Meditation Reduces Anxiety
Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have identified the brain functions involved in how meditation reduces anxiety.
The team wrote in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience about how they studied 15 healthy volunteers with normal levels of everyday anxiety. They said these individuals had no previous meditation experience or anxiety disorders.
The participants took four 20-minute classes to learn a technique known as mindfulness meditation. In this form of meditation, people are taught to focus on breath and body sensations and to non-judgmentally evaluate distracting thoughts and emotions.
“Although we´ve known that meditation can reduce anxiety, we hadn´t identified the specific brain mechanisms involved in relieving anxiety in healthy individuals,” said Dr. Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study. “In this study, we were able to see which areas of the brain were activated and which were deactivated during meditation-related anxiety relief.”
The researchers found that meditation reduced anxiety ratings by as much as 39 percent in the participants.
“This showed that just a few minutes of mindfulness meditation can help reduce normal everyday anxiety,” Zeidan said.
Fadel and colleagues were also able to reveal that meditation-related anxiety relief is associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which are areas of the brain involved with executive-level function.
“Mindfulness is premised on sustaining attention in the present moment and controlling the way we react to daily thoughts and feelings,” Zeidan said. “Interestingly, the present findings reveal that the brain regions associated with meditation-related anxiety relief are remarkably consistent with the principles of being mindful.”
He said the results of this neuroimaging experiment complement that body of knowledge by showing the brain mechanisms associated with meditation-related anxiety relief in healthy people.Scientists wrote in the journal
Scientists wrote in the journal
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in November 2012 about how meditation has lasting emotional benefits. They found that participating in an eight-week meditation training program could have measurable effects on how the brain functions, even when someone is not actively meditating. The team used two forms of meditation training and saw some differences in the response of the amygdala, which is the part of the brain known to be important for emotion.
Movement Therapy
Dance movement therapy (DMT) is a form of psychotherapy that uses movement to improve a person’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being. It’s based on the idea that there’s a connection between our bodies and our minds, and that movement can be a way to express and explore our thoughts and feelings.
DMT can be used to help people with a variety of conditions, including:
* Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD
* Physical health conditions such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke
* Developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder
In a DMT session, a therapist will typically use a variety of movement techniques, such as improvisation, mirroring, and guided imagery, to help the client explore their emotions and experiences. The therapist will also observe the client’s movement patterns, which can provide clues about their emotional state and coping mechanisms.
DMT can be an effective treatment for a variety of people, and it can be particularly helpful for those who find it difficult to express themselves verbally.
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