Mindfulness may help to lower anxiety for some, but not all. How do we know who is who?
Resh Gupta, postdoctoral research associate at Washington University in St. Louis, looks into the research.
Resh Gupta is a postdoctoral research associate with the Mindfulness Science & Practice Cluster and the Cognitive Control & Psychopathology Laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Vanderbilt University where she examined the effect of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on event-related potential markers of attentional bias in anxious populations. Her current research utilizes EEG, behavioral, and self-report methods to understand the effects of mindfulness on attentional and cognitive control in anxious populations.
Anxiety, Mindfulness, and Cognitive Control
Anxiety is something we all experience, but it can manifest in many different ways. Research has shown that mindfulness, or paying attention to the present moment without judgment, can reduce anxiety symptoms. However, we still do not fully understand how mindfulness works and which types of mindfulness might be most useful for different types of anxiety.
In recent work, we propose that mindfulness combats anxiety by improving a mental process called cognitive control, the ability to regulate your thoughts and your actions in a way that helps you achieve your goals. Anxiety worsens cognitive control by impairing the brain’s working memory system where your goals are stored. However, mindfulness meditation can effectively modulate activity in brain regions that support cognitive control.
We also propose that different kinds of mindfulness practices might be helpful for different varieties of anxiety. For example, people who spend a lot of time worrying may benefit from focused attention practice. You focus on an anchor, such as your breath or a sound, and every time your mind wanders, you bring your attention back to that anchor. Instead of focusing on the worry, you’re focusing on the present moment experience.
People who are hypervigilant and experiencing symptoms like rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, and tightness in the chest, may do better with open monitoring practice. Instead of focusing on one anchor, you observe all internal and external experiences from moment to moment in a non-reactive, non-judgmental way.
This work should help us move away from a one-size-fits-all approach and better match anxiety sufferers with more precise treatments.
Read More:
[ScienceDirect] – Reconceptualizing the relationship between anxiety, mindfulness, and cognitive control
