Does meditation help anxiety? Coach Ofosu weighs in
Anxiety is a word many of us are familiar with. More importantly, anxiety is an experience many of us are familiar with as well.
But what is it, exactly?
Understanding anxiety
Anxiety is a psychophysical (in other words, mind and body) response to imagined or real dangers or threats that can interfere with our lives and well-being.
For instance, we may feel anxious about an upcoming test or presentation. Or, we might feel anxious about something that may or may not actually happen. In either case, anxiety shows up in various ways: increased heart rate, rapid and shallow breathing, feelings of stress, gastrointestinal discomfort, sweating and racing / intrusive thoughts.
MBSR vs. MBCT: Evidence-based meditation to help anxiety
Anxiety is part of the human condition. But some of us, like myself, experience anxiety at higher and more frequent occurrences. This makes everyday life more challenging and difficult to navigate without support.
However, mindfulness has been proven to help people who are experiencing anxiety. And two particular practices involving mindfulness and its ability to help mitigate anxiety are:
MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)
MBSR was created by Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. This approach uses fundamental mindfulness techniques like body scans, mindful movement, awareness, and acceptance of the flow of your thoughts and physical sensations.
MBSR helps people recognize what’s happening in their minds and bodies when stress arises so they can respond in kind, wise, and meaningful ways—as opposed to compounding stress by reacting with negative emotions and actions.
MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy)
MBCT was created by Zindel Segal, Mark Williams, and John Teasdale in the 1990s. This approach helps people recognize anxious, intrusive, and depressive thought patterns in their minds so that they no longer identify with them or believe them to be true.
By bringing mindful awareness to thoughts and emotions and mindfully comparing them to the actual reality of the moment, people can begin to disengage from the spiral that anxious and negative thoughts can put them in.
How does meditation help with anxiety?
Enhances emotional regulation
As we become aware of our thoughts, sensations, and emotions, we are no longer driven by them blindly but can respond in wise, more compassionate ways. We may recognize negative emotions, but we can see them without judgment and not speak or act on them. We can meet our inner experiences with an attitude of kindness and nonjudgment, allowing feelings to be what they are, letting them pass on their own, and not creating further difficulty for ourselves.
Reduces activity in the default mode network
Our evolutionary default mode resides in the amygdala, the more primitive “reptilian” part of the brain. This is where our fight, flight, or freeze modes kick in when we are confronted with stress. When we bring mindfulness into stressful situations, we engage the more evolved parts of our brain—like the prefrontal cortex—into action, and we are able to recognize, process, and respond to negative circumstances and emotions with more clarity.
Lowers stress hormone levels
Cortisol is a hormone the body produces when stress arises. When we experience anxiety, our cortisol levels rise. Too much of this hormone in the body can have long-term negative health impacts.
So, by practicing mindful awareness and techniques like body scans, box breathing, and self-compassion, we reduce the feelings of stress in the mind and body, thereby bringing down the cortisol levels associated with them.
Improves attention and concentration
The practice of mindfulness is rooted in awareness of the present moment. For many of us, this awareness doesn’t come naturally—we’re primarily concerned with what’s happened in the past and what may happen in the future.
Awareness of the present moment requires repeatedly guiding the mind to what is happening in the here and now. This can be accomplished by guiding the mind to the breath, physical sensations, or the mental and emotional landscape inside us. Whatever object of attention we use, by consistently and gently bringing the mind back to it again and again in a formal meditation practice and everyday life, we develop deeper levels of attention and concentration over time. This enables us to stay more in touch with reality than with anxious or negative thoughts.
Promotes a relaxation response
Mindfulness practices like 4x6 breathing, box breathing, body scans, offering ourselves kindness, or even physical touch can help engage the parasympathetic nervous system. This system is also known as the body's relaxation response, and it is responsible for taking us out of a state of high alert and into a state of calm and relaxation.
