Meditation: A Guide on How to Meditate for Stress Reduction and More

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Meditation can help relieve stress and improve mental health.Everyday HealthMeditation is part of the modern-day wellness lexicon, but the truth is that the practice has been around for millennia.“Meditation dates back thousands of years across many different cultures and often shares elements with spirituality,” says Jillian Cohen, MD, an integrative medicine expert at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. “In modern times, meditation is used often as an effective means of managing stress, anxiety, insomnia, and pain, among other chronic conditions.”What Is Meditation?In its simplest terms, meditation is the practice of deepening one’s awareness or focusing one’s mind for some time.Some of the earliest evidence of meditation includes wall art from the Indus Valley that dates back to 5,000 and 3,500 BCE. The images illustrate people sitting on the ground with their legs crossed, hands on their knees, and eyes resting — in positions widely recognized as meditation postures.Descriptions of meditation techniques have also been found in ancient Indian scriptures from 3,000 years ago.Types of MeditationThere’s no one single type of meditation, though techniques tend to overlap. “You can think of meditation like sports,” says Diana Winston , a mindfulness meditation teacher and director of mindfulness education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Program. “It’s a huge category. Just like there are so many different types of sports, there are so many varieties of meditation.”Here’s a list of common types of meditation and how they are practiced.Mindfulness Meditation This is the process of being fully present with what you are experiencing in the current moment — including your body and your thoughts — in a concentrated, curious, and open way. “I define mindfulness as paying attention to our present moment experiences with an openness, curiosity, and a willingness to be without experience,” Winston says. “It’s a way of helping us live more in the present moment, not being lost in the past and future.”Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction This is a specific type of mindfulness meditation taught over an eight-week period using meditation and yoga. It usually involves group classes and daily mindfulness activities practiced at home. Researchers are currently studying its effects on stress and certain health conditions.Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy This is another type of mindfulness meditation, which combines facets of mindfulness-based stress reduction with cognitive behavioral therapy. It is a common type of meditation for treating depression.Concentrative Meditation Different than mindfulness meditation, which encourages being present in a curious and open way, concentrative meditation keeps the mind fixated on one object, like the body as it sits on a chair. “It typically has you focus on one thing to concentrate, gather your focus, and calm your mind,” Winston says.Mantra Meditation This is a type of concentrative meditation that uses a repeated calming word, thought, or phrase to prevent distracting thoughts. The mantra can be said out loud or thought.Transcendental Meditation is a style of mantra meditation that involves a personally assigned mantra, such as a word, a sound, or a small phrase, repeated in a specific way.Guided Meditation Another method of concentrative meditation, in which you form mental pictures of situations that you find relaxing. “You might imagine that you’re in a beautiful garden with the birds chirping,” Winston says. “So you’re using your imagination to create states of being.”Loving-Kindness and Compassion Meditation is the practice of directing well wishes toward others and wishing to help oneself or another suffer less. “You may wish them happiness or peace or that they’re at ease, and what that does is it may affect the other person, but it’s really about cultivating it within ourselves,” Winston explains.Meditative Movement This includes the traditional Chinese practices of qigong and tai chi, as well as some forms of yoga and dance. Generally, meditative movement is a term for forms of exercise done in conjunction with meditative attention to body sensations.Winston notes that certain activities such as running or drawing, while not considered forms of meditation, can produce a meditative state for many people.“I think of it as you’re using art or running to help create a meditative approach or meditative mind, but it’s not in and of itself a meditation,” she says.How Meditation Works to Change the BrainIn recent years, a growing body of research has focused on how meditation affects the brain.Some studies suggest that practicing mindfulness meditation can change the brain's structures. While scientists are still working to understand the effects of this practice, it is generally believed to correlate to improved emotional regulation.“Mindfulness meditation has been shown to activate the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with our higher cognitive functions, and deactivate the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with anger, fear, anxiety, and depression,” Dr. Cohen says. “It strengthens the neurological circuits that calm the part of the brain that acts as a trigger for fear and anger.”In one study, for example, imaging tests found increased brain activity in long-term practitioners of loving-kindness and compassion meditation compared with people in states of non-meditative rest.The left prefrontal cortex, which is an area of the brain associated with happiness, was particularly activated, Cohen says.Other research has found increased activity in another part of the brain, called the insula, after mindfulness training, compared with control groups.“The insula is key in self-awareness of one’s own body and feelings,” Cohen explains.Finally, Cohen notes that other studies have found that mindfulness leads to an increase in the anterior cingulate cortex, and the caudate nucleus, areas that allow for nonjudgmental acceptance.Potential Health Benefits of MeditationA growing body of research has found that meditation is beneficial to mental and physical health because of the effect it has on our stress response.