The Benefits of Meditation: How a Few Minutes a Day Can Transform Your Wellbeing

Stress is constant these days: Wellhub research has found more than half U.S. workers lose sleep to stress and anxiety. 

When stress is that ever-present, you need a daily ritual that travels with you — whether you’re powering through meetings or winding down at home. That’s where meditation steps in.

Carving out a few minutes for meditation each day can reset your mind, strengthen your focus, and recharge your energy. It's a simple practice with powerful benefits for both mental and physical health.

Ready to tap into your inner calm and elevate your wellbeing? Discover how meditation can help you thrive at work and beyond, and pick up easy ways to make mindfulness part of your daily routine.

What Are the Benefits of Meditation?

There are numerous benefits of meditation. In fact, meditation — and the mindfulness that comes with it — can impact your mind, body, and emotions, helping you function throughout the day. 

Reduced Stress and Anxiety

You probably already know that meditation can help lower stress levels. But how does that work, exactly?

Think of meditation like pressing pause on your brain. It forces an active mind to slow down and focus on one thing at a time. This pauses common stress responses, like the production of cortisol.

Cortisol, or the stress hormone, plays a role in managing your body’s response to stress. Heightened levels of cortisol can lead to memory loss, insomnia, and depression — all of which may exacerbate stress if left untreated, according to the Pacific Neuroscience Institute. Meditation helps reduce excess cortisol production to regulate your body’s stress response.

Improved Focus and Attention

If you find yourself struggling to focus on day-to-day tasks, you can benefit from meditation. Meditation positively impacts cognitive function, according to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine. The study tested people’s reaction time and judgment skills before and after a 10-minute meditation session, and found an improvement in nearly all participants.

This means that even a brief moment of meditation can immediately impact your focus and productivity.

Emotional Regulation

Stuck on an emotional rollercoaster? Stress may be the culprit. Remember that symptoms of high cortisol include depression and sleep issues, which can seriously mess with your emotions. 

But lowering stress levels isn’t the only way meditation helps your emotional health. Meditation changes brainwave activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, two parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation, according to a recent study published in PNAS. The coolest part of that study? It was conducted on novice meditators — meaning you can enjoy the benefits of meditation as soon as you get started.

Increased Self-Awareness and Compassion

Believe it or not, meditation can make you a better person. There are close ties between mindfulness and compassion, according to research from BMC Psychology. Mindfulness interventions — like meditation — offer one way to make people more considerate of others.

The emotional regulation and stress reduction benefits of meditation can also boost your self-awareness. When you’re feeling level-headed, you’re less likely to lash out or overreact and are able to face challenges head-on.  

Physical Health Support

Finally, meditation has documented impacts on physical wellbeing. Research shows that our mental and physical wellness are more closely linked than previously thought. 

Mindfulness has been shown to improve the body’s anti-inflammatory response and supports healthy aging, according to the NIH. It can also lower your risk for certain conditions tied to high cortisol levels, such as weight gain, insomnia, and elevated blood pressure. 

Meditation also helps to relieve pain. This may sound like a placebo (something that works just because you think it’s working), but it actually goes deeper than that. Brain scans of patients treated with a placebo and those treated with meditation found that meditation reduces brain activity associated with pain, just like other medical treatments, according to a UC San Diego comparative study.

Addressing Burnout

Burnout happens when chronic workplace stress builds up faster than you can manage it, according to the World Health Organization. It can leave you feeling drained, disconnected from your work, and less productive than usual.

While burnout isn’t new, it’s becoming more common, and it's one of the biggest reasons why stress management in the workplace matters so much.

If you feel burnout creeping in, meditation can be a powerful way to support your emotional wellbeing. A few minutes a day can help lower stress levels, boost mindfulness, and keep you feeling more focused and energized at work before overwhelm takes hold.

