The Remarkable Psychological Benefits of Mindfulness for Stress and Anxiety
The number of women struggling with stress and anxiety is at an all time high. Fortunately, we do have options to help reduce heightened levels of stress and anxiety. Mindfulness is one such method and can be used a self-help approach or incorporated into professional help for stress and anxiety such as through psychotherapy.
What comes to mind for you when you think of mindfulness? Perhaps meditation, yoga, or something different all together. As far as a definition, mindfulness is the practice of bringing one’s attention to the present moment in a wholehearted and non-judgmental fashion. Mindfulness is at the core of the ancient spiritual tradition of Buddhism. It’s important to point out though that we can practice mindfulness without being religious or spiritual. In fact, all of the mindfulness meditations that I have shared with my clients over the years, and now with the general public on my YouTube channel, have been completely secular.
Keep reading to learn about the psychological benefits of mindfulness for managing stress and anxiety. First, we will review some key findings from the scientific research on mindfulness. And, in the second half of the article, we’ll look at some ideas of how to use mindfulness as a way to cope with stress and anxiety in our own lives.
The Mental Health Benefits of Mindfulness
While the religion of Buddhism has been in existence for 2500 years, scientific attention to the benefits of mindfulness did not begin until the 1970s. Before reviewing some of the findings on mindfulness for stress and anxiety, I want to quickly mention some of the other psychological benefits of mindfulness. As discussed in this article by the American Psychological Association, there is scientific research to support that mindfulness also helps to:
Reduce Rumination (in this case rumination involves repetitive thoughts about the reasons, consequences, and general experience for a negative state we may be going through).
Mindfulness has also been shown to boost working memory, which is a type of memory involved with short term maintenance and use of information for different mental tasks.
Also in the area of cognitive functioning, mindfulness helps to increase our mental focus and the speed with which we process information.
Mindfulness is associated with less emotional reactivity and greater relationship satisfaction.
Mindfulness has also been shown to be related to increased immune functioning and better management of chronic pain.
The practice of mindfulness is also associated with an overall increase in well-being and reduced Psychological Distress (such as depression and anxiety).
When reviewing scientific research in an area that has volumes and volumes of studies available, as is the case with the benefits of mindfulness for stress and anxiety, it’s helpful to look at metanalytic reviews, which use advanced statistical tests to establish how strong the findings in a given area of scientific study really are.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Anxiety and Stress Management
In 2013, the Clinical Psychology Review journal published an article on a meta-analysis of 209 psychological research studies on mindfulness-based therapy. The findings of this meta-analysis supported mindfulness-based therapy as moderately effective over wait list control groups. The waitlist approach is common in psychological research. The mindfulness-based therapy had the same level of effectiveness as cognitive behavioral therapy and pharmacological treatments (like antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication) for stress, anxiety, and depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy and medications are well established treatments so the fact that mindfulness-based therapy had the same level of effectiveness is quite impressive.
Let’s move on to another meta-analysis, also from the Clinical Psychology Review, this time from 2016, on the effectiveness of online mindfulness-based interventions. This study reviewed 15 randomized controlled trials and found significant, but small effect of online mindfulness-based interventions on anxiety with significant and moderate effect on stress.
Let’s shift a bit now and come down from this high-level view with the meta-analyses and take a look at exactly how the benefits of mindfulness for stress and anxiety were investigated in some individual studies. Let’s start with an interesting study out of the Texas A&M University that examined the impact of mindfulness training on stress coping among college freshmen. The experiment consisted of 2 groups – the treatment group who were enrolled in a semester long mindfulness-based communication course and the control group who were enrolled in a semester long standard communication course. The mindfulness-based communication course incorporated mindfulness in all aspects of the class and included:
experiential mindfulness exercises at the start of each class,
immersive field trips involving yoga and meditation,
and ongoing discussions and assignments involving critical thinking about mindfulness.
