Mindfulness Meditation and Anxiety Reduction Mindfulness meditation has been a form of meditation that has been prevalent for thousands of years and is becoming increasingly popular. “Over the past decade, neuroscientists like me have become increasingly interested in studying how meditation affects the brain and body. The number of studies conducted each year in this new field of contemplative science is increasing exponentially, with more than 200 studies published last year alone” (Hasenkamp). It is a form of meditation in which a person builds a mindfulness practice, intentionally focuses their attention on the present moment, and accepts whatever the present moment brings, without any judgment. New research presents mindfulness meditation as a useful source for preventing and/or reducing anxiety. Mindfulness and its relationship to anxiety are broken down into three parts; the neurological relationship, the effects presented by focusing the mind on the present moment and the reduction of any pre-existing physical symptoms of anxiety. Any research presented on mindfulness demonstrates how essential it is to successfully reduce anxiety. Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center recruited fifteen healthy volunteers with normal daily levels of anxiety to participate in a study to see how mindfulness specifically affects anxiety. Study volunteers participated in four twenty-minute meditation classes in which they learned mindfulness and learned how to focus their attention on their breathing and body sensations in an effort to redirect thoughts and emotions in a nonjudgmental way. “In this study, we were able to see which areas of the brain were activated and which were deactivated during meditation-related anxiety relief.” (Zeidan)The study revealed that anxiety relief due to meditation is associated with anterior activation