Does Meditation Help with Anxiety? Exploring How Mindfulness Became Mainstream

Everybody's talking about meditation nowadays. From your health-conscious colleague to your most cynical friend, it seems like the praises of mindfulness are being sung non-stop.

But it hasn't always been like that. Meditation used to be associated with hippies, weirdos and Buddhist monks. Nowadays, you're just as likely to see meditation practised by business executives and other 'serious' people who don't believe in astrology and have never visited a fortune-teller in their life.

Does meditation help with anxiety?

According to the NHS, mindfulness “involves paying attention to what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment”. It originates from Buddhist philosophy, according to which sitting in silence and focusing on a breath (or a word - ever heard of Om? - or the present in general) for a certain amount of time every day will help you accept reality and live fully in the present. One of the ways to practice mindfulness is meditation.

Scientific and medical research about meditation is in its early stages, but there are a growing number of studies that have found various health benefits of practicing mindfulness. It reduces inflammation, stress and anxiety and just eight weeks of mindfulness practice can change the structures in the brain that are in charge of decision-making, memory and emotion. Young meditators were found to be more optimistic and had better social behaviours, as well as better emotional self-regulation overall.

In a study published as early as 1975, Dr Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School found that meditators used 17% less oxygen, had lowered heart-rates and slept better. In the past, mindfulness interventions were shown to be helpful with many mental and physical problems, including HIV, depression and drug abuse. So from being a completely spiritual practice, meditation has become an important way to help with anxiety and deal with our fast-paced lives.

Millennia of mindfulness

Meditation has been practised for a long time - archaeologists discovered wall art depicting meditation in the Indus Valley from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE. In fact, it's so ancient that it's difficult to pinpoint exactly when and where it started. But meditation has been an important part of Buddhist philosophy, and has been practised in the East for many years as a spiritual and religious exercise.

Most religions have some form of mindfulness as part of their philosophy, even if they're not as central to their belief as in others. For instance, Judaism has Kabbalah, Islam has Sufism and Tafakkur, and Christianity has monasteries and even rosary beads. And of course, prayer generally has mindfulness elements.

So the philosophy of self-reflection and being thoughtfully aware of the present and your place in it is huge and comes in many different packages. But, even though traditional Eastern meditation started penetrating the West in the late 19th century, it wasn't until the 1960s that it started becoming popular.

Modern view of meditation

Through the studies conducted by the famous Indian researcher, B.K. Anand, more and more people in America and Europe were exposed to meditation and its health benefits. According to his research, "yogis could meditate themselves into trances so deep that they didn't react when hot test tubes were pressed against their arms" and "could keep their hand immersed in ice cold water for 45-55 min".

The 60s and 70s had a special place for meditation, which fitted in with the growing hippy culture. The Beatles embraced the practice and spoke openly about its benefits, but its appeal was still limited to certain intellectuals, celebrities and other spiritual people.

In the 1990s and 2000s that started to shift. Alongside celebrities – Oprah, Demi Moore, Michael Jackson, Donna Karan and Gwyneth Paltrow to name just a few – more and more scientific studies tried to figure out why meditation is important to so many people. These studies have validated meditation as more than a fad – it has been confirmed as something which could actually help people in their everyday lives.

In 2002, 7.5 million Americans said they practised meditation. In 2022, that number had jumped to 17.3 million.

Mindful explosion

So, why did so many people turn to meditation in the past 20 years? The main reason is that the stigma that surrounded meditation and who meditated has been replaced by a more balanced view of why meditation is important and the benefits it can bring – even for people who are not ‘traditionally spiritual’. 

Even though it's still at an early stage, medical research has started embracing meditation as a helpful tool to deal with physical and mental health, particularly anxiety. Schools and hospitals have started using mindfulness techniques to help their students and patients. When the science community accepts a practice as valuable to our wellbeing, we are more likely to believe it.

And when science says that mindfulness is actually really good for anxiety and stress relief, especially if you're on a busy schedule - considering it, and enjoying its benefits, is less crazy and more attractive. Think about it - the use of prescription medication to treat stress and lack of focus is soaring. So learning about a simple method that will help you replace your Valium and Adderall for free and with no side effects? Sign me up!

Another reason for the recent explosion in meditation's popularity is its increased availability. We used to be able to learn about meditation only by either taking a long-haul flight to the East, or signing up for a lengthy seminar. Both of these options require time, effort and £££.

But now, you can sign up for a short 30-minute class or just open your favourite meditation app on your phone. This has made meditation more accessible, quick and easy, which means even a business executive or a busy parent can fit mindfulness into their schedule.

With fewer people frequenting religious centres, meditation is a great way to unwind and feel connected to your inner self, with or without its spiritual element. And that's what's great about mindfulness. There are so many schools of thought, so anyone can find a way to do it - from practising while doing the dishes, through being mindful when you eat, to breathing exercises on the tube.

In the past few years we have even seen mindfulness penetrate pop culture. References on shows like Billions, Parks and Recreation and The Last Airbender make meditation a part of the zeitgeist in a way it's never been before.

Instead of being depicted as something that crazy followers of an ancient cult do when they’ve lost interest in life, meditation is now an important part of modern life. Rather than escaping from ourselves, it helps us reconnect, enabling us to focus on the moment and calm our busy minds.

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