Many people use mindfulness meditation during recovery and as part of their everyday lives. The British study that has cast doubt on this type of meditation involved a group of prison inmates, and these inmates engaged in a single weekly session for 90 minutes for a period of 10 weeks. The inmates involved in the study showed an improvement in mood and lower levels of stress after the trial program, however the aggression exhibited by the inmates did not decrease.
One obvious issue with the research study on mindfulness meditation is that all of the participants were prison inmates, a population that has a higher than average rate of mental illness and psychological issues. This group is hardly representative of the general population, and a few sessions of this method is not sufficient to bring about drastic change in prisoners. Another issue with the study is that mindfulness meditation should be practiced daily for at least 20 minutes each session in order to get the maximum benefits from this technique. One thing that the research study did reinforce is that this technique can help lower stress and improve your mood, and these benefits make the practice of mindfulness meditation worth the time and effort.
