If you thought meditation was some woo-woo, hippie, waste-of-navel-gazing-time, I’ve got news for you – it’s absolutely not!
And if you suffer from anxiety, depression or chronic pain, then the science is most definitely in – mindfulness meditation could be the best – side-effect free – thing you could possibly do for yourself…
If you’re wondering what mindfulness meditation is exactly, check out last week’s post here – this week I want to geek out with you and share the cold, hard, scientific facts that have proven the benefits of mindfulness for mental health, and caused the sceptical medical community to sit up and take notice…
High-Level Evidence Even Your Doctor Would Take Seriously!
Since the 60s when meditation first started making it’s way into Western culture there has been more than 19 000(!) studies done on the benefits of meditation…BUT – not ALL studies are created equal and many had design flaws or small sample sizes that did not hold much weight in the medical community.
In 2013 though, researchers began the arduous task of sifting through all these studies and found that 3% (or 47) studies were well-designed enough to meet the rigorous standards required in medicine, and though it was concluded more high-quality research was needed, there was enough evidence to prove that mindfulness was a valid treatment option for anxiety, depression (and pain) – about as effective as medications but without any nasty side-effects. It was also found that mindfulness could lessen the psychological toll of stress.
Mindfulness Significantly Reduces Relapse Rates in Chronic Depression
Since 2013, more studies have been published, some showing higher efficacy rates than drugs, with chronic, relapsing depression being one area in particular.The research of psychologist John Teasdale at the University of Oxford was able to show that for people with depression so severe that drugs or even electroshock treatments were no help, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy could cut the rate of relapse by half! (If there was a drug that could do that, it would be a billion-dollar blockbuster for sure!)
By 2016, a meta-analysis of 9 well-designed studies with a total of 1258 patients, concluded that over a year after treatment, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was an effective way to lower the relapse rate in severe depression, and the more severe the symptoms of depression, the larger the benefits of MBCT. The reason? Lead researcher Zindel Seagal found the best outcomes were in those patients most able to “decentre”, that is, step outside their thoughts and feelings enough to see them coming and going, rather than getting carried away by “my thoughts and feelings”. In other words, the patients were more mindful. And the more time they put into their mindfulness practice, the lower their odds of a relapse into depression.
Even ONE Mindfulness Meditation Session Can Reduce Anxiety
In 2018, a study published in The Journal of Experimental Biology found that people can begin to derive psychological and physiological benefits from mindfulness meditation after a single introductory session.
“Our results show a clear reduction in anxiety in the first hour after the meditation session, and our preliminary results suggest that anxiety was significantly lower one week after the meditation session,” said lead study author John J. Durocher, PhD, an assistant professor of physiology in the department of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University. “Participants also had reduced mechanical stress on their arteries an hour after the session. This could help to reduce stress on organs like the brain and kidneys and help prevent conditions such as high blood pressure.”
And It Can Help In The Long-Term With Anxiety As Well…
The General Hospital of Psychiatry has found clear long-term benefits of mindfulness meditation as well…An initial study of 22 patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders took part in an 8 week mindfulness program and had a significant reduction in both subjective and objective anxiety symptoms at the end of the program. At 3 months, 20 subjects showed continued improvement, and at 3 years, 18 of the original 22 subjects were followed up to measure long-term effects.
High-Tech Brain Scans Show Mindfulness Reduces Social Anxiety
Now that we have amazing technological advances that allow us to measure exactly what’s going on in the brain, we can expect even more exciting studies to be published in the coming years.
One such study has already been done on people suffering from social anxiety, a surprisingly common condition that affects up to 6% of the population…
Research done at Stanford University measured patients after 8 weeks of a mindfulness program and not only did patients self-report feeling less social anxiety, but brain scans backed up the self-reported results and showed that their amygdala – a region of the brain which can trigger fear, stress and anxiety – was much less active than before they began the mindfulness program.
One of her studies (which was included in the JAMA Internal Medicine review) found that a mindfulness-based stress reduction program helped quell anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, a condition marked by hard-to-control worries, poor sleep, and irritability. People in the control group—who also improved, but not as much as those in the meditation group—were taught general stress management techniques. All the participants received similar amounts of time, attention, and group interaction.
Yoga Also Counts as Mindfulness – and Is Particularly Beneficial for Extreme Anxiety
And if you’ve tried mindfulness meditation before, I’d love to hear about your experience! Please share in the comments below!
Aaaaaand if you have a friend or loved one struggling with anxiety or depression, please share this post, it may be information that makes a real difference to them 🙂
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