The popularity of meditation has significantly increased in the last few years as more and more people are becoming introduced to it. Work places are beginning to look at meditation in a practical and serious light. It is being recognized as something that could help their employees and improve their businesses. For example, companies like Nike, Google, and Apple are starting to encourage the practice of mindfulness. Furthermore, there are organizations that are including meditation as a mainstream therapy. These organizations have had significant effects on the advancement of meditation.
Police Department
A police department in Emeryville, California is experimenting with meditation for their police officers. Police officers are often in high stress situation where it is important for them to have control over their minds and actions.
The police department mentioned that their main goal for introducing mindfulness and meditation to their training was to strengthen resilience in their officers. With stronger resilience comes more mental tools and a more productive mind. Theoretically, that could keep a police officer calm in a high stress situation. Furthermore, enduring intense pressure and stress are regular parts of police officer’s full-time job and if not managed properly, could cause mental health problems. Research has shown that police officer have high rates of depression, PTSD, substance abuse, and sleeplessness. Meditation could help with these problems.
Prison Inmates
While this is not common, there are a few prisons that have begun offering group meditation sessions and yoga classes. Some of these prisons are the New Jersey Bayside State Prison, New York City’s Rikers Island jail, and the Oregon state prison.
The goal is to provide some daily calmness and maybe even some hope. Meditation can help address anxiety, substance abuse, and violence. Even opening up and finding common ground between fellow inmates could have an impact on actions and moods. It promotes thinking before acting, different perspectives, and more empathy. Additionally, it may also help with preventing prisoners, once released, from returning to jail. There hasn’t been enough research to know how effective it is, but there are many past prisoners who claim that meditation has had a significant impact and provided him or her a new life.
Cancer Patients
Cancer and its treatment take a huge toll on patients and their families. Meditation is being encouraged as a way to strengthen resilience, inner peace, and provide hope for everyone involved. Additionally, it can be used to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy on the body, as well as to boost one’s immune system functions to help the body fight cancer.
Yeoman, Barry. “Mindful Policing: The Future of Force.” Mindful, 23 Aug. 2018,
Seville, Lisa Riordan, and Allegra Abramo. “I Came Home a Man on Fire': Meditation Program Transforms Inmates.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group,
“Our Work.” Transcendental Meditation for Prison Inmates,
“Meditation App | Cancer.” CancerCare,
“Cancer.” Guided Meditation | Guided Imagery and Visualization | Health Journeys,
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