Author: Dr Brady Salcido / Source: Lifehack
Is there a “magic pill” that could solve all your stress and anxiety? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
In a world that’s becoming increasingly more stressful, people are now experiencing the symptoms of stress and anxiety more than ever before.
Many of the solutions you’ll find on a typical Google search will tell you to “reduce stress” or “avoid stress,” but there’s a problem with that logic.
Not all stress is avoidable or reducible. So what are you left to do? Anxiety help is possible, and it’s as simple as adding a daily meditation practice to your life.
Read on to find out how practicing meditation for anxiety is a smart solution.
Crush Anxiety and Stress with Meditation
You may not be able avoid the stressful board meeting, the sales call, or your kids jumping off the bed, but you can strengthen your brain’s ability to handle and deal with your anxiety and stress. If you can build your stress-handling muscle, you’ll be better equipped to tackle your anxiety and your stress.
Do you want to learn how to reduce the feeling of stress and anxiety so you can start living your life again? Meditation may hold the key.
Meditation has become the go-to brain strengthening training for people like Tony Robbins, Oprah Winfrey, and Tim Ferris. In this article, I’ll show how meditation can help and how to get started, even if you’ve never meditated before.
Train Your Brain: Rewiring the Firing
Meditation isn’t just a spiritual practice. It’s more like a brain exercise.
If you want to build strong muscles, you need to go to the gym and exercise. Which muscles you choose to exercise will determine which muscles get stronger.
The same goes for your brain.
There’s a saying in neuroscience that says, “The brain wires the way it fires,” which means the more we participate in a specific way of thinking, activity, or habit, the more the brain will actually build more wiring to make that process easier the next time around.
When the brain is constantly stressed and anxious, it begins laying down wiring to make that process easier, which is the opposite of what you want.
So rather than trying to completely eliminate stress from your life, you need to train your brain to better resist and handle stress and anxiety.
The brain has two modes of operation: Sympathetic (Fight-Or-Flight) and Parasympathetic (Growth, Health, and Relax). Imagine the sympathetic nervous system as the brain’s “gas pedal” and the parasympathetic nervous system as the “brake pedal.”
Chronic stress and anxiety pushes on the “gas pedal” and hardwires your brain to become more sympathetic dominant (stuck in stress), which shuts off the parasympathetic mode (relax mode), making it more difficult to calm down, relax, and reduce anxiety and stress.
Meditation pushes the brake pedal and helps the brain strengthen the parasympathetic side of your nervous system, which helps you to restore balance and calm.
Mindfulness meditation, a meditation technique that emphasizes focusing on the present moment, trains the brain to shut off the signals producing anxiety and stress by simply doing something as simple as concentrating on your breathing. 1
By focusing on the “here and now,” it helps the brain become more aware of the source of your stress and anxiety, while simultaneously training the brain to become more resilient against stress and anxiety.
When your brain is stressed, it promotes the release of cortisol, your body’s stress hormone, to help the body deal with your stress. It’s a healthy, natural response to stress for a short period of time; but, it is not meant to be a long-term solution to the work, financial, or relationship stress that may be causing it.
Chronic high levels of cortisol from stress and anxiety can interfere with your energy, slow brain performance, promote weight gain, and increase the risk of depression. 2
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease your stress hormone, cortisol, which can help you feel more energized and healthy while simultaneously crushing stress and anxiety. 3
Ramp Up Your “Feel Good” Chemicals
Not only does meditation lower the symptoms of your stress and anxiety, it also boosts the chemicals in your brain that make you feel happier. 4
Chronic stress and anxiety can lower your brain’s “happy” neurotransmitter, serotonin, as well as your brain’s “feel good” neurotransmitter, dopamine.
- Low serotonin levels can make you feel more sad, unhappy, lethargic, depressed, and anxious.
- Low levels of dopamine can make you feel unmotivated, less resilient to stress, tired, and forgetful.
Studies show that meditation can increase the levels of serotonin and dopamine in the brain, helping your brain not only crush stress, but allow you to feel happier, motivated, and energized.
Help Make Lasting & Positive Change
Do you feel like you are always stressed and anxious as though it is the preset mode of operation for your brain?
Would you like to be able to change that? Meditation may be the solution to lasting change and results.
Science has shown that the brain continues to change and reorganize itself throughout your lifetime depending on your lifestyle and your experiences. This is called neuroplasticity. One of…
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