Meditation for Anxiety

How Meditation Helps Anxiety

Meditation helps anxiety in various ways. First, it helps people quiet their minds, which may be filled with anxious or racing thoughts. Anchoring your awareness in the present moment helps you stop worrying about the future and keep your attention on the here and now.

Neuroscience has shown that meditation also induces positive emotional responses that help to reduce symptoms of anxiety and other mental health conditions. Multiple studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have demonstrated that meditation leads to physical changes in many areas of the brain, particularly the amygdala, the area that controls the fear response.

Regular meditation reduces the size of the amygdala while simultaneously increasing gray matter. These changes ultimately lead to less anxiety and improved mood, memory, and overall brain health.

Can Meditation Help Reduce Anxiety And Overthinking?

Meditation can help reduce anxiety and overthinking, which often occurs when we are hyper-focused on the past or future. In Buddhist culture, it is believed that “Sukh,” meaning happiness, can be attained by focusing on the present moment and fully immersing oneself in the nature of reality. Focusing your attention on your object of meditation quiets the mind and decreases rumination, keeping you in the current moment.

There is no doubt that our thoughts can impact our lives. The thoughts we think affect how we feel, behave, and perceive the world. When we practice mindfulness meditation, we become observers of our thoughts, feelings, and sensations from a place of curiosity and nonjudgment.

This type of meditation helps us to become more aware of our thoughts. By recognizing and contemplating our anxious and unhelpful thoughts, we can reframe them into positive, healthy self-talk, which improves our overall well-being.

Meditation can also induce positive emotions, which help to reduce anxiety, stress, depression, and other mental health conditions.

How Meditation Calms Anxious Feelings

When we are anxious, our breath often becomes labored or strained; we may hold our breath or take shallow, choppy breaths. That is why many meditation practices focus on the breath. By bringing conscious awareness to the breath and taking slow, deep, diaphragmatic breaths, we are able to calm the body and come out of an anxious or aroused state.

This shifts the nervous system from a sympathetic state (“fight or flight” mode) to a parasympathetic state (“rest and digest” mode). Physiologically, meditation lowers cortisol and reduces blood pressure and heart rate.

The Science Of Meditation for Anxiety

There is a variety of scientific research available concerning meditation and anxiety. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health conducted a research analysis of multiple randomized controlled trials examining the benefits of meditation. These studies had over 12,000 combined participants with over 45 different medical conditions.

They categorized the meditation interventions into four groups based on meditation type: mindfulness-based meditation, yoga-based meditation, transcendental meditation, and “other” meditation. This analysis revealed that mindfulness-based meditation worked as well at treating anxiety as evidenced-based approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mental health medications.

Another study of mindfulness-based stress meditation found that mindfulness helped reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder more so than people who just received stress reduction techniques alone. Numerous studies have shown that meditation has not only helped mild cases of anxiety but has also reduced suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

How Long Does It Take For Meditation To Help With Anxiety?

Meditation may sometimes provide immediate relief of anxiety symptoms by physiologically calming the body and quieting the mind. However, long-term anxiety relief typically requires a consistent meditation practice over an extended period.

It takes time to retrain your brain. When you first start meditating, you may not even notice a difference right away. But, over time, you will begin to see a difference.

Mindfulness-based stress reduction programs are typically eight weeks in length. However, there are some adapted programs that are condensed into 2–3 weeks. After the completion of these programs, people are encouraged to continue practicing meditation indefinitely.

Types Of Meditation For Anxiety

Meditation is an umbrella term for many different types of contemplative practices. Each style of meditation is unique and may offer different benefits. However, several types of meditation may help reduce anxiety symptoms.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is perhaps one of the most popular meditations for anxiety relief. It is a practice of bringing nonjudgmental awareness to everything occurring in your present experience, including your thoughts, feelings, sensations, and environment.

Practicing mindfulness brings curiosity, kindness, and acceptance into our reality by allowing things to be as they are rather than resisting, repressing, or denying our present-moment experience.

When we practice mindfulness to reduce anxiety, we see anxious thoughts and feelings as passing visitors. We welcome and befriend anxiety rather than dismiss or resist it. This allows the anxiety to move through us and reduces the intensity and frequency of anxious thoughts and feelings.

Compassion Meditation

Compassion meditation (also called “metta” or loving kindness meditation) is a practice of thinking compassionate thoughts and inducing compassionate feelings by intentionally being loving to ourselves and others.

When we practice compassion meditation, we give ourselves compassion and grace, which can induce positive thoughts and feelings while reducing anxiety and stress.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditation refers to any meditation in which another person guides you on your meditative journey. Your meditation guide may cue you to breathe in a specific pattern, visualize a certain image, speak a mantra to yourself, or bring awareness to whatever is arising in your mind and body in the present moment. A guided meditation for anxiety may help you to calm the body and reduce worry.

Breath Awareness

Many meditation techniques focus on the breath. Various breathing practices can be used to calm the body and bring the nervous system out of an anxious state and back into a physiological state of calm and relaxation.

Mantra Meditation

Mantra meditation is a form of meditation where you focus on a specific mantra or affirmation. You continue to speak this mantra, to yourself or out loud, throughout your practice.

Some mantras that you might use to help reduce anxiety include:

• I am at peace.
• I am calm, centered, and relaxed.
• I release fear and embrace love.

Body Scan

Body scan meditation can help bring your awareness out of the mind and into the body. You begin a body scan at the head or feet and scan the entire body, feeling what sensations are present. This can help you become aware of your startle signals, the sensations that arise in your body when you are anxious or afraid. It can also help you to release tension and stress.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation can help reduce anxiety and induce relaxation. You begin by tensing each part of the body separately, beginning at the face and moving gradually down to the feet. The goal is to tense each body part as much as possible, hold the tension in the body for a moment, and then take a big exhale as you release the tension. Once you have done the tense and release process for each body part individually, you end by tensing up the whole body and then softening and releasing the tension on one big exhale.

Yoga

Yoga is a moving meditation practice that integrates mind, body, and breath. Moving the body in sync with the breath brings the body out of “fight or flight” mode and into a “rest and digest” state.

Yoga helps us to release built-up tension, stress, and repressed emotions in the body, which can reduce anxious thoughts and feelings, induce positive emotions, and enhance overall well-being.

Managing Anxiety Through Meditation

Beginning a new meditation practice can feel daunting if you’re already struggling with anxiety. It is normal to feel a little unsettled at first, but the more you practice, the more comfortable you will get. It is important to let go of expectations, avoid judging yourself, and remain open to the experience.

If you or someone you love are struggling with anxiety and meditation practices, consider attending a local meditation class or seeing a therapist trained in mindfulness-based stress reduction.