Meditation for stress

What causes stress?

Stress often kicks in due to a situation we can see and comprehend — we tend to know what we’re dealing with and what’s stressing us out. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a visceral feeling that can linger, and it is not always clear why it’s happening. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they are very different states.

To understand why we feel stressed, it’s helpful to understand the role of the amygdala, essentially 2 almond-sized processing chips in the brain that govern our senses, decisions, and moods.

The amygdala works like our emotional thermostat and regulates our reaction to certain forces like stress and fear. Based on the level of threat it senses, it either remains on a cool and calm setting, cranks up like it’s supposed to in reaction to normal stressors, or it may overheat when we feel overstimulated, making us irrational and reactive.

In evolutionary terms, the amygdala has always been a great asset for alerting us to life-and-death situations — like an approaching wild animal — and triggering our fight or flight response. But in modern times, it has been conditioned to react in a similar way to day-to-day causes of stress, so an approaching deadline can start to feel just as threatening as a hungry wolf.

What’s more, the drip, drip, drip effect of stress actually reshapes the structure and neural pathways of our brain — a process called neuroplasticity. In other words, the brain gets reprogrammed by the experiences it is continually subjected to.

The good news is that our minds can be trained to manage stress better. Studies using MRI scans have shown a regular meditation practice can shrink the amygdala, which helps us respond rather than react to stressful situations. So, think of meditation as a tool for self-regulation of the amygdala, helping it return to its baseline state — a more rational reaction to stress and fear. And so the more we meditate, the more we build this mental resilience that can increase our capacity to manage stress and be more aware.

Managing stress with meditation

Meditation isn’t about eliminating stress; it’s about managing it. A lot of that boils down to how we perceive stress. By altering our mindset, we can lessen the implications on our mental and physical health.

Stress often gets a bad rap, which is perhaps undeserved. Think where we would be, for example, if we didn’t have the distress signal that makes us flee from danger. Or if we didn’t feel pressed to finish a project or homework on time. Some people even thrive in high-pressure careers, feeling completely in control in the fast lane and totally stressed out when things slow down. So the degrees of stress can vary widely person to person. Nevertheless, good experiences in our best interest will still bring stress. There’s no avoiding it.

Our appraisal of pressured situations can actually affect the level of distress we associate with a certain event. But, looking at this through the lens of mindfulness, it is possible to soften the way we perceive stress and relate to it in a more accepting way.

The next time we experience a stress response in a “good” situation, try to avoid applying negative labels. Instead, try to think about it as something powerful and energizing, preparing us to meet life’s challenges.

Now, during stressful times, it can feel counterintuitive to sit still and do nothing — meditating can feel like the last thing we want to do. But when we feel like the pressure’s on and we can’t think straight or we have too much going on, pressing pause is the best way to unwind the mind.

The point of meditation in these circumstances is to provide more spaciousness of mind. And in that space, we become aware of our stress. We don't resist it or try to push it away. We simply sit and let all thoughts and feelings rise to the surface and, when they do, we let them go by returning our attention to the breath. With practice, this becomes easier over time, and we learn to rely on the breath as a release valve for stress.

When it comes to managing stress through meditation, the Headspace app has a dedicated 30-day course for subscribers that comes with exercises designed to address all manner of stressors.

The Stress course specifically uses a visualization technique. The helpful thing about such an exercise is that it engages the mind, occupies the mind, and — at the same time — sets up a framework for the mind to unwind and move toward a place of calm. Instead of getting bogged down in stress or trying to run away from it, we’ll learn to maintain a solid position of awareness, allowing things to come and go with a newfound sense of ease.

After completing the 30-day course, we should emerge with a better understanding of the dynamics of stress and a different perspective of how we relate to the thoughts and feelings that arise. In the 2018 study that relied on the Headspace app, meditation was shown to reduce stress by 14% over just a 10-day period.

There are, of course, other options available when it comes to stress-management, and many of these other tools — such as physical exercise and breathing techniques — can help us in the moment. But when it comes to seeing a long-term reduction in stress, and when we meditate consistently on a daily basis for at least 8 weeks, the science demonstrates that meditation is an effective intervention capable of altering the physical anatomy of the brain, with as little input as 10 minutes a day.

Let go of stress with this free mini-meditation