Modern life is stressful; there’s really no doubt about that. The pace of life seems to be increasing faster each year, and it’s to a point now where it is extremely hectic and frenetic. Many people feel that it’s nearly impossible to stay in the present moment because they are always worrying about the future, which causes extra anxiety and tension; or they are thinking about and ruminating over the past, which increases feelings of stress, discomfort, and general uneasiness.

Furthermore, many people in today’s society face a number of potential distractions, including primarily one’s smartphone and other devices, in which people are constantly checking social media, various news outlets, and other sources of information. After all, to find an answer to something now is only a click or a search away. Yet, all of these things lead to excessive consumption and cause significant stress, even if one does not realize this right away. Over time, all of this unnecessary stress and distraction can take a toll on your well-being.

Yet, there is a very simple way to mitigate all of this; something that has been practiced for thousands of years, in fact. The practice is mindfulness meditation, and thankfully, it is gaining back in popularity because it is such a needed practice in today’s world.

Mindfulness meditation is a practice in which you learn how to anchor yourself into the present moment, and to simply acknowledge and accept all thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. The goal is to reduce any judgments, whether about oneself or others, or about any situations, past or present, and to just stay into the present moment. This practice has its roots in Buddhism and Hinduism, but it has been applied to the modern world for many years now; anyone can use the basic practice of mindfulness meditation. This is great news, especially since mindfulness meditation has so many scientifically proven benefits.

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress

Depression, anxiety, and general stress are very common issues in today’s world, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that many people are much more likely to ruminate because they have (or perceive that they have) many things to worry about. Many individuals with depression and anxiety exhibit cognitive distortions, which are unhealthy ways of thinking, such as focusing on the negative, discounting the positive, overgeneralizing, and using “all-or-none” thinking. Yet, mindfulness meditation can counteract this because it helps one to become less judgmental and more accepting (1).

Unsurprisingly, mindfulness meditation has been proven to reduce stress and depression, even in contexts in which stress levels are very high (2) (3). Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (4). Lastly, mindfulness meditation is beneficial for many individuals with anxiety and depression across a broad range of circumstances, and the practice performs much better than non-evidence-based therapies, and performs as well as cognitive behavioral therapy (5).

One of the main reasons this happens is because mindfulness directly changes the cognitive distortions exhibited by individuals with anxiety and depression, which is a key pathway through which it can help to improve psychological health (6).

Furthermore, the benefits of this practice for anxiety, stress, and depression revolve around its ability to enhance emotional regulation. More specifically, this particular form of meditation helps one to recognize and directly deal with negative thoughts and emotions, rather than avoiding them, which enhances emotional health (7). Plus, this practice allows one to recognize, but not overreact to emotional states, which is a much better way of dealing with them; and this promotes psychological health (8).

Unsurprisingly, this practice is proven to reduce self-criticism, and is associated with increased positive emotions, self-acceptance. and emotional regulation (9), in addition to increased self-compassion and self-esteem (10). Thus, this particular form may be beneficial for those with depression, considering depressed individuals often lack self-compassion and/or self-esteem, and are often highly critical of themselves. Indeed, these reductions in emotional stress and improvements in mood are helpful to reduce anxiety and depression (11) (12). Overall, mindfulness meditation has many benefits for those with depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as other psychological and emotional issues.

Attention, Learning, and Memory

There are also many cognitive benefits to mindfulness meditation, especially those related to attention, learning, and memory outcomes. This makes sense, since mindfulness meditation teaches one how to focus in the present, and to block out various distractions from the surrounding environment. In turn, it seems plausible that enhanced attention through mindfulness would also enhance one’s learning and memory abilities.

And all of this is backed up by research. For example, just four weeks of mindfulness meditation practice significantly improves attention (13). In addition, mindfulness meditation helps one to become more flexible and adaptive in attention control, which means one can more easily switch from one relevant task to another and can focus on the most important things related to pursuing goals (14). This practice is also related to increased attentional control, which has its own benefits, such as reduced anxiety (15). The attentional benefits are also relevant for those diagnosed with ADHD. For example, mindfulness meditation is proven to reduce symptoms of ADHD and increase feelings of self-control (16).

Mindfulness meditation is also proven to enhance working memory (17), as well as verbal learning and memory (18). It is also known that mindfulness meditation enhances learning and memory across various domains and makes it more likely to have stronger long-term memories (19). These are just some of the many studies which show that mindfulness meditation enhances attention and improves learning and memory. In turn, these benefits have carry-over effects to many areas, such as in work and school performance, as well as day-to-day activities and endeavors. Overall, mindfulness meditation will make you significantly more cognitively sound.

