Can Mindfulness Really Help Reduce Anxiety?

A small study conducted at the University of Waterloo suggests that just 10 minutes of mindfulness can help with ruminative thought patterns. In the study, 82 participants who experience anxiety were given a computer task to complete, but were regularly interrupted. They were then split into two groups: one group listened to a guided meditation for 10 minutes, while the other group listened to an audiobook for 10 minutes. Participants then returned to the computer task while the interruptions continued.

The group that meditated had greater success in staying focused and, as a result, performed better on the task. “That was surprising to me,” says lead researcher and psychology PhD candidate Mengran Xu. “Mindfulness meditation promoted a shift of attention from their internal thoughts to the external environment. It helped them focus on what’s happening right now, in the moment, and not get trapped in their worries.”

This study adds to the growing body of evidence that mindfulness could be a powerful tool for those who struggle with ruminative thoughts and the internal focus common with anxiety and depression. However, Xu notes that the exact mechanism of how mindfulness helps is still unknown. “If we understand how it works, we can make it more effective.”

Xu and his colleagues are keen to find out. They have already completed another forthcoming study where participants were instructed in mindfulness meditation, muscle relaxation, or listened to an audiobook. Xu says his team aims to see “how each intervention affects people’s scope of attention, cognition, and problem-solving in a hypothetical stressful situation.” The goal is to determine if mindfulness practice expands people’s perspective.

“Sometimes stress is inevitable, but it depends on how broad your perspective is. Both mindfulness meditation and relaxation can help broaden how people think about things."

Guided Meditations for Anxiety

A Simple Meditation for Anxiety

Zindel Segal explains that bringing awareness to the sensations accompanying difficult experiences allows us to relate to these experiences differently in each moment.

People often struggle with the concept of acceptance when dealing with difficult emotions and mind states. In MBCT groups I’ve led, participants typically express this around the fourth or fifth session, saying things like, “How can I accept this pain?” or “I want to feel fewer of these difficult emotions, not more!” These reactions reflect an underlying belief that, despite the exhaustion of trying to avoid or push away negative thoughts and feelings, this strategy has worked in the past. So, why risk using a different and unfamiliar approach?

In these moments, rather than answering this question directly, I find it helpful to remember three simple points:

1. Allowing negative emotions to exist—for the moment—does not mean choosing inaction. The concept of acceptance in MBCT describes the possibility of developing a different relationship to experience, one characterized by allowing an experience and letting it be. Allowing difficult feelings to be in awareness means recognizing their presence before deciding how to respond to them. It takes real commitment and a deliberate shift of attention. Importantly, “allowing” is not the same as being resigned, passive, or helpless.

2. Denying a negative mindset is riskier for your mental health. The opposite of allowing is quite risky. Being unwilling to experience negative thoughts, feelings, or sensations is often the first link in a mental chain that can lead to automatic, habitual, and critical patterns of mind re-establishing themselves. This can be seen when someone says, “I’m stupid to think like this” or “I should be strong enough to cope with that.” In contrast, shifting from “not wanting” to “opening” can alter this chain reaction at the first link. Thus, “I should be strong enough” shifts to “Ah, fear is here” or “Judgment is present.”

3. Acceptance helps you work through each unpleasant experience. MBCT practices offer concrete ways to cultivate a stance of “allowing and letting be” amid painful experiences. While we might intellectually understand the benefits of being more loving, caring, and accepting toward ourselves and our feelings, we often lack the practical knowledge of how to do it. These capacities are unlikely to be developed by sheer willpower alone. Instead, they require working through the body with repeated practice over time, noticing how things like anxiety may manifest as tightness in the chest, or sadness as heaviness in the shoulders.

Breathing Exercises for Anxiety

Mindful breathing is a fundamental part of MBSR. It involves diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing, also known as belly breathing, which helps calm the body because it’s the way you naturally breathe when asleep or relaxed.

How to Practice Mindful Breathing

Start by practicing mindful breathing for five minutes once a day and gradually increase the duration. You might find that you can add a second or even a third 5-minute session throughout your day. Aim to extend your mindful breathing to 10, 15, 20, or even 30 minutes at least once a day. Let this become a part of your mindfulness practice that you look forward to, a special time to center yourself and “return home” to your being. Using an alarm clock or timer can be helpful.

Mindful breathing can also be integrated into your daily activities. Practice it anywhere: at home, work, the doctor’s office, the bus stop, or even while waiting in line. You can make it a habit to take a few mindful breaths after waking up, during a morning break, at lunchtime, in the afternoon, at night, or right before bed. Once you’ve practiced mindful breathing at these times, try using it when you feel anxious to help calm your body.

Diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing helps regulate irregular breathing patterns quickly. When you feel panicked, your breathing often becomes rapid, irregular, and shallow, mostly in your chest and neck. Shifting to diaphragmatic breathing helps regulate your breath, allowing you to feel more balanced and relaxed.

