Stress, anxiety and depression are familiar disorders nowadays. People commonly use these terms to explain the feelings that result from exposure to daily life, work and family pressures. These symptoms are frequently interrelated. Those who suffer from consistent worrying thoughts experience high levels of stress. Chronic stress can lead to anxiety and depression. But, is there anything we can do to alleviate these conditions? Read on to find out.
The Impact of Stress on Mental Health and the Power of Meditation
Everyone experiences stress on a daily basis. It is the natural response of the body when we feel threatened or under pressure. Too much stress has an impact on our emotions, our health, and our relationships. It can make us feel angry or worried, and it may negatively influence the way we view ourselves. Work-related stress is the most common with 79% of employees in the UK saying they regularly felt stressed. Moreover, 74% of UK workers have reported feeling stressed to the point of being so overwhelmed they felt unable to cope properly. Furthermore, 64% of those who felt stressed reported feeling anxious too and 51% of those who reported feeling stressed revealed they also felt depressed.
The worldwide impact of stress is just as alarming with 77% of Americans revealing that their physical health suffers as a result of stress and 73% stating their mental health is impacted due to this condition. In China, the numbers are higher with 86% of employees feeling stressed. Australians appear to be the most affected with 91% reporting they feel stressed. These statistics are alarming as stress is commonly experienced along with other mental health issues, including those mentioned above such as anxiety and depression.
Depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental health illnesses, impacting the population. Current data suggests over eight million people are affected by an anxiety disorder and around one in every six people in the United Kingdom are experiencing depression at any one time. Worldwide the WHO reports that approximately 280 million people suffer from depression and 301 million people are affected by an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety and depression are usually treated with pharmaceuticals, therapy or both. Meditation is becoming far more popular in treating disorders such as these because it is easily accessible and doesn’t have the adverse effects that some of the medications can result in having. On its own meditation has been found to improve the symptoms of those suffering depression with the results lasting up to six months or even longer. Since no negative effects of practicing meditation have been reported this makes it a highly desirable technique to incorporate as part of a person’s treatment.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a structured practise that can help to relax the mind and increase awareness of ourselves, our minds, and our surroundings. There are various ways to practice meditating such as counting your breaths in and out, listening to meditative music or using mantras or phrases as the focus for meditation. Tai chi (TIE chee) and qigong (chee-GONG) are two types of meditation practices involving movement. They employ, slow, intentional exercises, relaxed breathing, and focused mental attention.
Each of the many meditation approaches are based on a simple awareness of the present moment. This allows us to observe our own thinking and become aware of the many habitual thoughts that arise but allowing them to fade away without attaching to them. People who practice this usually discover that a period of serenity and quiet follow. Over time, we realise most of our thoughts are just fleeting repetitive programs and we can let them go more easily.
Meditation practises have been shown to reduce amygdala activity while increasing connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex part of the brain. These areas of the brain assist us in being less reactive to fearful and anxious situations and help us recover from stresses more quickly. A consistent feeling of calmness is bestowed upon those who meditate regularly.
The Science Part
Meditation has been demonstrated in meta-analyses and systematic reviews to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and improve overall wellbeing. For those who aren’t scientists, a systematic review involves compiling all the available research on a specific topic whereas meta-analysis is a statistical procedure that integrates data from several research studies to uncover common findings and general patterns. Systemic reviews combined with meta-analysis allows statistical analyses of all the findings of multiple comparable research studies or trials.
Not only have studies into meditation practices revealed reductions in anxiety and depression but additionally structural and functional brain changes have been observed in the brains of those who have practised traditional meditation for longer periods of time. These long-term meditation studies have revealed changes in regions of the brain associated with stress and anxiety. Areas of the brain involved in processing emotions and behaviour such as the prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and hippocampus have been found to be more active during meditation, whereas several studies on the amygdala show less activity, indicating improved emotional regulation.
A study carried out to determine the effects of visualization meditation on depression, anxiety, stress and achievement motivation levels of nursing students discovered that this type of meditation considerably boosted the students’ achievement-oriented motivation levels while decreasing their stress, anxiety and depression levels. Other research has revealed that mindfulness meditation helps minimise mind wandering and increases our problem-solving abilities.
Another study involved a six-week focused meditation training carried out on Brazilian university students to see if this had any effect on symptoms of anxiety and depression. They were followed-up at six and twelve month intervals. When compared to controls, the meditation group showed a reduction in anxiety and depression symptoms. These symptoms continued to be lower at the follow-up intervals for those who continued practicing. This study concluded that permanent meditation programmes might be an option for improving university students’ mental health.
A similar randomised controlled trial in Chinese nursing students found mindfulness meditation reduced anxiety symptoms and lowered systolic blood pressure.
In concordance with the results of other studies to find out the effects of meditation on psychological stress and inflammation, one study found considerably lower post-stress inflammatory responses compared to other techniques.