Addiction

There are many people who suffer from addiction, and addictions in today’s society are wide-reaching, ranging from conventional forms, such as alcohol and nicotine, to harder substances, such as cocaine, but even certain behavioral addictions, such as gambling, pornography, and fast food consumption. In turn, addiction has many negative effects on the individual, his or her family and friends, and society as a whole.

Yet, mindfulness meditation is another great tool to combat addiction. Addicts have impairments in self-control, excessive cravings, emotional dysregulation, and increased stress reactivity. Yet mindfulness meditation can directly improve self-control, emotional regulation, and stress reactivity, which makes it likely to improve addiction.

For an example, it was found that mindfulness meditation improved self-control with regard to emotional regulation and stress reduction in smokers, and in turn helped these smokers mitigate their addiction (20). Also, in another study that involved people with concurrent binge eating disorder and substance abuse, it was found that mindfulness meditation led to a decrease in binge eating episodes, improved eating attitudes, reductions in alcohol and drug use severity, and reductions in depression (21). Lastly, mindfulness meditation was found to improve emotional regulation and self-control in smokers, and it also led to reduced smoking and increased positive emotions (22).

As a whole, mindfulness meditation is so beneficial for addicts because it helps them to regulate the cycle of addiction, in which they can mitigate stress and drug-related cues, which leads to healthier and less distorted thoughts and emotions, which ultimately lessens the chance for addictive behaviors (23).

Sleep

Mindfulness meditation also improves sleep. This seems particularly important in today’s society, considering the hours of sleep people get each night has been decreasing steadily over the past decades, and more people are sleep deprived now than ever.

One of the reasons for poor sleep quality is due to rumination, which I also noted about in the first section regarding depression, anxiety, and stress. Obviously, if you’re dwelling excessively on negative thoughts or other worrisome thoughts, then you won’t get a good night’s sleep. Yet, mindfulness meditation helps to decrease rumination, which in turn enhances sleep quality (24). It is also important to note that feelings of self-control are important for reducing rumination, and mindfulness also helps with this, which further indicates how it can help to decrease rumination and improve sleep.

In another study consisting of individuals with various sleep disturbances, mindfulness meditation was superior to traditional sleep hygiene education in reducing sleep disturbances and for decreasing insomnia, fatigue, and depression (25). It was also associated with reduced anxiety and increase daytime alertness. Also, a recent meta-analysis found that mindfulness meditation was far superior to control groups for improving sleep disturbances (26). Overall, mindfulness meditation leads to reductions in anxiety and rumination, among other negative psychological factors, which then improves sleep quality.

Chronic Pain

Many people suffer from chronic pain, but they are often prescribed drugs, which can have many side effects. For example, think of the opioid addiction crisis in America. Thus, there needs to be healthier alternatives to conventional drugs for chronic pain; and mindfulness meditation is one potentially solid alternative.

Essentially, mindfulness meditation alters the way individuals respond to pain, in which they become more detached from it and/or more accepting. This practice doesn’t make the physical pain go away, but it helps one to decrease the perception of pain. This is most likely why mindfulness meditation has been proven to reduce chronic pain, increase pain acceptance and self-control over pain, and increase psychological well-being (27), which includes decreased depression and increased self-rated quality of life (28). Mindfulness meditation may not (and in some cases, should not) be the only part of a pain management intervention, but at the very least it should be included as part of a holistic pain management program.

Cardiometabolic Health and Weight Loss

It’s no question that many people in modern society suffer from cardiovascular and metabolic issues, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, respectively. Furthermore, cardiometabolic issues are also associated with obesity and excessive bodyweight. Yet, here again, mindfulness meditation appears to improve various areas of cardiometabolic health, and is beneficial for overweight or obese individuals.

For example, mindfulness meditation is associated with also significantly lower blood pressure (29). In addition, mindfulness meditation is associated with improved fasting glucose levels, as well as lower triglyceride levels and lower rates of metabolic syndrome (30) (31) (32).

One of the reasons this occurs is because of the stress-reduction effects of mindfulness meditation, which leads to all of the favorable changes above, especially lower blood pressure. Another reason is that mindfulness meditation can help one to change unhealthy eating attitudes and behaviors, leading to more favorable choices and, consequently, a healthier weight. Indeed, further research has connected mindfulness meditation with higher levels of mindful eating, which in turn is associated with decreased unhealthy food consumption and improved fasting glucose levels (33). On top of this, research has found that in obese and overweight individuals, mindfulness meditation was associated with improved eating behaviors and attitudes, decreased anxiety and depression, and lower body mass index (34).

