Have you ever wondered how your emotions affect your digestive system, immune system and physical health? Or whether doing mental exercises could impact your body and your mood? Possibly not. But we have!

We are recruiting participants experiencing symptoms of depression for a study testing the Healthy Minds Program which is an app that includes mental exercises. If you choose to participate, you may be asked to use the Healthy Minds Program app for 4 weeks. All participants will be asked to complete online questionnaires 6 times over a 4-month period and to provide small samples of blood from a finger prick and stool 2 times. We will provide supplies for you to collect these samples comfortably at home and return them in the mail. These samples may provide valuable information about what is happening inside of your body.

We hope this research helps clarify how the body and the brain communicate with each other, and how a smartphone app may impact the body and mood. Ultimately, we hope this research is helpful for developing tools to increase well-being for individuals experiencing depression.

To participate, you must:

• Be 18-65 years old
• Have access to a smartphone
• Not have significant experience with meditation
• Not have used the Healthy Minds Program app
• Be experiencing symptoms of depression

People who complete the full study will receive $265.

Click here to learn more.

This study is led by the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the direction of Simon Goldberg, PhD. It is approved by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institutional Review Board, which is charged with protecting the rights and welfare of people who take part in research studies.