Increases self-awareness
Being alive is a complex and dynamic experience, a constant interplay of mind, body, and emotions. Often, our inner and outer experiences happen without us noticing, leading us to live our lives on autopilot. Mindfulness encourages us to recognize what’s happening in our minds, bodies, and emotions. As we do this, we become more self-aware, developing insight into who we are, how life impacts us, and vice versa.
Encourages acceptance
As we become more aware of our minds, bodies, emotions, and circumstances, we realize that much of what we experience internally and externally is out of our control. This is not our fault or anyone else’s; it’s simply how things are.
What we can control is how we respond to what arises in us and around us. Recognizing this helps us accept life as it presents itself to us instead of struggling against it. It also helps us accept ourselves for who we are in any given moment instead of wishing we were different.
Mindfulness helps us to remember that in any given moment, we are enough.
Enhances resilience
Mindfulness, in its ability to help us regulate emotions, rest in the present moment, and respond to our inner and outer circumstances with kindness and nonjudgment, gives us more resilience and ability to recover from difficult circumstances. When we are unaware of the flow of our thoughts and emotions, we run the risk of being exhausted by them, reducing our ability to respond effectively to life’s challenges.
In other words, mindfulness helps us be more present, more aware, and more kind, giving us greater ability to roll with life’s punches, so to speak.
Types of meditation to relieve anxiety
Guided imagery
Visualization can help us navigate moments of anxiety. Perhaps there is a person, place, or object that, by just calling it to mind, makes us feel more at ease. Becoming more and more familiar with this source of comfort in a guided meditation practice helps us bring this source of comfort to mind in moments of stress and anxiety.
Body scan meditation
Anxiety is often thought of as mental, but it is both mental and physical. A meditation practice like a body scan helps us to move our awareness gently through the body, noticing where anxiety is expressing itself physically, and giving the body permission to relax and respond with kindness to those areas of physical anxiety.
Breathing exercises
Breathing exercises like 4x6 breathing, box breathing, or deep belly breathing can activate the body’s relaxation response and reduce feelings of stress and anxiety.
Loving-kindness meditation
Loving-kindness meditation is an important skill and practice that helps us relate to ourselves in the way we would relate to a friend or a loved one in whatever situation we might find ourselves in. It helps us to remember that we are just as deserving of love, grace, and care as anyone else.
Ease resting state anxiety with the Balance meditation app
The Balance app is a wonderful resource to help us develop mindfulness skills that can benefit our lives in multiple ways, including working with anxiety. I love how the app teaches the fundamentals of mindfulness practice, guides them to more advanced practices, and offers a wide array of specific techniques on the Singles tab.
FAQs: Meditation and anxiety
Does meditation really work for anxiety?
Yes. Meditation has been proven to help support people experiencing anxiety. Techniques like MBSR and MBCTR are clinically proven to support people who experience stress and anxiety.
What type of meditation is good for anxiety?
Mindfulness meditation is a simple and effective way to help support people experiencing anxiety. Body scan and loving-kindness meditations, focused breathing techniques, and self-compassion practices are all wonderful ways to work with anxiety.
How long does it take for meditation to help anxiety?
Meditation is not one size fits all. Since each person is different, the time it takes for meditation to be effective in responding to anxiety can vary. The important thing is to develop a regular practice so that you can feel resourced to respond to stressful situations and moments of anxiety with clarity, awareness, and kindness.
If you’re reading this, it may mean that you or someone you care about is experiencing anxiety. Please know that you are not alone. I myself have lived with generalized anxiety and OCD for most of my life. Mindfulness and meditation have been a huge help for me in developing self-awareness, but more importantly, self-compassion.
If you feel as though your experience of anxiety might be chronic (more than just occasional, but pervasive and ongoing), you may also want to explore getting additional support from friends, family, community, and/or a mental health professional. Personally, I’ve needed that additional support along with my mindfulness and meditation practice, and this has also been deeply helpful. No matter what, I think learning how to be present and kind towards ourselves is one of the most important things we can do, and mindfulness is an excellent practice to help us do just that.
Wishing you well today and always, my friend. I’m cheering you on as you move through your journey.
With love,
Ofosu
