Mindfulness is an off-screen practice that is incredibly central to the Alive & Beyond 8-week program. Within Alive, in Workshops, you'll find Mindfulness instruction.

In fact, mindfulness has been shown to have very positive effects in many arenas of health. Here's a round-up of recent news items reflecting some of the many ways mindfulness improves people's lives and outcomes, often taking the place of medications that can bring unwanted side-effects.

From Bloomberg Businessweek, a story about mindfulness easing depression and anxiety in people suffering from MS:

The problem with medications is that patients are told, "'Here are some drugs that make you sad, tired and depressed, but nothing will effectively take away your disease.' They're left with no effective treatments."

Enter mindfulness meditation. "You learn to objectify what you're feeling, be it pain or anxiety or depression, and see it as a separate entity that's not part of yourself. It helps you let it go. You're getting to the heart of the symptom rather than just covering it as you do with medications."

From the Times of India:

'Mindfulness' meditation, the process of becoming more aware of one's surroundings, improves mental health and well being in teenage boys, says a new study.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge found that after meditation, 14- and 15-year-old boys were found to have increased well-being, defined as the combination of feeling good (including positive emotions such as happiness, contentment, interest and affection) and functioning well.

"Our study demonstrates that this type of training improves well-being in adolescents and that the more they practice, the greater the benefits. Importantly, many of the students genuinely enjoyed the exercises and said they intended to continue them," said Professor Felicia Huppert.

"Another significant aspect of this study is that adolescents who suffered from higher levels of anxiety were the ones who benefitted most from the training," she added.

From Worlds Breaking News:

There is growing evidence that mindfulness meditation when used consistently over a period of time will help to weaken the powerful mental habits in individuals trying to stop smoking cigarettes. Mindfulness meditation helps to control compulsive forms of behavior that can make individuals trying to quit smoking cigarettes resistant to change.

Now there is sound neuroscience proof that the consistent practice of mindfulness can in fact modify the structure of the brain in measurable and seemingly positive ways, giving rise to increased equanimity and positive affect.

Several preliminary research studies have employed mindfulness meditation in assisting individuals to stop smoking cigarettes. In one of these studies, 56% of the subjects showed biologically-confirmed smoking abstinence six weeks after quitting. It was also found that “compliance with meditation was positively associated with smoking abstinence and decreases in stress and affective distress.”