Explore Your Breath

Take a moment now to be mindful of your breath. Gently place your hands on your belly.

• Breathe normally and naturally. When you breathe in, be aware that you’re breathing in; when you breathe out, be aware that you’re breathing out.
• Feel your belly rise and fall with your breath. Now take two more mindful breaths and continue reading.

A 5-Minute Breathing Meditation

Find a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. Turn off your phone and any other devices that might distract you. Assume a comfortable and alert posture, whether sitting in a chair, on a cushion, or lying down.

You can learn mindful breathing by following the script below, pausing briefly after each paragraph. Aim for a total time of at least five minutes.

1. Appreciate your time: Take a few moments to congratulate yourself on taking time for meditation.
2. Become aware of your breath: Bring awareness to the breath in the abdomen or belly, breathing normally and naturally.
3. Stay with your breath: As you breathe in, be aware of breathing in; as you breathe out, be aware of breathing out. If helpful, place your hands on your belly to feel it expand with each inhalation and contract with each exhalation. Simply maintain this awareness of the breath, breathing in and out. If you can’t feel the breath in your belly, find another way—place your hands on your chest, or feel the movement of air in and out of your nostrils.
4. Just be: There’s no need to visualize, count, or figure out the breath. Just be mindful of breathing in and out. Without judgment, just watch, feel, and experience the breath as it ebbs and flows. There’s no place to go and nothing else to do. Just be in the here and now, mindful of your breathing, living life one inhalation and one exhalation at a time.
5. Feel what your body is doing naturally: As you breathe in, feel the abdomen or belly expand or rise like a balloon inflating, then feel it recede or deflate on the exhalation. Just ride the waves of the breath, moment by moment, breathing in and out.
6. Acknowledge your wandering mind: From time to time, you may notice that your attention has wandered from the breath. When you notice this, just acknowledge that your mind wandered and where it went, then gently bring your attention back to the breath.
7. Be where you are: Remember, there is no other place to go, nothing else you need to do, and no one you have to be right now. Just breathe in and out. Breathe normally and naturally, without manipulating the breath in any way, just being aware of the breath as it comes and goes.
8. Acknowledge your time: As you end this meditation, congratulate yourself for taking the time to be present and cultivate inner resources for healing and well-being. Take a moment to end this meditation with the wish, “May all beings be at peace.”

How to Stop a Panic Attack

Many people who suffer from panic attacks describe a disconnect from reality that is both frightening and confusing. You may feel completely helpless, as if there is nothing you can do and no one can help you. You literally believe a threat is present, likely, or imminent. This terrifying experience is not easily forgotten, and the fear of it happening again can start the cycle of panic and insecurity. If you're feeling scared or insecure about a reoccurrence right now, you are not alone, and there is help.

A Meditation for Investigating Panic Attacks

There’s no predicting when your next panic attack will occur. It might happen while you're out running errands, interacting with strangers at the market or post office. Being in public may seem like the worst-case scenario for a panic attack, but it can also be your cue to listen to your mind and body.

Mindful inquiry will help you investigate what is driving your panicky emotions, allowing you to become free from them. Practice these skills the next time you feel panic beginning to rise.

Mindful Inquiry Practice

1. Ensure Safety: Before you begin, ask yourself if this is a good time to explore your feelings. Do you feel safe? If so, proceed. If not, wait and try this practice at a more secure time, perhaps when you’ve returned to the privacy of your home.

2. Tune Into Your Breathing: Your practice begins as soon as you become mindful of your breathing. Wherever you are—running errands, meeting a friend, standing in line, or walking down the aisle of a market—your breath is always with you, serving as your focal point to stay connected to the present moment. Be mindful of your breathing, noticing the sensations of warmth as you breathe in and coolness as you breathe out, experiencing the rise and fall, the in and out of each breath.

3. Recognize Your Feelings: Take this moment to acknowledge any and all feelings that are with you now. If you feel out of control, just recognize it as a feeling without attaching details or stories to it. If you feel an uncontrollable fear of going insane, acknowledge this feeling without critiquing or analyzing it. Give yourself permission to identify and acknowledge the emotions that arise and let them be. You might tell yourself: I feel as if something horrible is about to happen. I feel as though I’ve lost touch with reality. I feel as though I can’t trust anyone, maybe not even myself. Other unrelated thoughts and feelings may surface, like I'm hungry or I hope he calls soon. Make space to simply let these feelings emerge and stay with them just as they are. Acknowledge what’s here without attaching yourself to any one thought or feeling.

4. Practice Non-Striving: You may feel a strong impulse to resist or fight these painful and terrifying emotions, as is natural. We all strive toward what feels good. For this exercise, practice non-striving: not trying to change your feelings or shift them in a different direction. Just let the feelings be what they are. The less energy you spend resisting or altering your panicky emotions, the less hold your panic can have on you.

5. Stay Present: Remember to stay aware of your breathing and reconnect with the here and now.