Meditation for Anxiety and Stress.

Mindfulness has been a term thrown around over recent years due to it’s positive impacts on mental health and overall wellbeing. It’s a ubiquitous term, but meditation and mindfulness practices have been adopted by many because they can improve work performance, personal relationships, and overall wellbeing. Just, 5 minutes of deep breathing, reflection, and tension release during a typical 9-to-5 workday can help reduce stress and increase overall productivity. You can even do this during a meeting, who wouldn’t want that? It’s accessible and super easy.

Mindfulness is a practice that involves paying deliberate and non-judgmental attention to the present moment, just being. It's about being fully aware of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the environment around you without trying to change or judge them - sometimes it’s a challenge, but we get it. But being mindful encourages you to observe your experience with openness and curiosity, helping you become more attuned to your emotions and surroundings.

Engaging in mindfulness techniques can enhance your ability to manage stress, reduce anxiety, and improve your overall wellbeing. Mindfulness practices can involve various activities such as meditation exercises, deep breathing, mindful eating, grounding techniques, mindful movement (dance, walking, yoga) and focusing on the sensations of the present moment.

Meditation is one mindfulness practice. Implementing a daily meditation habit has helped many people deal with the daily stressors in life. There are many benefits to mindfulness meditation; the emotional and physical benefits of meditation can include:

1.     Stress reduction

One of the most common reasons people try meditation is to relieve stress.

Cortisol levels are typically elevated in response to psychological, emotional, and physical stress. Many of the adverse effects of stress are produced, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals known as cytokines.

These side effects can interfere with sleep, increase a person’s risk of developing depression and anxiety, raise blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cognitive issues such as brain fog.

Many different styles of meditation can help reduce the symptoms of stress. If you’re new to meditation, try a 5-minute guided practice via Spotify, Youtube or other streaming service. Over time you can increase the length of your meditation practice, meditate without guides or even meditation without music at all.

2.       Helps with Anxiety

Meditation can help to reduce symptoms of anxiety, according to a meta-analysis of nearly 1,300 adults. This effect was particularly strong in those with the highest levels of anxiety, meditation is a drug-free way to reduce that flight/flight/freeze response. Through practices that induce relaxation responses, meditation can lower heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension, promoting a sense of tranquillity.

In addition, one study discovered that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, increase positive self-statements and improve stress reactivity and coping.

Further research suggests that a variety of mindfulness-based exercises, including yoga, may also help to reduce anxiety symptoms. By fostering mindfulness and awareness of thoughts and emotions, meditation helps individuals detach from anxious thinking patterns. This diminishes rumination, the repetitive dwelling on negative thoughts common in anxiety. Additionally, meditation's influence on brain structure and function fosters emotional regulation and reduces the brain's fear response.

Incorporating controlled breathing techniques within meditation aids in managing anxiety symptoms by lowering heart rate and promoting relaxation. The practice also serves as a productive distraction from anxious thoughts, shifting attention to the present moment. Overall, meditation's ability to reduce stress and promote mindfulness can significantly contribute to anxiety management, although its effectiveness varies among individuals.

3.       Enhances Self Awareness

Meditation doesn’t mean thinking about anything, it’s a focused deliberate time out to be present with where you’re at right now. Some types of meditation may help you better understand yourself and grow into your best self. Self-inquiry meditation, for example, explicitly aims to help you better understand yourself and how you relate to those around you.

Other forms teach you to recognise potentially harmful or self-defeating thoughts. As you become more aware of your thought patterns, you will be able to steer them towards more constructive patterns.

Through techniques that encourage non-judgmental observation of thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, meditation unveils the intricate tapestry of one's mental landscape. This heightened self-awareness emerges from the focused attention inherent in meditation practices, which prompts a deepened understanding of immediate experiences. By exploring emotions without attachment and acknowledging thoughts as passing phenomena, meditation helps individuals recognise patterns, triggers, and habitual reactions within themselves.

Regular meditation nurtures a grounded awareness of the present moment, fostering a clearer perspective on thoughts and emotions. This consistent practice of introspection and reflection ultimately leads to a profound journey of self-discovery, unveiling facets of identity, values, and responses that might otherwise remain unexplored.

What is meditation?

You might be thinking - what is meditation? Isn’t it just blanking the mind and not thinking of anything? I can’t do that! I hear you say.

Different types of meditation may include various features to assist you in your meditation. These may differ depending on who you follow for advice or who is teaching a class. However, some of the most common aspects of meditation are:

A quiet space: If you’re new to meditation, finding a quiet space may make practising meditation easier. Try to find a comfortable, safe space with few distractions, such as no TV or other devices that could distract you.

Comfort: Feeling comfortable is imperative. You can practice meditation sitting, lying down or even while walking but choose a comfortable position. For example, if you have lower back issues, laying down with a pillow under your knees might be more comfortable for you than sitting. Or sitting on a cushion so that your hips are higher than your feet might be a relaxed posture. Whatever works for you.

Breathing: Relaxing your breath is integral to meditation practice because it helps the parasympathetic nervous system relax. Deep, even-paced breathing expands your lungs using the diaphragm muscle. The goal is to slow down the breath, increase oxygen intake, and use less of your upper body to breathe, such as the shoulder, neck, and upper chest muscles, allowing you to breathe more proficiently.

Attention: One of the most essential aspects of meditation is the ability to focus your attention.

Focusing your attention is what allows your mind to be free of the numerous distractions that cause stress and worry. You can direct your attention to a specific object, an image, a mantra, or even your breathing. If you’re a beginner to meditation, a guided meditation practice could be a useful place to begin; there are many free guided meditations on Spotify or YouTube. Some people find the shift of attention one of the most challenging aspects of meditation; like everything, it takes practice.

Meditation Practice For Anxiety

It takes time. Meditation takes practice.

Give yourself space, love and light and be non-judgemental. It is common for your mind to wander during mediation, especially if you have a lot going on in your life – this doesn’t just apply to beginners too! If you are trying to calm your mind and you find yourself thinking about external factors, bring yourself back to your intention, object, or movement, and be in the present moment.

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to meditate. It’s a journey.

If you’d like to know more, contact us today about our corporate meditation sessions.