The significance of studying mindfulness mental training in surgeons and surgical trainees is two-fold: 1) As a process-centered skill with demonstrated effects on psychological well-being, perceived stress, cognitive performance and physiologic health it presents a potential gateway mechanism for providing individuals with a 'universal tool' for challenges across all stages of medical training and practice, including burnout and errors which have been largely immutable problems for the last decade. 2) If efficacy among surgeons can be shown, the social clout of impacting such a high stress and high performance field is uniquely powerful and could further the dissemination of evidence-based mindfulness interventions to a remarkable degree.