Below is a small selection from the overwhelming amount of data on the positive effects of meditation. Please note that, while such evidence may lead you to think there is some ultimate goal to achieve, this is the opposite of what we actually do when we meditate. Meditation is the practice of being awake and aware now, in the present moment, as it is - not as we want it to be or how we think it should be. The moment you begin to think there is somewhere else to get to, you are no longer here.
Our training programs are specifically designed to help you combine strategic goal setting and performance improvement with meditation and other Zen practices so that you can shoot for the stars while remaining grounded and present.
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“Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering” - Association for Psychological Science
"Mindfulness training improved both GRE reading-comprehension scores and working memory capacity while simultaneously reducing the occurrence of distracting thoughts during completion of the GRE and the measure of working memory. […] The change in GRE accuracy from mindfulness training led to an average improvement analogous to 16 percentile points. […] Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide-reaching consequences. "
“Eight Weeks to a Better Brain” - The Harvard Gazette
"Participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. […] The analysis of MR images, which focused on areas where meditation-associated differences were seen in earlier studies, found increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus, known to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection.
Silence is Golden.
“Shut Up and Bask in the Silence for a Better Life” - New York Magazine
“Two hours of silence per day prompted cell development in the hippocampus region of the brain, where memories are formed. Silence was, in fact, better than music for creating new brain cells. This is huge: It implies that for patients with dementia or depression, silence can be downright therapeutic.”
– Kirste, Imke et al. “Is silence golden? Effects of auditory stimuli and their absence on adult hippocampal neurogenesis.” Brain structure & function vol. 220,2 (2015): 1221-8.
Original academic publication link here