Lately it seems as though mindfulness meditation has become the “cure-all” method for overcoming anxiety and building better mental health. I’ve seen it promoted as a “fix” for anxiety in mental health blogs, online forums, podcasts, support groups, and nearly everywhere else on the internet.
So, does it live up to the hype? Does it really help with anxiety?
As someone who’s experienced years of dealing with anxiety and OCD, and has practiced mindfulness meditation regularly, the answer to this question is a bit complicated. Ultimately, my answer would be yes and no. In some ways it is very helpful, and in other ways it can do more harm than good. Overall, I see meditation as a tool, and the results you get from it largely depend on how you use it.
First, Let’s cover how it doesn’t help.
In my opinion, if you’re using mindfulness meditation as a coping mechanism to get rid of or tame your anxiety, I don’t think it will be effective in the long term. In other words, if the purpose behind your meditation practice is rooted in controlling your emotions in some way, it will not be effective. In this case, meditation has simply become a compulsion, which is anything done to alleviate or control thoughts and anxiety. It might calm you down in the short term, but in the long run your anxiety will likely worsen and you will feel compelled to meditate more and more in an effort to continually manage your anxiety. In my experience, doing anything to lessen or control anxiety has only aggravated it in the long run.
Additionally, mindfulness meditation is all about simply observing and experiencing the present moment (both physically and mentally) from a neutral standpoint without judgment. So, in terms of anxiety, meditation should be used as a way to simply observe and experience the anxiety without trying to change it. If you are doing mindfulness meditation with the intent of getting rid of your anxiety, you’re already taking the mindfulness aspect out of it by trying to alter your current experience, rather than embracing it.
Now, here’s what I believe mindfulness meditation is good for.
First, regularly practicing mindfulness meditation helps you observe and recognize the patterns that are occurring inside your head, and once you see these patterns, it’s easier to change them for the better.
Second, regularly practicing mindfulness meditation helps you build the skill of refocusing your attention back to the present moment. With anxiety, it is so easy to slip into periods of intense worry and rumination that can quickly cycle out of control. What regular meditation practice allows you to do is recognize when that cycle is starting, and then gently bring your attention out of those worries and back into the present moment. It’s important to mention that when you bring your attention out of worries and into the present moment, you aren’t fighting your anxiety. You’re simply allowing whatever feeling you have to be there while you move your focus on to what you want to do in that given moment.
The ability to recognize my brain patterns and then bring my attention back to the present moment has been so crucial to my recovery. These skills have allowed me to stop the negative cycles of worry and rumination that only perpetuate anxiety over time. Additionally, these skills have allowed me to do all this while embracing and accepting the anxiety in a non-judgmental way.
Using meditation to practice non-judgment in regard to thoughts and emotions has been extremely beneficial for me. There are so many judgments and beliefs we hold about our thoughts and emotions that are not helpful to us, and it’s so much better to recognize and dispose of these unhelpful judgments.
So when you do meditate, I would recommend checking your perspective on it. Don’t do it to control your feelings or get rid of your anxiety. Do it because it’s helping you build skills that positively contribute to your mental health in the long run.