Staying positive right now isn’t just difficult—sometimes it feels downright impossible. At the beginning of the summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to be winding down, we had a brief glimpse of what it would be like to have our lives return to some semblance of normalcy. But now, as the Delta variant continues to spread and hospital beds are filling up, we find ourselves digging out our masks with dread (and maybe some moans of despair). The constant barrage of news about the pandemic is definitely taking a toll on our mental state.
But while we can’t (always) escape the news, we can control how we cope with it. A recent study led by cognitive neuroscientists and a clinical health psychologist found that practicing a mindfulness meditation for 10 minutes a day may the limit the impact of negative COVID-19 news coverage on your emotional state.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Calgary, the University of Arizona, and the University of New Hampshire, asked participants to practice a guided mindfulness meditation for a least 10 minutes a day over a 10-day period. Curious about which meditation program the participants used? Researchers asked them to select one of Headspace’s 10-day meditation programs on kindness, concentration, managing anxiety, or letting go of stress.