Another study found mindfulness meditation to decrease depression during pregnancy and prevent remission in those who suffer from this disorder. This study concluded that meditation would be beneficial as a supplementary measure in the therapeutic treatment of perinatal depression.
A further investigation found meditation could even help with symptoms as severe as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. When compared to control settings, mindfulness meditation had a much greater effect on relieving military-related PTSD symptoms. The findings from this study supported the efficacy and practicality of mindfulness meditation in the treatment of military-related PTSD.
One more study researched the use of mobile mindfulness meditation, which is a mindfulness meditation intervention that is carried out utilising mobile devices such as smartphones and apps (see The Tapping Solution app mentioned below). This study found that mobile mindfulness meditation was effective in reducing anxiety and stress, as well as increasing students’ overall well-being and can be utilised to help university students manage their mental health. Popular mindfulness apps include The Mindfulness app (visit www.themindfulnessapp.com), Headspace (visit www.headspace.com) and Calm (visit www.calm.com).
How to Get Started with Meditation
If you have never meditated before the best place to begin is to sit in a quiet space where you are unlikely to be distracted. Ensure you are comfortable. Close your eyes. Relax your body and start taking deep breaths in and out. Ensure you are breathing in deeply all the way down to your stomach. If you are used to only breathing from your chest area you can try placing your hand on your abdomen and notice the rise and fall of your stomach as you inhale and exhale. Try to keep your mind focused on moving air into and out of your lungs. As your mind starts to wander, and it will, release the thought and focus back on your breathing.
Initially meditation can feel unnatural or even uncomfortable and you will find your mind busy with habitual thoughts and worries. It takes consistency and discipline to remain focused on relaxing the body and releasing any thoughts that come up. Thoughts about yesterday, or a loved one whom you may be worried about, or even as simple as what to have for breakfast! Keep directing your attention to counting your breaths, in and out. Alternatively, you can focus on a background sound, such as a clock ticking or an air conditioner. You could even listen to meditative music, of which there are plenty to choose from with a quick YouTube search.
My Meditation Experience
I have found meditation to be hugely beneficial in releasing stress and helping to calm down my anxious thoughts. Afterwards I generally notice a rise in my overall mood. I practice meditation daily now due to these advantages and I encourage anyone to try it to see the benefits for themselves.
The best time to practice is first thing in the morning, before looking at your phone, or emails or the news or anything else that will have your mind busy and active and possibly worrying or thinking about daily stresses. Sometimes I use one of Deepak Chopra’s 21-day guided meditations, which incorporate mantras and music. A mantra is a repetitive word or sound to help aid a person into a deeply meditative state and remain focused. They are good for people who find it hard to concentrate or sit still.
Other times I have used The Tapping Solution app, which you can find here: https://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/tapping-solution-app/. This app has various meditation sessions to choose from, depending on how long you wish to meditate, for example, 15 or 30 minutes, depending upon how much time you have. I find using one of these meditations helpful if my mind is already too active, before I have begun to meditate, as it incorporates EFT Tapping to help calm the mind before slipping into a meditative state (see my blog on EFT to learn more about this: https://www.thureyaroberts.com/2023/01/22/eft-what-is-it-and-does-it-help/.
Mostly I do a silent meditation as soon as I wake up which involves counting my breaths in and out. Breathing in for eight, breathing out for 11 breaths. The longer outbreath helps to release anxiety. I sit there for roughly 15 minutes, sometimes longer, while noticing any thoughts but not attaching to them. It is important to allow all thoughts to pass by and keep refocusing back on your breath again. You are basically training your busy mind, as you would when training a dog, by instructing it to stay still.
The first five minutes can be a bit uncomfortable, as I notice any aches or pains in my body or I start thinking about the workday and all the tasks I have to complete. Nevertheless, by disciplining myself and continually refocusing back to the space between my eyes, with my eyes closed, eventually I feel an overall calmness spread throughout my entire body, my breathing becomes deeper and I feel a sort of physical detachment. You need to experience it yourself to see what I mean by this but I promise you, you will feel something, IF you can quieten your mind long enough to get to this point which might take a few practices.
I also suggest sitting up when you meditate, as I have a tendency to fall asleep if I’m lying down. I tried meditating years ago, before it became a daily practice, and I would always fall asleep and not feel the benefits I am talking about now. That all changed when I started sitting up throughout the exercise.
Overall, scientific studies have reported that since mindfulness-based therapies are an effective treatment for stress, anxiety and depression, and have not been found to produce any adverse effects, their overall health advantages warrant their use as supplementary therapy for individuals suffering with these disorders. The only way to find out if meditation will be of benefit to you is to try it for yourself.
For More Information
You can visit my website via this link: https://www.thureyaroberts.com/
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References
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