Meditation, Movement, and Mental Health

General Wellness
Written By Susie Wiet, MD
Male and female meditating in yoga class to improve mental heatlh

The ancient practices of meditation, Qigong, Tai Chi, and yoga continue to flourish as modalities for healing and maintaining wellness of the mind-body-spirit. But did you know there is a growing body of clinical evidence that yoga and meditation can provide therapeutic help in relieving stress, depression, and anxiety?

Yoga is a practice of mind-body fitness rooted in Indian philosophy that involves a combination of physical activity and a mindful focus on awareness of the self, breath regulation, deep relaxation, and energy. There are many benefits to practicing yoga including stress relief, supporting good health habits, and improvements in mental/emotional health, sleep, and balance.[1] Research also shows that yoga and meditation may improve executive functions, such as reasoning, decision making, memory, learning, reac­tion time, and accuracy on tests of mental acuity.[2]

We know that exercise is good for our mental well-being. It makes our bodies strong, releases endorphins, and brings more oxygen to our brains. According to Harvard Medical School, yoga causes your brain to develop new connections and changes brain structures to improve cognitive skills like learning and memory. Yoga can also elevate gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a chemical in the brain associated with better mood and reduced anxiety. Interestingly, practicing yoga may have protective benefits that counteract the aging of the brain, too, helping maintain memory and cognitive skills.

Meditation is another ancient practice that has been used to alleviate the effects of stress on the body. Meditation is a process in which you focus your attention inward to induce a state of deep relaxation. It is believed that meditation affects the sympathetic nervous system, which increases heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure during times of stress. There are different types of meditation:

  • Concentration meditation – the focus of the mind

  • Heart-centered meditation – quiets the mind and brings focus to the energy center in the middle of the chest

  • Mindfulness meditation – encourages objective focus on negative thoughts to bring a state of calm

  • Tai Chi and Qigong – forms of moving meditation that combine exercise with breathing and focus

  • Transcendental meditation – a repeated mantra to quiet the mind and achieve greater awareness

  • Walking meditation – a focus on body and mind as you breathe in time with your footsteps

Sara Lazar is a PhD at Harvard who studies the neuroscience of yoga and meditation. She has done significant research into how meditation may physically change many parts of the brain and could theoretically impact cognitive faculties that include, “learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.” You can watch a short TED talk by Dr. Lazar as she explains the potential benefits of meditation here.

The beauty of a meditative practice is that it is easy to do anywhere and takes only a few minutes of your day. Experts recommend meditating at the same time every day to create a habit. Within only a week or two of regular meditation, there should be a noticeable change in mood and stress levels. In fact, a 2014 review of studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found meditation improved stress-related outcomes in patients with anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.[3]

With so many benefits to yoga and meditation and so little downside, there is no reason not to give them a try. Both practices are excellent add-ons to other treatments, and more research is being done to provide evidence into their effectiveness. If you would like to try yoga and meditative movement, call or text Sovegna at (385) 429-9808.

Sources:

[1] National Institute of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Yoga: What You Need to Know. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/yoga-what-you-need-to-know

[2] Harvard Medical School Harvard Health Publishing. (2021, June 12). Yoga for Better Mental Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/yoga-for-better-mental-health

[3] Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga EMS, et al. Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(3):357–368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018

Susie Wiet, MD

Dr. Wiet is an integrative, developmental psychiatrist with expertise in treatment of trauma-addiction, dual diagnosis, and complex psychiatric disorders. She synthesizes functional medicine principles (working with your own biology), honed therapeutic skills (trauma-informed, psychodynamic and EMDR trained), and allopathic (traditional western) medical training to optimize treatment outcomes and conservative use of medication.  

She is the founder, owner, and executive medical director of Sovegna Center for Addiction Treatment and Recovery and the Trauma-Resiliency Collaborative of Utah. She is the author of the Health Resiliency Stress Questionnaire (HRSQ). She has received many awards for teaching, service, initiative, advocacy and excellence of care.  

Dr. Wiet graduated from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, IL, and trained at the University of Utah in General Psychiatry and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry (fellowship). She holds three American Medical Board certifications: General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. She is a Volunteer Faculty at the University of Utah Department of Psychiatry and previously full-time faculty as an Assistant Professor.

During her personal time, she enjoys learning from her children, celebrating time with family and friends, hiking, biking, cooking, writing poetry, cultivating creativity, and deepening her faith in prayer.

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