Mindfulness is often talked about as a way to feel calmer, sleep better or manage everyday stress. But could regularly practising mindfulness also influence how we age?

The answer isn’t quite as simple as saying that mindfulness makes you live longer, but a growing body of research does point to the possibility that mindfulness can influence some of the processes associated with stress, cellular ageing and long-term health.

And that makes the relationship between mindfulness and healthy ageing particularly interesting.

Stress, the nervous system and ageing

It’s no secret that ongoing stress can affect the body. Our stress response is designed to help us deal with challenges, but when we are repeatedly exposed to stress without enough opportunity to recover, it can place a continuing demand on the nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems.

So what happens when we become better at managing our response to stress?

A 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis looked at 17 randomised controlled trials involving more than 1600 adults and found mindfulness-based interventions significantly reduced perceived stress compared with control groups.

That’s interesting in its own right. But it becomes even more relevant when we look at research into stress and longevity.

A large analysis published in medical journal The BMJ combined data from more than 68,000 adults who took part in 10 prospective studies. The researchers found a dose-response relationship between psychological distress and mortality: as distress increased, so did the risk of dying during the study’s follow-up period. People with the highest levels of distress had almost twice the mortality risk of those reporting no distress.

This doesn’t prove that stress causes earlier death, or that reducing stress will make us live longer. But it does suggest that our long-term experience of stress may be relevant to healthy ageing. And this brings us to a rather fascinating part of the science: our chromosomes.

What are telomeres?

Telomeres are protective caps at the ends of our chromosomes. A little like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces: they help protect what’s underneath.

Each time a cell divides, telomeres tend to become a little shorter. Telomere length generally decreases with age, and shorter telomeres have been associated with a range of health problems and increased mortality risk.

Researchers have therefore become interested in whether lifestyle factors, including meditation, might influence telomere biology, and one of the more interesting findings involves telomerase – an enzyme that helps maintain telomeres.

A 2014 meta-analysis of four randomised controlled trials involving 190 people found mindfulness meditation was associated with increased telomerase activity. The researchers described the findings as promising, while also calling for larger trials.

More broadly, a 2022 meta-analysis of 48 randomised controlled trials involving 4683 people found that mindfulness-based interventions were associated with small increases in telomere length and larger increases in telomerase activity. The same analysis found reductions in some markers of inflammation.

But this is where it’s important to keep the science in perspective. A 2021 systematic review concluded that the effect of meditation on telomere length was still unclear and that larger, better-designed trials were needed.

In other words, telomeres are a fascinating piece of the healthy-ageing puzzle, but we can’t yet prove that meditation slows cellular ageing or adds years to someone’s life.

So, can mindfulness increase longevity?

We may not be able to say for certain that regular mindfulness will make you live longer, but what the research does suggest is that mindfulness may influence several processes that are relevant to healthy ageing. 

It can help reduce perceived stress, while psychological distress is associated with increased mortality risk. Research is also beginning to explore whether mindfulness can influence telomerase, telomeres and inflammatory processes involved in cellular ageing.

Ways to embrace mindfulness

Mindfulness isn’t simply about sitting quietly and trying to empty your mind. It’s the practice of paying attention to what is happening in the present moment, including what is happening within the body.

With regular practice, that awareness can help us notice stress, tension, changes in breathing and habitual reactions before they automatically take over.

And mindfulness doesn’t have to happen while sitting still.

Somatic exercise also incorporates mindfulness, using movement as an opportunity to pay attention to the body’s internal experience. Rather than simply performing a movement to achieve a particular physical outcome, somatic practice encourages us to notice sensations, breathing, tension, ease and changes in how the movement feels.

This creates an interesting overlap. Both invite us to become more aware of what is happening in the body rather than simply moving through life on autopilot. 

Perhaps that’s the most useful way to think about mindfulness and longevity. Not as a shortcut to a longer life, but as one possible practice within a broader approach to healthy ageing – one that supports our relationship with stress, our nervous system and our experience of the body over time.

Research and references

Rajan, A., Kumar, M. & Pranav Raj, P. (2026). Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on perceived stress among non-clinical adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. npj Mental Health Research, 5, 9. PubMed

Russ, T. C., Stamatakis, E., Hamer, M., Starr, J. M., Kivimäki, M. & Batty, G. D. (2012). Association between psychological distress and mortality: individual participant pooled analysis of 10 prospective cohort studies. BMJ, 345, e4933. PubMed

Schutte, N. S. & Malouff, J. M. (2014). A meta-analytic review of the effects of mindfulness meditation on telomerase activity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 42, 45–48. PubMed

Schutte, N. S., Malouff, J. M. & Keng, S. L. (2020). Meditation and telomere length: a meta-analysis. Psychology & Health, 35(8), 901–915. PubMed

Dunn, T. J. & Dimolareva, M. (2022). The effect of mindfulness-based interventions on immunity-related biomarkers: a comprehensive meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Clinical Psychology Review, 92, 102124. PubMed