Students in both the experimental group and the control group completed 2 surveys for the study prior to the courses starting and then again when the classes concluded. We call these pretest and posttest measures. The surveys they took were well established and measured perceived stress as well as coping with stressful situations. The researchers found that the students in the experimental group, that is the students taking the mindfulness-based communication course, had lower posttest stress levels (in other words their stress levels went down after the course). On the other hand, the control group – the group that took the standard communication course – had higher posttest stress levels (in other words, their stress levels went up after the course).
Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Mindfulness
Next, I want to review what I consider to be a classic study. In 2013, Dr. Hoge and her team conducted the first randomized control trial study on the impact of mindfulness on symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Participants in this study were randomly assigned to one of two groups– either the treatment group, which participated in an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program or the control group, who were provided with basic stress management education. The participants took 4 reputable surveys on anxiety symptoms using that same pre and posttest approach as used in the last study. The researchers found that while both approaches resulted in a decrease in anxiety symptoms, that the mindfulness-based approach had significantly greater reduction in anxiety on 3 out of 4 of the measures of anxiety. These data led the researchers to conclude that the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program had a beneficial effect on anxiety symptoms for people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.
How Mindfulness Helps with Stress and Anxiety
Now that we have reviewed some of the research on the benefits of mindfulness for stress and anxiety, you might be wondering what’s going on in our minds and bodies to bring about these helpful results. Let’s breakdown the definition of mindfulness because it gives us some clues. Remember, mindfulness is all about how we’re paying attention. With attention, we are bringing our focus to the current moment. We’re not dwelling on perceived mistakes of the past and the anxiety or even feelings of guilt related to those past actions. We are also not worrying about what the future may hold, which is common with anxiety and stress. Rather, we are focused on experiencing the current moment. We can pay attention to our internal world – like our thoughts, feelings, or bodily sensations – or the external world by engaging as many of our 5 senses as possible.
Recall also that mindfulness involves paying attention without judgment, which can be understood as acceptance of the current moment as it is. This acceptance piece involves acknowledging the reality of the moment without fighting it. Acceptance does not have to mean we have to like the reality though. It means we acknowledge it and let it go – or do our best to let it go.
Psychologists have found that mindfulness practices impact two different stress pathways in the brain and are involved with altering brain structures and activity in areas associated with attention and emotion regulation (APA, 2019).
Dr. Shauna Shapiro a clinical psychologist (also a best-selling author and renowned expert in mindfulness and self-compassion) has provided us even more detail about mindfulness and the brain by discussing the role of neuroplasticity, which involves repeated experiences that shape our brains. We can strengthen and sculpt our synaptic connections (those are the links between nerve cells), we can do this based on repeated practice. Research from neuroscience has shown that for people who practice mindfulness, brain areas associated with attention, concentration, compassion, learning, memory, and emotional intelligence all grow bigger and stronger. This is the process of cortical thickening – the growth of new neurons based on repeated practice.
So, now that we’re informed by the psychological research plus some bonus neuroscience on the benefits of mindfulness, let’s shift a bit to some ideas of how to use mindfulness for stress and anxiety in own lives.
How to Practice Mindfulness for Anxiety and Stress Management
As we turn our attention to our own mindfulness practices, I want to highlight one of the key challenges we can experience when trying to be mindful. John Kabat-Zinn, the founder of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (the same stress reduction program used in one of the psychological research studies I summarized earlier in this article) has an aptly named chapter in his bestselling book – Wherever You Go There You Are, a chapter title that is key to keep in mind when starting a mindfulness practice. The chapter title is Simple but not easy. What Kabat-Zinn was referencing here is the difficulty one may experience with what appears to be a straightforward practice, by the frequent pull back to unconscious and automatic behaviors. In other words, bringing and keeping our attention in the present moment, is not easy.
No matter what your mindfulness practice – whether it’s meditation, yoga, a mindful walk, or something else – your attention, especially when you’re just getting started, is likely to get pulled in other directions. When this happens, it’s helpful to just notice that it happened. We need not judge ourselves when our attention wanders. We just bring it back. For those of us, like me, who lead others in guided meditations, we often encourage thinking of the thoughts that come in which are outside of the current moment, to be like clouds in the sky and just let them float on by.
