How does meditation “work”? That is a question American psychologist Professor Richard Davidson has spent a lifetime trying to answer.
The 73-year-old meditation practitioner, who studied with a guru in India in the early 1970s, has for decades focused on the science that underlies meditation.
Since 1984 he has been a fixture in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the US, where he also founded the Centre for Healthy Minds and the affiliated non-profit Healthy Minds Innovations.
After just two weeks of practice, stress levels can fall while concentration can improve, he says.
“Improvements in attention … include better focus, less mind-wandering and improved working memory,” he notes in his book, Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body, co-written with science journalist Daniel Goleman.