Does Meditation Cure Anxiety?
In my teaching, one topic that comes up a lot is, “does meditation cure anxiety”?
It’s a valid question. So many people tend toward feeling anxious. They are unable to keep the bombardment of rogue thoughts from assaulting the brain. I know. I used to be there.
Lots of thoughts
This is the scenario for many people. In fact, most humans can have up to 70,000 thoughts per day, many of which are judgmental and negative. No wonder so many walk around stressed and on edge.
Does, then, meditation help cure anxiety? While the answer isn’t a “thousand times, yes,” there is an affirmative: meditation does help with anxiety. It is not a quick cure, but it is a long-term fix.
Earlier times
Part of the reason quite a few people feel such anxiety in the modern world is because of evolution. When humans were more nomadic, they had to constantly be on the lookout for threats in the environment.
Other animals, other people, the weather, changing seasons, finding food, securing shelter, ceaselessly on the move – these all vied for their attention.
This was for good reason: it meant survival.
This tendency to be on the lookout didn’t just go away as the world became more comfortable and humans created settlements. We are programmed to assess our environment – constantly.
The speed of light
In modern society, things happen at the speed of light, thanks to advances in technology. People are bombarded with virtual threats (as well as legitimate real ones). The brain doesn’t distinguish between the anxiety of forgetting to pay the electric bill or running from a rogue grizzly bear.
To the brain, it’s all the same. It releases all the same stress hormones for each stressful event it perceives. The heart speeds up, the breath becomes shallow, and a person might be ready to fight or flee.
The anterior cingulate
Many people don’t have much trouble filtering and regulating their emotions. But many more do. It has to do with the structure of the brain.
The anterior cingulate is one area of the brain responsible for controlling emotions and thoughts. People who have trouble activating this part of the brain experience higher levels of anxiety.
Another area of the brain, the amygdala, governs the flight or fight response. A larger amygdala means a person is more prone to experiencing symptoms of stress or anxiety.
This is where meditation comes in. A mindfulness practice (a focus on the breath) can help jumpstart the anterior cingulate and reduce the size of the amygdala. These then allow an individual to better-regulate their own levels of anxiety.
It is said that if you’re anxious, you’re in the “future” and if you’re depressed, you’re in the “past.” It is possible to be at peace, and that’s in the present.
Mindfulness meditation
When you take a deep breath, this is a signal to the brain that it’s okay to relax. (This is opposite of the fight or flight response that creates more rapid, shallow breathing.)
Meditation with a focus on the breath is one of the best long-term activities that anxious-prone individuals can try. The brain relaxes and gets more oxygen, the anterior cingulate kicks in, and the body experiences a greater levels of calm.
How does meditation work?
A meditation with a focus on the breath not only helps the body become more relaxed, but it starts to re-train the brain to interrupt thoughts as they come. This is because as a person notices thoughts, they can then refocus on the breath.
Over time, a regular practice of meditation then helps a person to be able to let thoughts go with more ease. An “observer” emerges. This is the part of the mind that can “watch” as a person thinks their thoughts. People then start to see how they are separate from their thoughts.
You are not your thoughts. People aren’t their thoughts.
With a deepening practice, these thoughts begin to come more slowly. The “space” of silence gets bigger, little by little. First in microseconds. Then maybe one second, two seconds, and so on.
A meditator learns to control thoughts a little more easily. A person doesn’t have to identify with their thoughts.
Rule your mind, or you will be ruled by it. –Horace
Other considerations
Meditation works over the long term. If you have anxious thoughts and try meditation for 5 minutes, and then never establish a daily practice, you won’t experience a decrease in anxiety.
Having a regular practice is key.
There are other considerations and things to try:
- Exercise – this helps to get any stress build-up and excess energy out of your system. Plus it’s good for your overall health, the heart, and optimal functioning of the body.
- Diet – if you eat donuts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you’re going to contribute to your own sense of anxiety through lack of self-care. A wholesome diet not only helps the body function better, but you feel better overall.
