The study was conducted at a resort in Southern California
It's an incredibly deceptively named article. The study showed that meditating whilst on vacation is more beneficial than a vacation without meditation. All participants were on vacation.
Also, the participants who were meditating already knew how to meditate, so at best we have a correlation between the kind of people who learn to meditate and feeling less stressed during/after a vacation.
I accept your point that the results of the study should be taken with caution, but don't these statements at least partially refute your dismissal?
At the end, all three groups (vacation, novice, and regular meditators) showed statistically significant improvements in scores of stress and depression, which were measured using well-established and commonly used questionnaires. If we stop there, it seems that vacation is just as good as mindfulness exercises for stress reduction and mood lifting.
But what’s really striking are the result from 10 months later: the regular meditators still showed significant improvements on these scores, the novice meditators even more so. However, the vacationers were back to baseline.
The headline implies that instead of taking vacations, you should simply meditate. But the article doesn't support that in any way.
Rather, it suggests that you should spend at least 1 week of vacation per year in a secluded environment doing structured mindfulness activities such as yoga and meditation.
It's an incredibly deceptively named article. The study showed that meditating whilst on vacation is more beneficial than a vacation without meditation. All participants were on vacation.
Also, the participants who were meditating already knew how to meditate, so at best we have a correlation between the kind of people who learn to meditate and feeling less stressed during/after a vacation.