As we start our own mindfulness practice, it may also be helpful to consider how we can wholeheartedly experience the moment. Children actually make amazing teachers for this aspect of mindfulness. Everything is new and exciting for them. They truly are wholeheartedly throwing themselves into each and every moment. We use the term beginner’s mind to describe this aspect of mindfulness where we approach each moment as if we’re experiencing it for the very first time.
Now that we’ve highlighted considerations for some of the key facets of mindfulness – attention, non-judgmentally, and wholeheartedly – let’s wrap up with some practical ideas of how to practice mindfulness.
One of the most common ways to practice mindfulness is through meditation. Meditation can be done independently or with a guide who helps you to become more aware of your internal world such as bodily sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Other guided meditations focus on awareness of the external world. Guided meditations often incorporate other calming strategies like deep calm breathing and progressive muscle relaxation (e.g., when you tense and then release different muscle groups).
I made a guided meditation with a focus on mindfulness for reducing stress and anxiety to accompany this blog post. You can find this guided meditation on my YouTube channel: Mindfulness for Stress and Anxiety.
Meditation is understandably not for everyone, so I want to offer a few more ideas of how to practice mindfulness that do not involve meditation. Walking is an excellent opportunity to be in the current moment. To make what would just be a normal or everyday walk, a mindful walk, we set the intention of keeping our attention in the current moment and fully experience everything about the walk wholeheartedly –with that beginner’s mind – and without judgement. Your thoughts will likely go to other places while walking, like maybe back to the stressful day at the office you just had, but try to bring your attention back to the scenery and sounds that surround you on your walk, or maybe bring your attention to how the soles of your feet feel in your shoes with each stride you take.
We can also practice mindfulness with music. So often we just have music on in the background while doing other things. We can set our intentions, however, to mindfully listen to a favorite song. We do this by keeping our attention on the music. Listen to the song as if it were the first time you’re hearing it. Noticing everything you can about it. The melody, the harmony, the volume and even the use of silence. Our thoughts may go in other directions, but you guessed it. Just bring your attention back to the music. You might also notice any emotions you feel while listening to the music. Try not to judge your feelings though. Just notice them from a place of curiosity.
We can also practice mindfulness with a favorite food or beverage. With this approach, we slow the process of eating or drinking way down by engaging the five senses and saving taste for last. To demonstrate how the steps might look, let’s consider how we could practice mindfulness with a morning beverage such as hot tea. Let’s say we begin with removing the tea bag from it’s package, smelling it, and taking in it’s aroma. Then, mindfully present in this moment, we place the tea bag in our mug and begin pouring the hot water into the mug – we’re seeing the water flow, we’re hearing it too. We may feel warmth on our hand as steam rises out of the mug. Once it gets to the right temperature for us, again, feeling it’s warmth, we smell the scent once more, perhaps observing that it’s even stronger now after having been steeped. And last, we engage our sense of taste by having that long awaited sip of our morning tea. Focusing on something as simple as our morning beverage really can bring us into the current moment.
If you’re feeling inspired to start a mindfulness practice in your own life after reading this article, it can be helpful to show yourself compassion with the mindfulness practice learning curve. Friendly reminder that while practicing mindfulness is simple, it’s not always easy. It can take a while to feel comfortable with a mindfulness practice, but in time it will become easier to do.
Dr. Jennifer McManus is a licensed psychologist who specializes in psychotherapy for women seeking professional help with stress and anxiety. She regularly integrates the practice of mindfulness into her work with therapy clients. If you think you may benefit from personalized and professional help with stress relief or anxiety management, then please feel free to contact the psychotherapy practice of Dr. Jennifer McManus to learn more about available support. You can schedule a complimentary consultation, email, or call the office at 866-706-3665.
