Meditation helps people to think more clearly, Psychiatry Research, Bostanov V., Keune P.et al.
People who learnt to meditate (using the Mindfulness-Based-Stress Reduction method of Jon Kabat-Zinn) reacted more to acoustic signals in comparison to a control group. Researchers intepreted the results as follows: Having learnt to meditate, test persons wasted less energy with rumination and could concentrate better on the acoustic signals. Test persons also reported that they could think more clearly and were more focussed in their thinking. Meditation changes those brain regions responsible for concentration, attentiveness and memory, the immunsystem also works better and blood pressure is reduced.
Working psychotherapeutically these findings are highly relevant, as meditation (or any other relaxation technique) can contribute to helping depressed patients feel better by reducing their ruminations.