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Mindfulness & Meditation

In Focus

Mindfulness and Meditation

Last updated: May 2026

The path to happiness

In this free online Harvard course, you’ll learn how to better sense the world around you and gain tools for embracing self-awareness.

A person walking along a heartbeat

Lessening the mental toll of a heart attack

A mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may help patients with the PTSD that can sometimes come after a heart attack.

Learn more about the approach

Someone holding an older person's hand

Supporting the mental health of caregivers

Family caregivers of loved ones with dementia often have high rates of depression and anxiety. Harvard researchers were able to lower those rates and increase mental wellbeing using mentalizing imagery therapy.

Learn more about the research

Backed by science

The scientific investigation of mindfulness is in its infancy. Still, the emerging body of research suggests that mindfulness could be an important tool for individual wellness and holds promise as a path toward improving public health.

Harvard Medical School faculty will discuss the neu­roscience of meditation and mindfulness.
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High blood pressure

A Harvard Medical School study sheds light on the molecular mechanisms by which relaxation techniques may work to lower blood pressure.

Focused attention

Research shows that meditators have more sustained gamma oscillations in the brain, which are associated with memory and concentration.

Stress and anxiety

Studies show that meditation can reduce heart rate, triglycerides, and cortisol, all physiological markers of stress.

Test your knowledge of meditation

Matthew Sacchet, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Meditation Research Program, helped develop a quiz on the scientific discoveries around advanced meditation.

Take the meditation quiz

Mindfulness mentors

Mindfulness is the simple process of noticing new things about the familiar. When we notice actively, we become sensitive to perspective and change.”

Ellen Langer, professor of psychology

Learn more about Ellen’s work
Ellen Langer in her backyard

Grant Jones

As part of his dissertation, Grant produced music-based mindfulness interventions as a method of decreasing stress and anxiety in Black and disadvantaged communities.

Learn more about Grant’s dissertation

Amanda Baker

As director of Mass General’s Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, Amanda is examining mindfulness-based stress reduction as an aid for the mental health crisis.

Learn more about Amanda’s work

Tengyur Rinpoche

Harvard Divinity School alum and teacher in the Buddhist Ministry Initiative Tengyur offers a holistic model for resilience, education, and social wellbeing.

Learn more about Tengyur’s insights
Meditation in Fractured Times
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Jack Petranker

At a Harvard Divinity School event, Jack Petranker, director of the Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages, explored strategies for times when our minds and lives are fragmented and even basic concentration is challenging.

Learn more about Jack’s talk

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Thich Nhat Hanh Center for Mindfulness in Public Health

The center aims to explore the growing body of research and approaches to improve health and wellbeing through mindfulness.

Learn more about the center

Bringing the practice to your profession

Charlie Chaplin in some gears

Workplace exhaustion

How the concept of industrial fatigue went from a condition of the body to one of the mind.

Workplace exhaustion

Addressing physician burnout

Mindfulness techniques can help doctors balance patients, clerical duties, and the unexpected.

Addressing physician burnout

Reimagining teaching

A mindfulness practice can help teachers nurture a greater sense of community and deepen student learning.

Reimagining teaching

Mindfulness in the military

Addressing the physical, mental, and emotional state of a soldier can help mitigate stress and PTSD.

Mindfulness in the military

Alleviating stress for lawyers

Being aware of emotions and unhelpful thoughts and feelings are critical when practicing law.

Alleviating stress for lawyers

Helping to improve higher education

Mindfulness can help higher ed students and faculty regain perspective and rekindle curiosity.

Helping to improve higher education

Starting your mindfulness practice

The best time to start being mindful of yourself and your surroundings is now.

Learn some easy ways to get started

1. Sit

Sit on a straight-backed chair or comfortably on the floor.

2. Focus

Focus on your breath and pay attention to things such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.

3. Expand

Once you’ve narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas.

4. Embrace

Embrace and consider each thought or sensation without judging it good or bad. If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.

Mindful eating

“Mindful eating,” the practice of taking time to consciously experience, enjoy, and express gratitude for a meal, offers myriad health benefits, according to Harvard Chan School’s Lilian Cheung.

Building positive habits of mind

The human brain evolved with a “negativity bias,” says Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Metta McGarvey. Happily, we can teach ourselves to accentuate positive experiences and maintain serenity.

Coping with uncertainty

When faced with uncertainty, many of us start spiraling—mentally replaying past mistakes or projecting into imagined futures. Rue Wilson, Harvard staff psychologist, offers a gentle approach to bring your mind back to focus.

Forgiving and flourishing

Harvard Chan School’s Tyler VanderWeele explores how forgiveness can be more than a spiritual practice or even a good behavior—it’s good mental health.

Avoiding burnout

Stress is an evolutionary cycle in which you perceive a threat, react, and then ideally relax when the threat has passed. But in modern life, “threats” can be workloads, potential failures, and work-life imbalances, which make it harder to let your body and mind know that the coast is clear.

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