This week in wellness news, our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering for anxious individuals,” said study author Mengran Xu in a statement. “We also found that meditation practice appears to help anxious people to shift their attention from their own internal worries to the present-moment external world, which enables better focus on a task at hand.”

Read that and other great yoga, health & wellness stories from around the web.

• 15 Yoga Classes to Heal Your Whole Body: “It can help heal your mind, physical injuries, and improve strength throughout your body, so it’s no surprise that yoga is one of the most powerful forms of exercise and mindfulness. To better your whole body, try out these 15 healing yoga poses.”
• A “Mindful” Meditation Technique: “Mindfulness is a type of meditation that’s said to enhance emotional well-being. It’s become extremely popular in recent years, with major companies such as Google, Goldman Sachs and General Motors encouraging its practice amongst their employees. NASA, the US Olympic team and the Navy SEALs are just three organizations said to use this type of meditation as part of their training. Mindfulness has also been promoted by celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Kobe Bryant and Emma Watson. So what exactly is mindfulness and how is it practiced? “
• Mindfulness Meditation May Help Reduce Mind-Wandering In People With Anxiety: “More work will be needed to figure out what kinds of mediation are most effective for what kinds of mental health issues, and the kinds of training and what “dose” that are best. But meditation very clearly works for a variety of “issues,” and while the scientific evidence is necessary, we’ve known its efficacy for thousands of years. How to apply it to modern life and all the issues that come along with it may be the bigger question.”