Meditation: A Boon in the Age of Stress

October 28, 2026

Off late, the people are increasingly adopting mindfulness and meditation as part of their daily routine to acquire peace of mind. The benefits of mindfulness and meditation have been further highlighted by Bob Roth, CEO of David Lynch Foundation in his book named Stength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation. “My memory was better, my sleep was better and I was less at unease after adopting the transcendental meditation”, he writes. The book further includes notes from celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Russell Brand about how does the meditation offers clarity and focus. According to Lynch, the meditation provides a sense of calm which no pharmaceutical company could duplicate. The ways of experiencing mindfulness could vary as some experience it while scrubbing each utensil, or while lying in the bed or by simply noticing how the body feels. The meditation does need not to have a formalised way of practice. ABC news anchor Dan Harris also wrote a book, named ‘Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics’, in which he shared his own experience to highlight the benefits of meditation. He further hosts a weekly show named ’10 percent Happier’, where he chats with celebrities and also layman who practice mindfulness. Harris started practicing meditation after he confronted an on-air panic attack in 2004. Another neuroscientist Davidson suggested how to balance between hectic work schedule and practicing meditation. He suggested that one needs to part from his/her favourite gadgets and technology in order to achieve the benefits of meditation. Also, as one starts practicing meditation, he would be easily able to manage things in spite of being busy. He further pointed out that more people have now started adopting a strict workout regime as the science has highlighted the benefits of doing workout to maintain a healthy body. Meditation has a history that goes back thousands of years, and many meditative techniques began in Eastern traditions. The term “meditation” refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being. Some types of meditation involve maintaining mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase. Other forms of meditation include the practice of mindfulness, which involves maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments. Programs that teach meditation or mindfulness may combine the practices with other activities. For example, mindfulness-based stress reduction is a program that teaches mindful meditation, but it also includes discussion sessions and other strategies to help people apply what they have learned to stressful experiences. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy integrates mindfulness practices with aspects of cognitive behavioral therapy. Meditation and mindfulness practices usually are considered to have few risks. However, few studies have examined these practices for potentially harmful effects, so it isn’t possible to make definite statements about safety. survey, the percentage of U.S. adults who practiced meditation more than doubled between 2002 and 2022, from 7.5 to 17.3 percent. Of seven complementary health approaches for which data were collected in the 2022 survey, meditation was the most popular, beating out yoga (used by 15.8 percent of adults), chiropractic care (11.0 percent), massage therapy (10.9 percent), guided imagery/progressive muscle relaxation (6.4 percent), acupuncture (2.2 percent), and naturopathy (1.3 percent). For children aged 4 to 17 years, data are available for 2017; in that year, 5.4 percent of U.S. children used meditation. In a 2012 U.S. survey, 1.9 percent of 34,525 adults reported that they had practiced mindfulness meditation in the past 12 months. Among those responders who practiced mindfulness meditation exclusively, 73 percent reported that they meditated for their general wellness and to prevent diseases, and most of them (approximately 92 percent) reported that they meditated to relax or reduce stress. In more than half of the responses, a desire for better sleep was a reason for practicing mindfulness meditation.