How Does Mindfulness Help Anxiety?
By now, you’ve probably heard about mindfulness. You’ve seen posts on social media with suggestions on how to be more mindful. You may have heard family or friends talk about practicing mindfulness. But you’re left wondering, “Why is everyone talking about it and why should I do it?”
Mindfulness is a practice that has been around for a very, very long time, but it is a newer phenomenon to us in Western cultures. It is the practice of bringing kind and non-judgmental awareness to the present moment.
There are many benefits to the practice of mindfulness, including:
Improving mood
Relieving stress
Lowering blood pressure
Reducing chronic pain
Alleviating gastrointestinal difficulties
Improving sleep
In this blog post, you’ll find further explanation for how mindfulness helps with anxiety.
Mindfulness, which can include practices such as meditation, deep breathing, and grounding techniques, is an evidence-based practice that has been proven to help reduce anxiety. Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present, and when we are anxious, we are either living in the past or future, so developing the ability to live in the present is a helpful technique to reduce anxiety, and mindfulness is one effective way to live a more present life.
Self-criticism is also common with anxiety. Have you ever been anxious because you had thoughts like “What if they don’t like me?” or “There’s no way I can do this, I’m not strong enough.” Those are just two of many different ways you might be harsh and critical towards yourself. It seems to be a chicken or the egg situation. I’ve noticed that for some people the self-criticism comes first and fosters anxiety; while for others, the anxiety they experience can lead to more self-criticism. Either way, self-criticism and anxiety can often come as a package deal. Through mindfulness practices, you learn how to observe and bring awareness to the anxiety in your mind and body without judgment. This is a key aspect to both mindfulness and self-compassion practices, which are both helpful with reducing self-criticism.
Studies have shown that mindfulness affects the brain in various ways. It has been discovered that practicing mindfulness increases the amount of grey matter in, and therefore the effectiveness of, the hippocampus. This is a part of the limbic system of the brain, which is responsible for memory and emotion. Other parts of the brain that are affected by mindfulness are related to awareness, decision making, concentration, sense of self, and emotion regulation, which can all play a role in anxiety and anxiety management.
Research has also found that mindfulness helps build resilience, which is an important protective factor against stress. Anxiety can be a build up of excessive or prolonged stress, so it is helpful to manage stress in healthy and consistent ways to reduce anxiety levels, as well. Mindfulness is one of those ways.
Mindfulness has a long list of benefits that you may experience when you begin to live more mindfully. One of those many benefits is a reduced level of anxiety. Mindfulness helps reduce anxiety by helping you be more present in your life, reducing self-criticism, improving emotional regulation, and building resilience to help protect against stress. Mindfulness has been used successfully across many populations; however, in individuals who are living with histories of trauma or abuse, it can bring up intense emotions and memories, and it is good practice to explore the use of mindfulness with a mental health professional.