Researchers analyzed over 18,000 scientific publications looking at the association between meditation and sadness and anxiety in a review published in March 2014 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Forty-seven trials with 3,515 patients passed their well-designed research criteria. The findings revealed that mindful meditation programs provided moderate evidence of lowering depression and anxiety symptoms over an eight-week timeframe.
Another study published in the journal Psychiatry Review in April 2018 indicated that people with a generalized anxiety disorder who participated in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program reduced stress markers more than a control group.
Talk to your doctor about including mindful-based therapy in your treatment plan if you’re interested. If you are on antidepressants, you should not stop taking them without consulting your doctor.
Regulating Negative Emotions Through Meditation
According to some studies, meditation can aid in the management of negative emotions like anger and fear.
Meditation may help people manage anger, according to a small study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition in February 2016. Furthermore, results were evident after just one meditation session.
The study looked at 15 persons who were new to meditation and 12 people who were seasoned practitioners. The participants were asked to recall times when they felt angry. Those who had never meditated before exhibited an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. In contrast, those who had previously done meditation had a little physical reaction to the activity.
Those who had never meditated before did it for 20 minutes in the second stage of the experiment. They showed a far lower bodily response when asked to relive the anger-inducing experience.
Another small study published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in September 2016 indicated that meditation assisted persons in managing negative emotions. One set of participants listened to a guided meditation while the other group listened to a language-learning presentation for the experiment. After these sessions, the subjects were shown photographs of horrific scenes, such as a bloodied body. The researchers monitored their brain activity and discovered that those who participated in the meditation session had a faster recovery in their emotional response in their brains after viewing the photographs, implying that meditation assisted them in managing their negative feelings.
Finally, preliminary data suggest that meditation can help cancer survivors cope with their fears of the disease reappearing. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 60% of one-year cancer survivors have moderate to severe concerns about the disease returning. The fear can be so debilitating that it has a detrimental impact on one’s emotions, relationships, employment, medical appointments, and general quality of life.
Fear of cancer recurrence was significantly reduced in patients who had undergone meditation intervention sessions, in which they were taught strategies to control their worry and where they place their attention, as well as helping them focus on what they want out of life, according to a study presented on June 2, 2017, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).
How Meditation Can Aid Stress Management
Stress appears to be an unavoidable part of existence in today’s environment. Stress has been linked to a range of negative health impacts, including an increased risk of headaches, muscle discomfort or tension, exhaustion, changes in sex drive, gastrointestinal issues, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. In addition, chronic health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes can be exacerbated by uncontrollable stress.
According to a Gallup poll from 2017, 8 out of 10 Americans say they are frequently or occasionally stressed in their everyday lives. In comparison, 17% claim they are rarely anxious, and 4% say they are never stressed.
Stress management is critical for overall wellness. Meditation is one approach to accomplish this.
Patients with a generalized anxiety disorder who took a course in mindfulness-based stress reduction, where they learned several different strategies to manage stress, had lower stress-related hormonal and inflammatory levels than people who did not practice mindfulness, according to a study published in the journal Psychiatry Research in April 2018.
Furthermore, evidence suggests that even short meditation sessions can help with stress management — and that it can start working immediately. For example, a group of people was divided into two groups in a study published in June 2014 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology: one that participated in three consecutive days of 25-minute mindful meditation training sessions and another that was taught to analyze poetry as a method to improve critical thinking skills.
All of the participants were given the difficult job of completing speaking and math tests in front of “stern-faced evaluators” at the end of the training session. Those who had participated in the mindfulness training sessions reported feeling less stressed than those who had experienced in the poetry group.