Aging

Mindfulness meditation is also beneficial for healthy aging. This is in large part because it reduces inflammation, reduces stress, and improves psychological well-being, all of which are associated with healthy aging (35). Simply put, stress kills, no matter where that stress comes from, and by mitigating stress with meditation, one is more likely to buffer the aging consequences of life’s stressors.

Mindfulness meditation is related to slower cognitive decline in older individuals (36), and it also appears to protect against cognitive aging (37). Other research has connected mindfulness with decreased biological markers of aging, such as telomere attrition (38). Furthermore, mindfulness meditation slows cognitive and affective aging (36), especially related to attention, memory, emotional control, and mood, all of which should act as a protective factor for older individuals against various aging-related concerns, such as depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease (39).

Immune Health and Gastrointestinal Health

There are strong links between the brain and the immune system, as well as between the gastrointestinal (e.g. “gut”) and the brain (the latter is called the gut-brain axis). Therefore, the psychological changes from meditation could potentially have an effect on immune health and gut health.

And this is confirmed by various research showing the positive effects of meditation on gut health and immunity. For example, mindfulness meditation is associated with reduced markers of inflammation, such as C-reactive protein (40) (41), as well as various markers of improved immunity, such as antibody response, both of which are related in part to the stress-reducing effects of this practice (42). In regard to gut health, mindfulness meditation benefits people who have functional GI disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (43). And this practice also is related to healthier gut microbiota, which are very important for proper digestion, and even for the production of neurotransmitters (44).         

The Science

So, given all of the benefits of mindfulness meditation, it also helps to briefly look into the science of how this works. Indeed, the benefits are backed up by plenty of neuroscience research. For example, research shows that mindfulness meditation exerts positive changes on key brain regions, including the hippocampus, amygdala, and various cortical areas, such as the frontal and parietal cortices, as well as the insula and prefrontal cortex (45) (46). And this research also shows that mindfulness is related to improved communication between the frontal cortex and the limbic system.

Now, the frontal cortex is important for many higher-level thinking processes, such as decision-making, judgment, self-awareness, and self-control; the parietal cortex is essential for sensory perception and integration, as well as attentional control; and the limbic system plays a role in primarily emotion and arousal, but also memory, attention, and others. Thus, since mindfulness produces so many wide-reaching changes on the brain, it is unsurprising to see how it exerts so many different health benefits.

Furthermore, mindfulness meditation, through its stress-reducing effects, leads to better hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (47). The HPA-axis is the body’s primary stress response system, and it is connected with many other things in the body, such as inflammation, gut health, and brain health. Without a healthy stress-response system, many of other systems of the body will likely go haywire, while a healthy stress-response system leads to overall bodily balance. Thus, optimizing this axis through meditation is another avenue through which the benefits are found.

On top of this, meditation enhances the gut microbiota, which is connected to the central nervous system, therefore leading to more benefits for both of these areas (48). And lastly, meditation may be able to increase levels of key neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and norepinephrine, all of which are necessary for many bodily functions, such as sleep, mood, motivation, focus, and attention (49); thus, they all play at least a partial role in the benefits mentioned previously.

Implementing Mindfulness

Mindfulness is very simple, and not to mention free, to implement. As I said earlier, it revolves around staying grounded and attentive in the present moment. This is usually done by focusing on the rise and fall of the breath, in which you are supposed to watch the natural rhythm of your breath. While this happens, simply notice any thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions that appear. Try your best to not analyze or judge any of this; just let them come up and then naturally fade away as they will. Essentially, the goal is to recognize, not analyze.

Yet, don’t try to achieve a certain goal, and don’t come into it with any plan in mind. Just focus to the best of your ability in the present moment, and when you find yourself drifting away, whether by thinking about the past or future, just easily come back to the breath again. You will get distracted, and you will lose focus at times, but that’s fine. You will improve greatly over time, and you may even get to the point where you can stay in the present moment the whole time. But this is also why it’s important to start small, probably for just five minutes. Then, you can gradually work your way up to 30 minutes or even an hour, depending on personal preferences. Also, the more you do it, the more benefits you will receive, so try to do it as often as you can.

Taken together, mindfulness meditation is a very basic practice, yet is has an enormous amount of benefits towards human health, many of which are usually hindered by today’s fast-paced society. However, by learning to stay in the present moment and simply accepting thoughts, feelings, sensations, and emotions, you will be a lot healthier and happier. So, now all that’s left if for you to try it and see for yourself! Again, start small, and gradually work your way up over time. I’d recommend you eventually get to a point of doing it three times per week for 30 minutes, if not every day for that same amount of time.

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