The 31 people arranged themselves in a circle, some in chairs, their spines erect, others kneeling or lying on the floor.

Among them was a veterinarian, a financial planner, a school administrator, a child psychotherapist and a legislative aide.

Take a moment to recognize whats going on with your mind, class leader Carmen Alonso encouraged them, after dimming the lights and ringing a meditation bell. Check in with yourself just as you would with your best friend. Hows it going?

With that, the monthly drop-in session of UW Healths Mindfulness Program was off to a soothing start. All of the participants had, at some point in the past, completed an intensive, eight-week curriculum called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This was a refresher, a tuneup.

While it may have looked like nothing much was going on in the room, researchers have learned quite the opposite. The participants were changing their brains in scientifically demonstrable ways, strengthening areas that would help them understand themselves and others better and allow them to respond with more resilience to lifes challenges.

If I tried to do my job without the mindfulness skills I have, I think it would probably kill me, said Mark Knickelbine, 56, of Mount Horeb, an aide to a state senator and one of the people at the drop-in session.

Especially when the Legislature is in session, he bounces from one thing to another all day in an intensely partisan environment, dealing with people who also are under a great deal of stress.

Through mindfulness training, he learned his thoughts dont always give him a true picture of a situation.

As I notice signs of stress rising in my body, Im able to step back from that and say, OK, this is going on now, Knickelbine said. Its just that simple ability to recognize it instead of reinforcing it and making it worse.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the developer of MBSR in 1979, has defined mindfulness as the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose to the present moment, non-judgmentally. Although its an ancient practice, its on a modern-day roll.

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With mindfulness meditation, the world doesn't necessarily change, your reactions to it do

Silence isn't something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes.

And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students' demeanor.

"The kids see guns on a daily basis," the school's athletic director, Barry O'Driscoll said, adding, "there would be fights here three-to-five times a week."

With a typical schools days filled with mayhem, O'Driscoll was skeptical when the San Francisco Public School District introduced a meditation program, called "quiet time," to four of its schools, including Visitacion Valley.

"I thought this is hippy stuff that didn't work in the '70s, so how's it gonna work now," O'Driscoll said. But he changed his tune, when over a four-year period, suspensions decreased by 79 percent and attendance and academic performance noticeably increased.

Blocks away at Burton High School, which was once dubbed "Fight School," the results have been similar. Principal Bill Kappenhagen was skeptical at first, as well, and had to wrangle with the problem of when in the school day to grab a half hour for quiet reflection.

"I was like, 'There's no way I'm going to steal time from English instruction or math instruction in order to do that," said Kappenhagen.

Instead, he decided to extend the school day by 30 minutes for meditation time, which resulted in better academic performance and a 75 percent decrease in suspensions. And students say they're more conscious of their actions, calmer and less angry.

While Kappenhagen recognizes that "there is no magic wand in education, just like in life," meditation has been found to increase focus and stimulate a sense of calm, not just during the quiet time, but also for the rest of the day, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Kappenhagen says he know's he can't change the environment the students live in when they're not at school, but he's glad he's discovered a way to "help our students find ways to deal with violence and the trauma and the stress of everyday life."

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San Francisco Schools Transformed by the Power of Meditation