Meditate 10 minutes daily, focus better

Toronto May 2 (IANS) Finding it hard to concentrate? Meditating just 10 minutes daily can help prevent your mind from wandering and reduce repetitive anxious thoughts researchers say.

Mindfulness is commonly defined as paying attention on purpose in the present moment and without judgement and meditating would help you achieve just that.

The study found that developing an awareness of the present moment reduced incidents of repetitive off-task thinking -- a hallmark of anxiety.

Our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals said Mengran Xu a researcher and doctoral student at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

We also found that meditation practice appears to help anxious people to shift their attention from their own internal worries to the present moment - external world which enables better focus on a task at hand Xu added.

The study detailed in the journal Consciousness and Cognition assessed the impact of meditation with 82 participants who experienced anxiety.

The participants were asked to perform a task on a computer while experiencing interruptions to gauge their ability to stay focused on the task.

Mind wandering accounts for nearly half of any person s daily stream of consciousness Xu said.

For people with anxiety repetitive off-task thoughts can negatively affect their ability to learn to complete tasks or even function safely the researchers said.

--IANS
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