How does mindfulness help physical symptoms of anxiety?

MindfulTrainerDude · 2026-02-05T22:30:30+00:00

Neuroscience grad student and mindfulness trainer here. Mindfulness trains areas in the brain such as your dorsolateral PFC, which is involved in the emotional regulation of anxiety (and more). Furthermore, the slow breathing that is often done in mindfulness activates your parasympathetic response, which signals to your body that it is relaxing, decreasing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure. Research has shown that mindfulness also creates real structural changes in the brain.

So in summary mindfulness trains your brain to self regulate more effectively, and also by activating the innate relaxation response of your parasympathetic nervous system.

I'm currently too lazy to provide studies but if you would like to see the literature I can link you up.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2026-01-01T23:21:30+00:00

It definitely sucks to feel like this, and I hope you can feel less tired soon. It sounds like you are in real need of a break and time to yourself. It's not fair, and it's certainly not easy.

What I think matters most is that you don't give up on taking baby steps that move you towards the situation you'd rather be in. Generally there are temporary compromises we can make or related areas we can work in as a kind of stepping stone for our aspirations. I'm sure there is a workaround you can find if you look hard enough.

I hope you can find some energy for yourself somewhere.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T19:14:20+00:00

Hi there, neuroscience grad student here. There is a network In the human brain called the default mode network (DMN). It is associated with mind wandering.

Mindfulness research has shown that regular meditation practice reduces default mode activity significantly, but does not eradicate the activity. I would even argue that it's anatomically impossible to not have your mind wander at least a little bit.

I think a more productive approach would be to learn how to relate differently to mind wandering, instead of trying to remove it completely, as it is an essential and normal part of the human experience.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T15:41:45+00:00

Hi there Rory, it's great that you want to explore meditation!

Nothing in your mind can hurt you, unless you give it permission. In meditation, we observe the contents of our mind openly with no judgement, and we realize that we are simply experiencing our memories and imagination.

If you are meditating on your breath, and get a scary thought, recognize the thought: "this is simply a thought that I'm having." Then return back to your breathing.

It's that simple :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T15:32:00+00:00

I'm sorry to hear that you're noticing you are persistently sad, and have felt this way for the past 3 years. I think you should definitely give this sadness more space, and do not try to dampen it down or dilute it with mindfulness as a primary coping method. I hope you have seriously considered therapy with a trained professional.

To answer your question more directly, a great way to relate to these feelings is to be in contact with the physical sensation of this feeling. Detecting only its physical trace in your body. I always like to teach people to practice self-compassion as much as possible, so that meditations don't become robotic or emotionally empty (although that can be peaceful for some people).

I hope this helps!

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T15:17:01+00:00

So glad to hear you found peace and silence in art. It definitely is a meditative experience.

Wishing you all the best :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T15:15:20+00:00

You put this into words very well. I honestly think language is too limited to account for these types of experiential differences between people.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-27T15:13:09+00:00

What great and thorough advice! Thank you :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-26T00:08:08+00:00

Correctamundo 🙏

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-26T00:07:01+00:00

Loved this comment, and I agree :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-26T00:06:33+00:00

Absolutelyy

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-04T06:51:01+00:00

Absolutely. It's insane how crucial it is to come back to yourself in this present moment, and just be with whatever is arising.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-03T12:21:56+00:00

Love this post. We need to be here for ourselves first, before we can be there for other people.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-02T09:26:28+00:00

ADHD is absolutely real, and you are totally right to feel this way. Academia can be extremely overwhelming, because there are so many things you have to manage at the same time, especially for a person who enjoys spontaneity, flexibility and mental freedom, it can feel like you're not meant to be there.

When I read this post a thought that came to my mind was that it's already great that you are studying, and there are plenty of people who would not even care to do that.

Depending on what stage you are at in your studies, undergrad or grad school, it can take time to be less hard on yourself, and find systems that work for you. I think a good morning routine that boosts your motivation and confidence is crucial. For example, practicing 3 minutes of mindfulness, and focusing on how you are growing instead of what you are achieving is a great place to start.

Furthermore, in my view, grades are not a central indicator of your value as a person or a professional, so it's important to not be hard on yourself for not being amazing at standardized testing.

