mindfulness partly explained reductions in perceived stress and rumination. Adherence to the practices predicted positive outcomes. The findings suggest that distinct meditation-based interventions can cultivate at least one aspect of mindfulness, as measured by the Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale, and that this increase may contribute to well-being.
College undergraduates who completed eight weeks of meditation-based stress-management training showed reduced stress and increased forgiveness compared with a wait-list control group. Two programs—mindfulness-based stress reduction and Easwaran's Eight-Point Program—produced similar benefits; no differences emerged between them or between the end of training and an eight-week follow-up. Improvements in rumination were marginal. The findings suggest that brief, meditation-based programs can serve as health-promotion tools for college populations.
The modern mindfulness movement and public health share many approaches, yet mindfulness is largely absent from global and public health practice. This paper reviews existing and potential relationships between mindfulness and public health, examining 14 dimensions of tension or alignment. The authors find that the mindfulness field lags in multi-level interventions, cultural and religious adaptations, and epidemiologic foundations. They argue that full integration of mindfulness into public health requires further research and innovation, particularly in cultural and religious adaptation, multi-level interventions, and epidemiologic underpinnings.
Modern meditation research has progressed over the past fifty years through partly overlapping periods. Initially emphasizing physiological measurement and secular adaptations, the field expanded to link meditation to numerous health and well-being outcomes, with a focus on mindfulness as a unique psychosocial goal. Advances in empirical measurement, including physiological and questionnaire-based tools, accompanied growing public, corporate, and governmental interest. Concerns arose about the abandonment of ethical foundations and cultural context, leading to initial moves toward greater inclusiveness and integration of diverse methods and traditional perspectives. The chapter traces the evolving interplay between dominant conceptions of meditative practices under scientific study and critiques of those conceptions, research questions, study designs, measurement instruments, and public reception.