If you're worried about your dwindling attention span or what might happen to your brain as you get older, consider picking up meditation.
The most extensive longitudinal study to date on how meditation improves your ability to focus was just published last month in Springer's Journal of Cognitive Enhancement and suggests that meditating has "the potential to alter longitudinal trajectories of cognitive change across a person's life."
In other words, it could prevent age-related mental decline.
"This study is the first to offer evidence that intensive and continued meditation practice is associated with enduring improvements in sustained attention," lead author Anthony Zanesco, a psychologist at the University of Miami, and his colleagues report in the seven-year study.