- Walking – related to getting exercise, walking can help clear the mind give you some perspective
- Hold your thumb – one way to help with worry is a jin shin jyutsu technique of curling one hand around the opposite thumb and holding for 1-2 minutes. Then repeat on the other hand.
My personal practice
Let me just say that one of the reasons I came into meditation was not only for the spiritual aspect (I love mystery!), but also because I am a “natural-born worrier.”
I was that kid that fretted over the plight of animals, the environment, if my parents were arguing, if I remembered to complete all my homework, to name a few things. I never grew out of it.
As an adult, there are so many things to fret about: did I say the right thing? Why did she look at me that way? Am I doing all right at work? I should be more helpful. Maybe I should do better at this or that or that or this….
Years ago, I turned to meditation knowing that it would help my own anxiety. I didn’t want to take medication for it if I didn’t have to. Nor did I want to live my life constantly on edge, enduring headaches and digestive issues as a result.
By my mid-20s, I was experiencing enough anxiety that I considered medication. I was more interested, however, in self-healing. And so I started to meditate.
Greater calm
The result is that I am much more calm in all of life’s situations.
To be sure, there are ups and downs. I can’t control what happens in life, but I am much better at controlling my reaction to them. Sometimes I still experience worry or anxiety, but I have much greater control over my thoughts, and I am more responsive to life, and not reactive.
Furthermore, my thoughts aren’t nearly as judgmental. I’m kinder to myself and to others.
I feel like there will come a day when I can completely detach from my thoughts. This will be when I have reached a point in my practice that I experience regular transcendence.
Until then, I’m always working on my own practice that I know has helped me immeasurably.
References
How does meditation reduce anxiety at a neural level?
How meditation can help anxiety
How meditation helps anxiety
The ultimate guide to mastering anxiety
Is there anything meditation can’t help with? Seriously, it really does have amazing healing powers from all you have shared here today and in the past. So, I dod always feel like I am learning anew here. That said while I am not an anxious person for the most part I still feel like meditation definitely has helped to relax me, as well in the past so I can at least for myself attest to that. But what can I say, but thank you for always laying out there straight here with us and for also giving us you personal experiences, as well. Hugs and Happy Monday, as well as week ahead now xoxo <3
Janine, well, you know, it’s a pretty good antidote for a lot of things. While we’re meditating, we don’t feel much, but outside of the practice, whoa!, you NOTICE things. Hehe. I’m so glad you feel like you learn something new – this makes me happy as it is my mission to teach. I’m so glad you meditate, too. It’s a part of every religious tradition, and in Catholicism, one of the most well-known forms is praying the rosary – as Mother Teresa did. Thank you for always being sweet and coming by with your bright spirit and beautiful smile! xo
Meditation has helped me relax and find more peaceful spaces in my life too.
Brad – I’m so glad! I remember at one time you weren’t sure about it, so it’s great that you have found a rhythm and groove with it. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful week!
Does it cure anxiety? Lil Sis, I’m hung up on that word “cure.” Is anxiety a disease? Mister Literal is stuck on that one. Meditation can certainly help with anxiety. It can certainly lessen anxiety. It has done that for me and continues to do it. But cure…like it’s a cancer or something? lol
Who cares, right? As long as it works, that’s all that’s important, and it does, so there you go!
Gotta run…behind as always….sending hugs your way on this drizzly Olympia day.
Big Bro – ha! You know, if we were still in ancient times, I bet those of us who tend toward anxiety would naturally feel better because we’d be doing exactly what we evolved to do. But well, I personally have been working on my “anterior cingulate” (haha – say THAT casually in conversation) and have been enjoying the benefits of reduced anxiety. Me being a natural born worrier, it will take A LOT of time, years, and patience to overcome my propensity to worry, but in the meantime, I feel like a completely different person than a decade ago.
And well, thank you for coming by, Big Bro. I always appreciate your insights and perspective. 🙂 Hugs from Cackalack.
