Early leavers from the UK regular forces – those who go before they complete their service – could benefit from going on meditation courses, given new research revealing that they are more likely to experience mental health conditions than those who complete their service first before leaving.

A University of Manchester study discovered that these early leavers reported a greater drop in depression and anxiety symptoms following interventions like cognitive behavioural therapy than non-early leavers.

“The study highlights the benefit of a better understanding of the characteristics of different UK military veteran groups. It also shows the potential benefits of targeting therapy to veterans who are vulnerable because of mental health problems and in the process of reintegrating into society,” professor David Challis – community care research professor and director of the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the university – remarked.

Meditation and mindfulness can do an awful lot to improve your mental health and wellbeing, helping you to become more aware of your feelings and thoughts so that you can manage them more effectively and don’t let them overwhelm you.

Previous studies have found that it can do a lot to help with recurrent depression, addictive behaviour, stress, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, insomnia, chronic fatigue syndrome and many other complaints. If you’d like to take some steps to improve your health in the coming year, meditation could be a great way to go about it.

Why not start practising a bit before the new year to really get you into the swing of things when 2015 rolls around?

http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=13408

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