Can mindfulness reduce stress?

Individuals have been practicing mindfulness, specifically mindful meditation, for thousands of years. It has most often been used as a part of spiritual practices. A wealth of research showing mindfulness effectively reduces stress and improves overall well-being, specifically in terms of stress being better managed through mindfulness practices. Researchers have found that mindfulness meditation positively alters our brain chemistry and biology, improving health both mentally and physically. Research has found that mindfulness influences two different stress pathways in the brain. In the regular practice of mindfulness, those brain structures and the activity associated with attention and emotion regulation change. We are also beginning to understand the different elements of mindfulness and how each is responsible for the beneficial effects. Depending on the different types of mindfulness practice studied and observed, individuals who practiced mindfulness were less likely to react negatively or have unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress. There is also moderate evidence that those who practiced mindfulness techniques were less likely to worry and to ruminate over negative thoughts or experience them over and over and were better able to focus on the present. Mindfulness reduces stress in several different ways. It helps an individual become more aware of one’s thoughts. The individual can then step away from them and not take them as fact and as literal as one may do otherwise. In this capacity, the stress response is not initiated. Mindfulness also reduces one’s reactivity to situations. It allows for the individual to develop the ability to take a moment to pause and then identify with the best solution from a more balanced perspective. Additionally, Mindfulness activates one’s mind to function from a state of being, rather than to do, with one's mind being more associated with action and the stress response. Mindfulness aids one in becoming more aware and sensitive to the needs of one’s body, noticing any pains or discomfort earlier and thus allowing one to take appropriate action before the issue worsens to the point of unmanageable stress. Mindfulness promotes a stronger awareness of the emotions of others. As one’s emotional intelligence rises, one is more likely to respond more effectively and is less likely to experience conflict. Furthermore, Mindfulness increases one’s level of care and compassion for oneself and others, soothing oneself and inhibiting the stress response. Also, Mindfulness practice decreases activity in the amygdala, the part of your brain that is central to switching on your stress response. Therefore, one’s baseline level of stress is reduced. Mindfulness allows one to be better able to focus, and thus one can more efficiently complete work and have a greater sense of well-being which reduces the stress response. And finally, one can change one’s attitude to the stress, and rather than only being able to see the harmful results of feeling stressed, mindfulness offers the space to think otherwise about the stress itself.