I really try and am still working on a meditation practice.I need routine and my life has so little of that other than morning pages and night time gratitude and daily journal. The stuff in between is always up for grabs but my morning pages help me focus my intentions for the day I do work on following my breath as I very often find i’m holding it for long periods and it’s quite shallow most of the time. I’ve read everything I can find about it but still can’t get there. Need to pick a good time and go with it. I was out of the house by 7:30 this morning and this whole day has run me versus the other way around. I agree with everything you say about it. I’m steeped in anxiety and talk to my therapist about how to manage it. Writing helps a lot. Maybe that’s my form of meditation. I just follow the thought and see where it takes me. It is helping but I really want to feel that freedom meditation brings. Thanks for sharing all this information. Hugs. Marlene
Marlene – sweet friend. So good to see you. It sounds like you’re just fine on the routine. Hehe. I love how you do the morning pages. You know the artists’ way. Hehe. Those early mornings can be hard to fit everything in. I understand. Writing IS a form of meditation. It helps you focus on something. It’s a catharsis. I once had a close friend, who is a psychologist, tell me jokingly not to tell too many people to write their own memoirs because it’s so healing and she’d be out of a job. And then she said, it would be glorious if I WERE out of a job for that reason. I wrote a memoir almost ten years ago. I never published it, but the anger and angst in my heart dissipated. It was as if I released EVERYTHING into the writing itself. It was incredibly healing. Thank you for coming by and reading. Little sessions of meditation WILL help. I promise. I am in the process of writing a series of mini-meditations that could help you. 🙂 Sending you big hugs! xo
Meditation was the Key for releasing and helping me over my own stress and anxiety Cynthia..
A pivotal point in my road of finding myself I would say.
I smiled big time to learn we were of similar natures and sought out meditation to help us..
You hit the nail on its head as you said in todays world everything is done at speed, we never slow down to ‘smell the roses’ so to speak and take time out just to be..
I know in my own career back ground it was all about speed.. ‘Piece work’ and later I qualified in Time and Motion with stop watch in hand timing production and working out best production methods for profitability.. Time was money to me in those days..
So to discover meditation, and just Breatheeeeeee….. You could say was my life saver..
I can still get anxious.. But learning to breatheeeeee deeply through it helps calm and give you space to access your feelings.
Wonderful post, I missed this one before Cynthia..
Have a great week.. Love and Hugs dear friend.
Sue <3
Sue – meeeeee toooo. I discovered meditation because of my own spiritual journey, but I quickly realized it curbed my own sense of anxiety. And of COURSE you sought out meditation to help you. OF COURSE you did. You know why? Because I think I might be the fledgling version of you. Hehe. And I say that with such love. I consider you to be a sage, a master. And I love your words of wisdom and all the things you share…
It’s so frustrating how everything today is done with such speed – making people ignore their human instincts and need for connection, and love. I just read a disturbing article about women working in warehouses who aren’t allowed to let up on their physical labor duties when they’re pregnant and how this practice is widespread and causes miscarriages in many women. Though I am childfree by accident and then by choice, I also understand the need for expecting mothers to be honored and given the space to nurture a growing human. Ah…sending all of them peace, safety and love…
Discovering meditation not only saved me from much future angst, but it changed my life in BIG ways. BIG, BIG ways. I can’t wait to see how far I get with it. To share it. To honor it.
I still get anxious, too. It’s remembering to breathe and take a step back when it’s all happening is key – something I quite often still forget to do. In meditation, I’ve recently started saying the affirmation to myself, “I am calm and remain calm in life’s situations” – just to see what happens over time. I knew a relative who had had a heart attack and after that he completely changed. In EVERY situation, he remained calm. NOTHING ruffled him. I met him only once when I was 14, but in that 24 hours I was visiting him and his family, that stayed with me all these years later. I don’t even know his name. But I remember the CALM and always wanted to aspire to that perpetual calm….