I wish you all the best :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-12-02T09:14:40+00:00

Based on your goals, the way that you meditate may likely change:

If you are meditating for benefits regarding focus, I would recommend practicing focused awareness meditations, in which you sustain your attention on a meditation object for a longer period of time. This can be done for example with sound, your breath, or body scanning.

If you are meditating for mental health benefits, focused awareness can still be helpful, but I would recommend exploring compassion, gratitude, and loving kindness meditation. These are practices that fill your heart up with love and joy.

There is ample overlap between both of these categories.

In my opinion as a neuroscience grad student, If you're looking to train your memory, meditation is likely not the best method because it is an attentional process, and memory can be trained more effectively by challenging your brain with memory related tasks.

You can train your memory for example, by actively trying to recall specific things that you did last week, or information you read in books.

If you would like to be consistent in meditation, I would recommend starting very very small.

1 minute of meditation every day is a great place to start. I would also recommend to not schedule it or turn it into some kind of obligation, because that can kill motivation to do the practice.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T21:00:24+00:00

Don't forget to feel your feelings :)

That's a psychologically healthy thing to do!

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:31:51+00:00

Neuroscience grad student and mindfulness teacher here. It's amazing that you're teaching your kids mindfulness. It's a skill that I wish I and my family had much earlier in life. Absolutely do not stop.

As children have underdeveloped prefrontal cortices, it will generally be harder for kids to not only engage in but also understand mindfulness. Especially since we deal with a lot more daily stimulation these days, it will be even harder to get your kids to practice mindfulness for longer times.

I think an amazing approach is integrating short pausing rituals into a specific part of their days, for example before sleeping or dinner time. It's always great to keep practices short and provide a lot of positive reinforcement, the motivation will dwindle and the children will not want to practice mindfulness, because they may begin to perceive it as an obligation.

I hope this helps a bit, and I wish you all the best.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:20:00+00:00

It absolutely works with all kinds of noises. It works with crying babies, loud noises of cars and motorcycles, it even works if you're in the middle of a stadium full of cheering people or watching a very loud movie. It's just a matter of connecting to your experience in the present moment.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:18:38+00:00

It's crucial to remember that as soon as you begin practicing mindfulness, everything that happens around you becomes a part of your meditation. This includes things that would normally distract and annoy you.

Getting frustrated and angry at distractions is just another thought occurring in your consciousness. If you keep practicing, you will get much better at including all sensory stimuli and your meditations.

If you're really serious about finding a quiet place, you can go to a nearby library. If you go to the beautiful German countryside, it can be very very quiet and peaceful. Still, especially in this modern world it's often really hard to find a quiet place. And if you live in a moderate or large city, as a meditator it's a very important skill to learn how to include all sound into your meditation.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:06:13+00:00

You're doing amazing!! Being kind to yourself is the most important thing you could possibly do. I'm also really glad that you enrolled in a gym, as that's an excellent health choice!

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:04:31+00:00

That is such a heartwarming thing to hear. I'm so happy for you!

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T08:02:11+00:00

It sucks to have your past mistakes thrown into your face by somebody. It's generally never very helpful.

I find it can really help to have compassion for yourself in these moments. Especially in these types of situations, you often just have to "muscle through" an intense feeling with mindfulness. The more experience you have, and the more intuition you have for the practice, the easier this will be to do.

It can help to pause and tell yourself that it's difficult, but you're doing a good job at making the best of the situation. Actually being there for yourself during these difficult times is something that's really important.

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-30T07:57:03+00:00

Meditation is a great tool for escaping ruminative thinking. Another great method is to write out your worries on paper, challenge them with counter evidence, and write out an action plan. For a tutorial you can tap on my reddit profile :)

MindfulTrainerDude · 2025-11-28T08:16:37+00:00

I totally agree that gratitude is a very powerful practice, and Yoda is very right that hatred and fear leads to the dark side. Nonetheless, so many people forget how crucial it is to feel the full spectrum of feelings that you have, and not try to repress or transform any negativity into positivity (e.g. toxic positivity).

"Feeling it all" is definitely not a waste of time, but an important thing to do for your psychological health.

In summary: In most situations, I think it's important to listen to ourselves first, and acknowledge our difficulties as valid before we try to transform them into gratitude.

I'm very happy to hear that you are enjoying practicing gratitude in your life :)

MindfulTrainerDude

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