Three Kinds of Meditation To Treat Your Anxiety
An evidenced-based solution to ease your worries and support your growth.
7 min read | Illustration by Mayara Lista
Do you meditate? If you struggle with anxiety, panic attacks or bouts of worry and rumination, a meditation practice can make a huge difference in your overall sense of well-being. Many of the staff at Downtown Somatic Therapy have some form of meditation practice and use it regularly in sessions with their patients.
In fact, research suggests that meditation can help with mood disorders and self-esteem as well. Today, meditation is mainstream. You can download an app like Calm or Headspace (we’re particularly fond of Waking Up) or you can meditate with other people at a meditation center like MNDFL.
However you begin, there’s robust evidence that you should try meditation to help you get your anxiety under control.
But, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s hard to remain consistent. For meditation to be effective, it should be a consistent practice, just like exercise. This isn’t easy, even for experienced meditators. “I’ve been meditating off and on since I was in high school,” says clinic director Avi Klein. “I always wish I could be more consistent because I always notice a positive impact pretty quickly.”
“For meditation to be effective, it should be a consistent daily practice, just like exercise.”
However, Avi acknowledges that while some people notice a change right away, others might need to stick with it for longer. “The first time I meditated, I just felt intensely aware of my thoughts. It wasn’t relaxing!” But over time, Avi found that he was able to get less lost in thought, which left him feeling more aware of the present moment instead of getting lost in thinking about things he needed to do later in the day.
Still, any amount of meditation can make a difference. For example, “a few minutes of meditation can make an immediate difference in a therapy session,” shares Pia Wallgren, a therapist at Downtown Somatic Therapy. Slowing down and checking in with yourself allows you to focus and go deeper than if you just jump right into talking.
For people new to meditation or looking for a more specific practice, it can be hard to know where to start. Different kinds of meditation emphasize different things while you’re sitting on a meditation cushion.
And while all can help with anxiety, we’re all different. It’s important to know what’s most helpful for you. Melanie Berkowitz, another therapist at DST, believes that “it’s impossible to be bad at meditation” since it’s just the practice of getting more acquainted with your mind and your thoughts. But, some styles work better for different people.
“Slowing down and checking in with yourself allows you to focus and go deeper.”
Below, we’ve listed three kinds of meditation styles that our staff uses regularly in their own meditation practices and with their clients in therapy:
Mindfulness meditation
“This is probably what most people think of when they think of meditation,” says Avi. Mindfulness meditation, also called vipassana in the original Pali, is a meditation practice that has existed for thousands of years. While many people new to meditation imagine achieving a state of peace and thoughtless-ness, the actual experience of mindfulness meditation can be anything but peaceful.
Rather than pursue the absence of the thought, the goal is to pursue awareness of thought and strengthen your capacity to tune into the present moment. This can be incredibly helpful for someone prone to rumination or distraction - actively taking a role in steering your mind away from thoughts can, over time, increase your focus and attunement in the present moment.
A simple way to get started with mindfulness meditation is to pick a point of focus so that you have an anchor to hold on to when you get distracted. Many people begin with their breath. To make that anchor a little weightier, consider counting your breath.
“The goal is to . . . strengthen your capacity to tune into the present moment.”
In practice, it looks like this: focus on the sensation of breathing, whether that’s air coming in through your nostrils or the sensation of your lungs or stomach expanding when you breath. Silently track your breaths by counting by one for each breath you take. When you get to 10, start over.
If you’re like most people, you will quickly get distracted by all kinds of random thoughts! That’s ok. Whenever you notice that you’ve lost track, just notice what you were thinking about and then resume your focus on counting breaths, beginning back at 1.
This can feel like a frustrating practice at first, but over time you will notice that you feel less “in” your thoughts and are able to let them go. This increased flexibility can feel life changing for people who get lost in their anxiety with no way out.
Body-scan meditation
In truth, this is a variation of mindfulness meditation but with a different point of focus: your body instead of your breath. “I like this one a lot because many people find it easier to focus on parts of their body instead of just breathing, so it’s often a more relaxing experience” says Melanie Berkowitz.
“Many people find it easier to focus on parts of their body instead of just breathing, so it’s often a more relaxing experience.”
Because it’s more relaxing, this can be great to do when you’re really struggling. “I do it a lot in session,” says Melanie. “If someone is really having a hard moment and needs help getting grounded, we do it together. You’d be amazed what a difference 5 minutes can make.”
While you can do a body scan by yourself, it helps to have someone guide you. Starting at either the top of your head or the bottom of your feet, use your awareness to focus on just the sensations of one part of your body. That may start with what your skin is coming into contact with (the floor, the fabric of your clothing, the temperature of the air) and then move towards the sensations inside that part of your body.
Slowly shift your awareness up your body until you’ve reached the opposite end. As you become aware of tension/anxiety in your body (the feeling of constriction, tension or tightening), you may find that your awareness of it helps you relax more.
One variation of a body scan that can be very helpful in moments of high emotion or stress is called progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). This involves tensing and then relaxing each part of your body as you become aware of them. This is highly engaging, which can help with distracting you from overwhelming emotions. It is also more deeply relaxing. Listen to a version of PMR led by Pia.
“As you become aware of tension in your body, you may find that your awareness of it helps you relax more.”
Loving Kindness Meditation
While mindfulness meditation focuses on the practice of cultivating awareness in the present moment, loving kindness meditation (metta in Pali) focuses on developing a positive emotional state. Research suggests that this practice can also have a transformative effect on your personal wellness.
Like body-scan meditations, this is a practice that can be done either alone or with the help of a guide. The goal is to generate a feeling of loving-kindness (think of it as compassionate goodwill) towards yourself and others. Often the practice starts with picturing yourself and offering yourself loving kindness through a mantra such as “May I be happy, may I be safe, may I be at peace.” You can then take this feeling and extend it to those you love, those you feel neutral towards and those you dislike.
Loving kindness meditation can prove challenging for different reasons. According to Avi, “some people struggle with receiving loving kindness towards themselves, while others struggle with giving it towards others, especially people they have difficulty with.” But ultimately, the challenge is exactly why it is therapeutic. We could all benefit from being able to receive love and let go of past hurts.
Do you have a meditation practice? Considering starting one? Many of the therapists at Downtown Somatic Therapy have firsthand experience with meditation and incorporate it into their therapy sessions. Reach out to schedule a consultation with a therapist to discuss meditation and how it might help you with depression, anxiety or any of your other mental health goals.