Watch the Instagram post that inspired this blog.
I hate to be another therapist on the internet telling you how helpful mindfulness and meditation can be—but here I am.
Mindfulness is the broader practice of intentionally paying attention to the present moment, while meditation is one way of practicing that skill. There are three particular reasons I have personally found meditation so effective, especially for anxiety, shame, and emotional processing.
1. It teaches you not to follow every thought
If you’re an anxious person—or someone who overthinks, ruminates, analyzes every possible scenario, or struggles with intrusive thoughts—these patterns may feel like second nature.
That’s precisely why it can be so important to train your brain not to run off with every thought it produces.
The most committed I have ever been to meditation was while dating someone who was very avoidant. His avoidant behavior activated my anxiety, and when I tell you my mind was running rampant, I mean my thoughts felt almost compulsive. I was analyzing everything, imagining different scenarios, searching for certainty, and becoming consumed by my own fears. It was seriously disrupting my peace.
I began meditating because I knew I needed to practice experiencing a thought without automatically following it.
One of the simplest ways to imagine this is to picture your thoughts as clouds moving through the sky or leaves floating down a stream. You can be aware that they are there without grabbing onto them.
There is a massive difference between being aware of something and feeding it with your attention.
Meditation gives us a place to practice noticing that difference. An anxious thought can be present without becoming something we must analyze, solve, or treat as the truth.
We may not be able to control which thoughts enter our minds, but we can train ourselves to become more intentional about which ones receive our attention. It isn’t always easy, but it is worth practicing. Sidenote: If you’re getting irritated with the practice, it’s actually working :)
2. It helps loosen the grip of shame
Meditation can also be especially powerful for people who carry a lot of shame.
Shame can be experienced as an emotion, but chronic shame can also become deeply intertwined with our core beliefs. Instead of saying, “I did something bad,” shame says, “There is something bad about me.”
The word shame can sound intense, so many people don’t realize how much of it they carry. But if a part of you believes you’re defective, inherently bad, unlovable, or that something is fundamentally wrong with you, shame may be underneath that belief.
Meditation helps us practice observing what is happening inside us without immediately judging it—or ourselves.
When you repeatedly practice noticing a thought without labeling it as good or bad, you begin creating distance from the harsh internal voice that treats every feeling, mistake, or imperfection as evidence against you.
A thought can simply be a thought. An emotion can simply be an emotion. Neither has to become a verdict about who you are.
Meditation has not made me completely nonjudgmental toward myself. It has helped me notice when judgment appears—and that awareness gives me an opportunity to relate to myself differently.
3. It helps you feel emotions without creating a story about them
This one may be my favorite!
One of the greatest gifts I have ever given myself is learning to feel something without immediately attaching a story or narrative to it.
There was a period when I experienced a burning sensation in my chest for months. I was also feeling depressed at the time, but I remember thinking that if I didn’t have this intense physical sensation, I might not have interpreted myself as being so sad. It reminded me of what can happen when you’re sick or exhausted: something affects you more deeply than it normally would, and your mind immediately begins searching for an explanation. As I allowed myself to experience the sensation without trying to explain it, I had a strange—although perhaps not so strange—realization: the sadness felt ancient. It almost felt as though it wasn’t entirely mine.
I didn’t need to determine exactly what it meant. I didn’t need to create a narrative about what the sadness said about me, my life, or my future. Allowing myself to feel it without turning it into an identity helped me begin moving through it.
More recently, I felt sad and knew I could cry. Almost immediately, my mind began searching for a story to attach to the feeling.
Why am I sad? What is wrong? What does this mean?
Instead of following those questions, I let myself cry. I didn’t need to decide that the sadness meant something was wrong with me or my life. In that moment, crying was simply a bodily need—like being hungry, tired, or needing to use the bathroom.
I needed to cry. So I cried. Afterward, I continued with my day, and I was okay.
An important part of this is that we’re not only releasing the story about why we feel a certain way. We’re also releasing the story about what that feeling supposedly says about who we are. Feeling lonely does not mean you are unlovable. Feeling anxious does not mean you are incapable. Feeling sad does not mean you are broken. A feeling is an experience—not an identity.
Meditation relates to this because it teaches us to quiet the narration long enough to experience what is actually happening. We practice noticing sensations, thoughts, and emotions without immediately needing to explain, judge, or change them.
Sometimes a feeling carries important information. Sometimes it asks us to make a change. Other times, it simply needs enough space to move through us.
Meditation helps create that space. It allows us to stop fighting what is present, experience it without turning it into a story about ourselves, and eventually move forward.
About the author: Chelsea Doswell is an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor providing online therapy to clients in California. Learn more about Chelsea and her approach to therapy.
