Pay attention to the present moment, its sensations, without filter (we accept what comes), without judgment, without expectation…, this is the principle of meditation of full consciousness. Registered for more than 2,000 years in Buddhist practice, meditation was very largely secularized by American psychologists from the 1970s and 1980s. Multiple effects Today, we have a relatively large number of scientific studies which show the benefit of this therapy, particularly in the context of the prevention of relapses in patients who have presented at least three depressive episodes. Other studies have shown that focusing on the present moment lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. No wonder for Fabrice Midal, founder of the Western School of Meditation, author of “Practice of Meditation”, (ed. Le Livre de Poche, 2013), for whom meditation “helps to settle down, to take a breathing, to recharge deeply; it makes it possible to stop the headlong rush”. Reducing stress also helps lower blood pressure, says a study published in late 2013. But that’s not all. According to a study carried out by neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this therapy could provide relief to people suffering from chronic inflammatory diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma), for which psychological stress plays a major role. Finally, meditation may also decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease in high-risk adolescents, another study suggests.