Does Meditation Help Anxiety?

Yes, meditation helps decrease anxiety. There is research to suggest that meditation may be effective for anxiety (Orme-Johnson and Barnes, 2014). Meditation helps you to effectively deal with all the stress by quieting down the noise in your mind, and focusing on posture and breathing. This helps to give you a sense of inner peace, which helps you to more effectively deal with your external stressors.

Meditation can be practiced though meditative breathing or mind-body exercises such as qigong, tai chi and yoga. Meditative breathing helps you to effectively deal with all the stress by quieting down the noise in your mind, and focusing on breathing. This helps to give a sense of inner peace, and helps to more effectively deal with external stressors.

Mind-body exercises help you to be mindful of posture, movement, muscle tone, relationship of body parts to one another, and breathing. This helps to distract you from distressing thoughts and removes you from your stressful environment. There is evidence that mind-body exercises such as qigong, tai chi and yoga may be helpful for anxiety (Wang et al., 2014).

Now let’s do a brief meditative breathing session: close your eyes, sit upright, and get comfortable. Now direct your attention to your breathing. Just let your thoughts, emotions, and physical senses come and go. If you find yourself being caught up with your thoughts or feelings, then just refocus on your breathing. Each breath in is nourishing you, helping you to recover. Each breath out is discharging stress, and you feel your anxiety dissipating with each breath. Continue this for 15 to 20 minutes. Just refocus on your breathing should you become distracted by your thoughts or feelings.

As part of a comprehensive treatment plan, meditation is helpful for anxiety. To learn more about meditation and anxiety, read my book on anxiety, Anxiety Protocol at AnxietyProtocol.com.