“The primary health benefit from meditation appears to be related to the general shift in the autonomic nervous system that decreases sympathetic tone and increases parasympathetic tone,” Cohen says.The sympathetic nervous system is our fight-or-flight response, while our parasympathetic nervous system is rest-and-digest, she says.“As humans, we’re wired to fight-or-flight very easily, since it’s a survival mechanism,” Cohen explains. “So we want and need more parasympathetic. When the parasympathetic system is stimulated, heart rate and breathing slow, stress hormones decrease, blood vessels dilate, and digestion is improved.”In recent years, a growing body of scientific evidence has shown how a meditation practice can help improve health, including mental and emotional health.Research suggests that people who practice meditation react better to stressful situations and have lower stress-related hormone levels and inflammatory responses than people who do not.For many people, meditation can help with emotional regulation, as well as improve attention, memory, and mood.Additionally, some research suggests that a meditation practice can help with managing negative emotions, such as anger.Meditation and Chronic ConditionsMeditation can also be a helpful tool in managing chronic illnesses. While research is limited, and larger, more long-term studies are needed, there’s some evidence that meditation may play a role in helping manage various conditions — from mental health disorders to chronic pain to skin ailments.Chronic stress promotes an increased inflammatory load, chronic low-grade inflammation, and prolonged increased levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) — “all of which are associated with increased chronic illness,” Cohen says.For instance, meditation may help you manage or improve:DepressionCommon Questions & AnswersHow many ways are there to meditate?There are many different ways to meditate. Popular forms of meditation include mindfulness meditation, concentrative meditation, mantra meditation, guided meditation, and meditative movements like yoga and tai chi.What exactly does meditation do?Meditation is an ancient practice that is used today as a form of mind-body complementary medicine that increases calmness and relaxation. Research suggests that meditation may help reduce stress, boost mood, improve emotional and mental health, and aid the management of a number of chronic illnesses.What are the steps to take to meditate?There are many different ways to meditate, but generally, you’ll want to find a quiet place, sit or lie down in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and pay attention to what is present, such as your breath, bodily sensations, and other senses.What is a good mantra for meditation?Choosing a mantra for meditation is highly individualized. A common mantra is a simple syllable like “om.” A mantra can also be a simple sentence stating a goal, such as “I am calm.”Can meditation worsen anxiety?Some studies suggest that certain people experience anxiety after meditating, though it’s unclear why. Factors at play include the intensity of the practice, the competence of the teacher, and whether the individual is predisposed to mental health disorders.Are There Any Drawbacks to Meditating?While research has shown that there are certainly many health benefits of meditation, not everyone will necessarily experience those positive effects.Indeed, some research finds that certain individuals may have negative experiences when meditating.A meta-analysis of four decades of studies on meditation and mindfulness determined that these practices led to negative effects in about 8 percent of people. The most common adverse effects were increases in anxiety, depression, and stress.The researchers could not determine what brought on these negative effects but note many factors could be at play, including the intensity of the practice, the competence of the teacher, and vulnerabilities of the person doing the meditating (if they were already predisposed to depression or anxiety, for example). Yet the study authors say it’s not clear whether having a previous mental health issue will make an individual more at risk of a negative event and that it could happen to anyone.Cohen theorizes that people with mental health disorders like depression and anxiety may be more susceptible to feelings of inadequacy if they don't feel like they’re getting meditation “right.”“Because meditation reminds us that we all to varying degrees have psychological agency — that we can shift our own attitudes and thought processes — there can potentially be those who are suffering with psycho-emotional imbalances, such as depression or anxiety, who may experience shame or self-deprecation when results are not realized at the same pace as others, or at the pace they might expect,” she says. “This can cause many feelings of guilt or inadequacy.”Those side effects may not be forever, though. One multicenter online survey of women in Spain found that although some reported side effects, they were short term and didn’t stop further practice. What’s more, the researchers say it’s unknown whether the negative side effects were because of the practice and “can be considered inherent to it, or simply facilitate the emergence of undiscovered mental or physical problems.”Similarly, another study found rates of side effects of meditation were similar to other psychological interventions and were also short term.While more research is needed in this area, experts say it’s important to note that meditation, just like any other practice, is not for everyone.“Sometimes, there’s an assumption that meditation is going to solve all my problems,” Winston says. “But medically there’s no medication that works for everybody, and there’s no meditation that works for everybody.”If you’ve tried meditation and have found that it’s not for you, there are plenty other avenues to explore that can help alleviate stress and anxiety.“The most important thing is that we can all find ways to reduce stress in our lives, whether that’s running or dancing or taking long walks in nature, and not to assume that you’ve got to be a meditator in order to reduce stress,” Winston says.