Studies reporting the benefits of mindfulness training keep rolling in-not quite with the regularity of those distracting thoughts that keep popping up in your head, but at a good clip nonetheless.

The latest, from a team at the University of California, Santa Barbara, reports even a short, two-week course in focusing the mind can lead to immediate, tangible results: higher scores on tests measuring reasoning and comprehension.

‘Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide-reaching consequences,