The Benefits of Meditation for Anxiety

The Benefits of Meditation for Anxiety

It is normal in life to struggle at times with worry and stress. This can include stress about your job, your relationship, and your health. With regards to health, sometimes it can be hard to tell if your health is impacting your stress or if stress is impacting your health.

Constant stress can lead to anxiety which can turn into an actual anxiety disorder. Many people see their lives ruled by their anxiety disorder. The three most common types of anxiety disorders are generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and social anxiety disorder. These can affect anyone and appear at any moment. The common symptoms of anxiety disorders include feeling on edge, panic attacks, and difficulty relaxing either at night or when something triggers your anxiety.

Doctors do not know exactly why some people suffer from anxiety and others do not. Women and people with a family history of mental illnesses have a greater chance of suffering from anxiety disorders along with those that have a low self-esteem in childhood or experienced something traumatic.

Anxiety disorders are treated in various ways that include therapy, medication, or both. Recent studies have shown that adding meditation can be extremely helpful in treating anxiety.

Meditation Specifics

The practice of meditation began in India over five thousand years ago and was part of Hinduism. Since then, meditation is practiced all over the world.

The main goal of meditation is to clear your mind of all thoughts and focus on breathing or a relaxing mantra.

Mindfulness Meditation

Currently gaining popularity is something called mindfulness meditation and has shown that it can be beneficial for different reasons. It is particularly helpful with easing the effects of anxiety and those who practice it see a decrease in anxiety and depression symptoms.

What is mindfulness meditation? It is a mental training practice that teaches you to slow down racing thoughts, release negativity, and calm your mind and body.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation Can Help You Relax

People with anxiety have various chemical signals that are constantly streaming throughout their body. Meditation helps by making you focus on something less stressful, relaxing your muscles, thus bringing your heart rate down. This has also shown to help lessen physiological symptoms for persons suffering with PTSD.

Meditation Can Provide Relief From Anxiety-Related Insomnia

People who suffer from anxiety and depression often have insomnia. 

Meditation can be used as a natural sleeping aid and offers a great alternative to prescription drugs or supplements used to induce sleep. Meditation will calm a racing mind and help relax muscles allowing you to fall asleep faster and induce a deep sleep. 

Meditation Lessens The Need For Prescription Medication

There are millions of people suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and other anxiety disorders that use prescription anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. These medications greatly help their symptoms, but some have unpleasant side effects. Some of these symptoms include nausea, dizziness, fatigue, and others, and there are also concerns that strong doses may cause heart, liver, and kidney damage if taken over a long period of time. It has been shown that meditation can help lower the dosage and, in some cases, eliminate prescription medication all together. It has also been shown that all-natural CBD oil can be an effective treatment for anxiety and may work well along with meditation for eliminating prescription medication. This would be an all-natural solution.

Meditation Helps With Anxiety Related Health Concerns And Their Effects

Stress and anxiety can have long term consequences as anxiety constantly keeps your body on high alert. This causes the release of cortisol and norepinephrine which your body uses to help you in dangerous or frightening situations. As a result, your heart rate rises to supply more blood to your muscles in order to get away from a stressful situation.

Because of constant anxiety, your body never turns this process off and damage to your cardiovascular system may occur. This may also compromise your immune system and cause issues with your digestion.

Because of how meditation works, it can interrupt your constant fight or flight response and prevent the damage that may occur if experienced long term.

Meditation Can Be Practiced Throughout the Day

Using mindful meditation when confronted with a stressful situation or when you feel a panic attack approaching can bring quick relief and do it more quickly than prescribed medicine.

Meditation Can Help With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder and can control the lives of those who suffer with it. Compulsions can come in the form of constant handwashing, cleaning, repeatedly checking things, or constantly re-counting. Persons are unable to prevent these actions and are not gratified when they complete them which leads to anxiety.

New research has shown that meditation in addition to being relaxing, may help rewire the brain and prevent compulsive thoughts from even occurring.

Meditation Can Help With Separation Anxiety

Teaching your child relaxation techniques will help them with their separation anxiety. Starting at a young age can instill this healthy practice and will help them the rest of their lives when dealing with stress and anxiety.

Meditation Can Help With Agoraphobia

Agoraphobia is a lesser common anxiety disorder and is the fear of a situation or specific place. If extreme, sufferers may not even be able to leave their house as going outside causes great anxiety.

Those with agoraphobia often have another anxiety disorder or have experienced a highly stressful or traumatic event.

Sufferers have found that mindful meditation is an essential treatment for their agoraphobia and relieves the fear brought on by certain situations.

Conclusion

Anxiety and depression are invisible illnesses but can be as debilitating as physical illnesses. There is still much to learn about the causes and treatments even though massive strides have been made over the last hundred years.

In contrast, meditation has been popular and widely used by different cultures for thousands of years. Meditation can be helpful for overall bodily health but has great benefits for those who suffer from anxiety and depression. 

Adding meditation to your treatment plan can reap huge benefits but always consult with you doctor or therapist before making any changes to your current plan. If your anxiety has not reached the level of being a disorder, then adding meditation will help you with the daily stress and anxiety we all experience and lead to an overall better feeling of wellness.