8 Science-Backed Ways Mindfulness can Help You Thrive

During the month March we ran the March Mindfulness Challenge, giving prompts to practice gratitude, self-care and mindfulness through interactive posts on our Instagram story @mhs.mac. We posted mini challenges to help people get started on their journey of mindfulness through easy-to-do tasks, like brushing your teeth in your non-dominant hand. They may even have seemed silly, how could little challenges like that possibly make a difference in our lives? But looking at the research from prestigious organizations and scientists around the world, it looks like it’s all true!

By bringing our attention to mundane, everyday tasks we get to bring our awareness to something we wouldn’t otherwise, and it lets us stop planning for a moment. Instead of planning out your next task, you get to challenge yourself by doing something new – even if that is brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand.

The Mindfulness Movement: In the last 40 years, mindfulness has started to become popularized in Western societies, and its become internationally popular in the past decade or so. More recently, the mindfulness movement has blown up and gained an incredible following through social media, influencers and even celebrities – Jim Carrey now publicly speaks on his experiences receiving one-on-one mindfulness and meditation instruction and describes how it has helped him overcome depression and other life challenges.

Origins and misconceptions: There is a common misconception that mindfulness is a religious or spiritual practice. Although inspired from the teachings of the Eastern World and primarily Buddhist traditions, the concept of “mindfulness” is characterized by attitudes of openness, curiosity and acceptance. It encourages switching attitudes of judgment about our own actions, or the actions of others, to an attitude of curiosity, kindness and paying attention to what is occurring in the present moment.

People who regularly practice mindfulness say the practice fundamentally changes how they experience life, and for the better. In our increasingly fast-paced world, it’s become a norm to spend most of our time thinking about the past, or worrying/planning for the future. This often leads to anxiety and anticipation about events that are going to occur, or depressive symptoms from overanalyzing decisions we made in the past. Thich Nhat Hahn, Zen Master, global spiritual leader and poet says it best:

“Whatever strong emotion arises, if we learn to practice mindfulness of that emotion, acknowledging that emotion, acknowledging that emotion and not suppressing it, or acting on it, then transformation occurs and we are able to find more joy, peace and awareness.” - Thich Nhat Hahn, Zen Master, global peace activist, poet

Ever since mindfulness has become popularized in Western cultures, researchers have been trying to explain the effects it has in scientific terms. Studies have shown significant reduction in anxiety, depression, improvement in immune function, pain reduction, dumped addictions, reduction in high blood pressure, alleviated gastrointestinal problems, and even changes brain structure in positive ways in as little as 8 weeks of mindfulness practice.

Image from study by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

So let's dive into the science-backed evidence, here is the research from renown institutions that show how mindfulness may improve physical and mental health.

8 Research-Backed Ways Mindfulness affects the Mind and Body

1. Anxiety and depression may be treatable through mindfulness practice.

Stress, anxiety and depression are all symptoms of worry; worrying about the future, worrying about the past. Meditation is one technique that practices calming worries and focusing on the present moment. According to a systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 studies by Goyal et. al. from the Department of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, mindfulness meditation programs (the specific programs are listed in the article), effectively reduced the negative components of psychological stress. The results were comparable to what would be expected from using antidepressants as a treatment method. It gets better, a review of 9 clinical trials by the Department of Psychiatry from the University of Oxford found that Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was not only as effective as antidepressants, but it reduced the relapse risk for up to 60 weeks – something medication doesn’t do. That’s pretty incredible and goes to show how much is yet to be discovered about the power our own mind has on treating psychological distress.

2. Significant improvements of heart health.

Recent research from 2017, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association states that mindfulness practice, specifically meditation, can improve heart function. It changes how you cope with stress, and moving meditations like tai chi and yoga can help lower high blood pressure. In 2013, a study found that a low heart rate variability (HRV) – a measure of heart health – can increase risk of heart attack or stroke by up to 45%. Regular meditation, just 5 minutes a day, increased HRV in the study participants compared to those who didn’t meditate. Sitting and meditating can lower your chances of a heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, unbelievable!

3. Mindfulness can prevent burnout.

A review of 23 studies in 2018 examining the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and MBCT on mental health, discovered that the mindfulness practices significantly reduced levels of emotional exhaustion (burnout), stress, depression and occupational stress in participants. Additionally, it improved their levels of self-compassion, occupational stress, and feeling of personal accomplishment – another measure of burnout.

4. Functions as an effective intervention for suicidal behaviour.

Various studies over the years have assessed the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on suicidal behaviours, and they found that it can be an extremely beneficial intervention to help individuals cope with feelings of stress, depression and difficulty with problem-solving, all of which are characteristics of suicidal behaviour. These interventions also decreased suicidal thoughts, and increased their ability to focus and pay attention, all known-risk factors for suicide attempts.

5. Increase in personal and occupational productivity

A review from researchers at Ohio State University examined the effects of mindfulness training on attention in 57 studies. The studies they examined included retreat studies, non-randomized trials and randomized control trials. For the retreat studies group and non-randomized trials showed promising evidence that mindfulness training improved the participants’ ability to stay in an alert state, and improved their conflict monitoring, both characteristics of attention. However the results from the randomized control trials in which people received mindfulness instruction only for the purpose of the study, were more mixed.

6. Mindfulness meditation may reduce pain sensitivity.

The University of Montreal conducted a study in 2008 to investigate the pain perception of people who meditate versus people who don’t. They compared highly trained Zen meditators, who had over 1000 hours of practice, to age and gender-matched control volunteers. Both groups were exposed to a tool simulating heat, pressed against their calves, with temperatures ranging between 109.4 and 127.4 degrees Fahrenheit. The long-time Zen meditators and significantly less sensitivity to the pain caused by the heat compared to the non-meditators. Each time the test was repeated, the meditators experienced even less pain.

7. Mindfulness may reduce negative biases and harassment.

A study conducted in 2014 of 72 university students showed that mindfulness training increased their awareness of underlying thoughts, which in turn helped reduce racial biases and negative attitudes. By increasing the state of mindfulness and awareness about one own’s attitude, they experienced a decrease in implicit race and age bias, since they were less likely to turn to automatically activated associations made through implicit stereotyping and were able to recognize their own biases and choose not to act on them.

8. Increase in creative abilities and innovation.

Researchers from the American Psychological Association assessed the link between mindfulness and creativity from studies published between 1977 and 2015. They found a significant, but weak correlation between the two, concluding that mindfulness-based interventions that focused on open-monitoring of surroundings and thoughts contributed to the creative process. Although the exact mechanism is still a mystery, we now know that mindfulness can increase innovation and creativity, even if it is a weak association.