In this paper, meditation was examined to determine the influence it has on avoiding bad habits and embracing more of the positive in life. Previous research indicates that stress reduction, a lengthened attention span, and disengaged addictions are all beneficial side effects of meditating. In my first (correlational) study, the strength of these relationships was tested by examining naturalistic daily changes in their variables longitudinally over a two-week period. Stress reduction was measured by calculating the amount of self-reported stress experienced each day, attention span was measured through the PEBLs “Attention Network Test”, addictions were measured by tallying the number of times nicotine was used, and the amount of time spent meditating was measured. My results showed significant negative correlations of time spent meditating with stress and nicotine consumption, but not with attention span. Based on the strength of correlation found between time spent meditating and nicotine consumption in the correlational study, a second (experimental) study was conducted to test for specifically a causal relationship between these two variables. Over a two-week period, the participant was assigned on alternate days to either a half hour long meditation condition or a zero-meditation condition and on each day nicotine use was measured. The results of the experimental study successfully established an ability of meditation to reduce nicotine consumption.