Wonderful to see you and read your comments as always. Sending you big, big hugs and wishes for a wonderful weekend. 🤗☮️🤗☮️
I agree Cynthia, everything today is done at such speed, no time, everyone rushing. No one smells the roses anymore lol.
Love the fledgling reference, We would call our circle members who were practicing their skills fledglings, and I took many out with me on my bookings to introduce them and give them an opportunity to stand and give a message, Often their nerves got the better of them, But I would take two or three with me with prior permission of the venue, and as them to link in while one gave a message, then another would give theirs ect…
So you made my heart smile…
I know if things had been different, you told me before, you would have made a great Mum.
But in all honesty, I do wonder what the future holds for such as my 7 yr old granddaughter..
We had a draconian work place in a warehouse not far from where we live, the owner a multi-millionaire. It was big news a couple of years ago.. A woman nearly gave birth on the premises and the ambulance crews were always said to being called out for people fainting.. Many Polish and Ukrainians were employed there and they were penalty strikes against them if they were ill and had time off, and often breaks were not adequate.. Many pregnant women working far too long hours.
His company got a huge fine, In fact the owner had to appear before the government.
So many things in the world tare at my heart strings.. Yemen is another. So if we did not breath, and meditate, I think we would go slightly insane..
I love your calm mantra.. I must remember that one… just reading the worlds brings calm..
Ok must go, thank you so much again for the compliment.. I am no Sage.. Just someone like you, who has travelled through her own experiences, gaining knowledge, and learning her craft.. So to speak..
Have a relaxing weekend.. Much love dear Cynthia.. Love and Blessings <3
Sweet Sue, you’re absolutely right. Everything is done so fast. Even though I’ve incorporated a lot of meditation and mindfulness into my life, the challenges of balancing building a business, with working a day job, and still trying to find time to be a wife, a daughter, and a friend, as well as clean the house, and do all the normal chores, leaves me busy. Too busy. But it is really good training in mindfulness. Finding the calm in every moment is my biggest challenge. I’m learning. I’m embracing. It is not easy. I have moments where I feel stressed, and anxious. I have moments where I forget to breathe. But overall, I think I am way better off than I ever used to be.
Seeing that to have a seven-year-old granddaughter, I have to wonder about the seven generations to come after. I fear that we humans are not thinking about seven generations hence. Too many of us are thinking only a profit today. It’s one thing to make a living, but it’s entirely another to take so much of what you don’t need that we start to have problems.
I wonder if humanity is more like an adolescent. There’s surges of hormones right now, but there are wisps of mature adulthood that shine through. This adulthood is where humans have learned to respect and cooperate, and use the advanced brain instead of the primitive brain. The advanced brain is where our centers of empathy and compassion are located, as well as the notion of reacting with love instead of fear. There are too many people today who still reacts with fear. But there are many more who are waking up to the idea of that it’s okay to react to life with love. I hope that idea grows and sprouts, and that places of work, families, friends, and all organizations see the value an understanding spirituality and love, and every person as a human being. Not a doing, not a slave, not an expendable resource, but as a human being, connected to a community.
I love that when we converse, words and snippets of wisdom get exchanged that resonate with each other. I can’t wait for the day when we get to meet and have out tea. Until then, my friend, walk in the light.
Loved your reply Cynthia.. True too much fear, …. And me too I Love your snippets of wisdom. and oh for that cuppa when we meet… <3
Likewise, dear friend. Sending you lots of OM.
Dear Cynthia,
The best teachers share their personal example and experiences – you are one of the best teachers!
Achieving / maintaining calm and peacefulness with “meditation over medication” – can’t beat that…!
Love you and thank you, Maria
Sweet Mar – your comment means so much to me. I am striving and will always strive to do my best – for myself and those who might learn from me. Meditation over medication. Oooh, I think I might have heard that before, but now that I see you using it here, well, Ima have to use that. 😁 Sending you hugs and thank you for your insights and wisdom!