Why These Benefits Matter Are Critical to Your Wellbeing

Meditation has always had a positive impact. But supporting your mental awareness may be more beneficial in today’s world than ever before. That’s because of:

• Screen fatigue: The constant exposure to light and stimulation through screens impacts our eyes, muscles, and stress levels.
• Uncertainty: There’s no denying we live in a time of political and economic unpredictability, which can cause a lot of anxiety.
• Social pressure: The pressure to fit in or present a certain image is often exacerbated by social media.
• Digital connectivity: We are more connected today than ever before. That means constant exposure to world news, pressure to keep up with social connections, and more opportunities to take work home with you.
• Work stress: Stress at work — when combined with other social and political stressors — can lead to burnout if left untreated.

How to Start Experiencing the Benefits of Meditation

So, you’re interested in the positive effects of meditation. Now what? 

First of all, it’s important to understand that getting started is what matters most. The health benefits of meditation don’t require expertise. You can experience benefits from even a few minutes in your first session, so don’t worry about being inexperienced.  

Here’s a quick guide to help you learn how to meditate, find a technique that works for you, and stick with it.

Start With the Basics

There are several forms of meditation out there, some more advanced than others. However, they all start with the same core principles: focus, breathing, solitude, and internal reflection.

Start by finding a quiet place where you can be alone. That could be your bed, your living room floor, or your current seat with a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Get into a comfortable upright position — slouching might make you feel too sleepy.

Next, close your eyes and focus on your breath. Breathe in and out on an even rhythm. Notice how each breath makes your body feel. When you find your mind wandering, re-focus on breathing.

It may help to set a timer for two to five minutes. Once your time is up, take a moment to check in with yourself. You could end by setting a goal for the day or simply focusing on a positive thought.

Stay Consistent

If you want to get the most out of meditation, consistency matters more than perfection. Mindfulness isn’t about doing it flawlessly. It’s about showing up for yourself, day after day.

Try weaving a few minutes of meditation into your daily routine. You might set aside time before work, during your lunch break, or right after a workout. Even a short session each day can help you feel calmer, more focused, and better equipped to support your emotional wellbeing.

Explore Different Techniques

As you continue your mindfulness journey, don’t be afraid to explore different meditation techniques and find what works best for you. For example, consider using meditation apps. You might notice more positive effects if you combine meditation with music or movement, or you might benefit most from sitting in silence.

You can also change up your practice by focusing on different areas of the body, setting different intentions, or ending each session with a different mantra. It’s up to you!

Meditation Boosts Your Daily Wellbeing

Meditation offers more than a moment of peace. It helps you manage daily stress, sharpen your focus, regulate emotions, and even support your physical health. If constant stress has been wearing you down, a few mindful minutes each day can make a real difference.

Making meditation part of your daily life helps protect your emotional health, keep burnout at bay, and strengthen your resilience at work and beyond. Wellhub gives you access to meditation apps, mindfulness programs, and wellness classes that fit easily into your schedule and support your mental and emotional wellbeing.

You might already have access to Wellhub through your employee benefits. Check your eligibility and start your journey to greater calm today! If not, start a petition to bring Wellhub to your company and help make mindfulness part of your workplace culture!

Sources:

•  Sarah McEwen, P. (2020, November 24). Meditation & Mindfulness for Stress Reduction. Pacific Neuroscience Institute. https://www.pacificneuroscienceinstitute.org/blog/brain-health/meditation-mindfulness-for-stress-reduction/
• Chen, R., Essader, T., Jang, J., & Kaundinya, K. (n.d.). Acute impact of mindfulness meditation on cognitive performance. The Journal of Science and Medicine. https://www.josam.org/josam/article/view/63
• Maher, C., Tortolero, L., et al. (2025, February 4) Intracranial substrates of meditation-induced neuromodulation in the amygdala and hippocampus. PNAS. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409423122
• Miller, J. T., & Verhaeghen, P. (2022, July 29). Mind full of kindness: Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence as vehicles for compassion. BioMed Central. https://bmcpsychology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40359-022-00888-4
• Jamil, A., Gutlapalli, S. D., et al. (2023, June 19). Meditation and its mental and physical health benefits in 2023. Cureus. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10355843/
• Today. (n.d.) Brain scans reveal that mindfulness meditation for pain is not a placebo. https://today.ucsd.edu/story/brain-scans-reveal-that-mindfulness-meditation-for-pain-is-not-a-placebo
• World Health Organization. (n.d.). Burn-out an “Occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases