How Meditation Helps You to Reduce Depression and Anxiety?

In times when depression and anxiety have become major health issues for people of all age groups, knowing how to cope up with it and look out for its treatment is very important.  More than 264 million people across the globe suffer from depression as statistics say and more of this population is covered with women. People who tend to have regular anxiety and depression are likely to undergo heart diseases that can even prove to be fatal.

Getting the Basics Straight

For a lot of people, the term Anxious and Depressed are the same, when in reality they are not. A thread line difference separates both of them from each other. However, they both share the same biological basis but are experienced differently and can also be referred to as different sides of the same coin.

Here are a few major differences between Anxiety and Depression, that can help you better in identifying your current state.

Major Mental Differences Between Anxiety and Depression

Anxiety	Depression
-          The constant worry of the present and even the future.	-          An extremely pessimistic approach towards the present and even the future.
-          Uncertainty, doubt about things going the wrong way.	-          Not even giving things a try, because they aren’t worth it.
-          Avoid situations because they might just not fit in.	-          Feeling worthless and completely invaluable.

How to Cure Depression and Anxiety?

Stress and anxiety trigger most of your depression. The usual ways to treat anxiety and depression are through psychotherapy and antidepressants, which also carries a handful of side effects if they are consumed.

Science has found various ways to cope up with anxiety and depression but so has Meditation. On-going research has said that regular practice of doing meditation can change the way the brain counters to different situations, especially that of depression and anxiety. But…

What is meditation?

A lot of people have built up this concept in their head that states meditation is a type of religious activity, that has to be done while being isolated from the people, in a secluded place. Which is quite the opposite of what it is in reality. Meditation is all about sitting in serenity and evaluating your actions and thoughts. It is not called ‘judging’ your character, it's more inclined towards appraisement of your doings and thoughts.

How Meditation Helps in Reducing Anxiety and Depression?

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) often called the ‘me center’ in the brain is a region that is connected to depression and becomes hyperactive when depressive thoughts are experienced. The ‘Me center’ contains all the information about yourself and with the hyper-activation of (mPFC), a person tends to overthink about his life and the circumstances.

Meanwhile, there’s another region in the brain that is called the fear center and is also connected with depression. Whenever a feeling of a trigger is experienced, that region gets activated and excessive information about it starts coming into the brain. Together, these two regions trigger depression in a person.

Meditation helps break the connection of these two regions by blocking out all the pessimism and negativity coming from the mind such as anxiety and stress. This is why it is suggested to meditate if you’re stressed out.

Meditation also takes you out from a world of pessimism to a world of optimism. It increases the power of imagining beautiful and serene things in the mind that directly drives you to a better and peaceful state.

Moreover, meditation is great for reducing anxiety and stress as it calms your nerves. Before entering a situation that is going to give you stress or anxiety, meditating will help you control how you react to that situation. If the anxiety there and then is stopped, there are very fewer chances of depression hitting your way.

There are a lot of meditation websites too that are specially formed to teach you the ways of meditation and giving you relief from depression and anxiety. For these websites, the SEO Optimize Website Content in a way that the site looks soothing and mind-calming which makes the reader read more and find out about meditation.

Concludingly Choosing One: Meditation or Medication?

Antidepressants help in relieving the symptoms of depression. For some people, it works wonders whereas for some people it doesn’t. However, medication has a lot of cons that get your mind hazy, making you feel exhausted and down. And it is not ideal to use for cases that aren’t very serious but are mild.

Meditation is much more beneficial for mild symptoms as it not only give you relief from depression and anxiety but also improves the breathing, heart rate, and breathing. One should do it to maintain his overall health and be radiant!