Breathing comes naturally, but not when you’re upset, so learn to use that always-ready skill-set in a new way to calm down and defeat stress.

Since Jon Kabot-Zinn and his fellow researchers first suggested mindfulness, an adaptation of centuries-old techniques in Asia, to the Western world, it has been a topic of active exploration in countless articles, books, seminars, and therapy sessions. It has been a staple of New Age psychology and a form of self-help to deal with stressful situations or emotional subjects.

There is a wealth of knowledge available on the subject, and thousands of research papers and research projects have delved into the utility of this technique in both mental and physical areas of exploration. However, not everyone is convinced that it is as effective as we believe, and there seems to be some disagreement.

Although authors may disagree, we must examine the current research, especially that into physical medicine, where mindfulness is extremely helpful to patients. Specifically, hypertension remains a serious medical disorder that requires more than medication for its control.

In the United States, high blood pressure has cost $53.2 billion a year over the last ten years. Getting control of high blood pressure would have a significant effect on death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than eliminating any other CVD risk factor in women and any risk factor in men except smoking.

Blood pressure that is too high is must be addressed to improve people’s health. We know a great deal about what causes it. For example, food, exercise, alcohol use, and taking antihypertensive drugs as prescribed are all big factors that affect blood pressure. But figures from around the world show that only about half of the people with high blood pressure have it under control. Hypertension is now one of the most important noncommunicable diseases to treat and avoid around the world.

People over 65 who had isolated systolic hypertension that were challenging to treat received relaxed response training. The people in the study were more likely to be able to control their blood pressure, and some of them might have been able to cut back on or even stop taking their blood pressure medicines. What happens during this exercise?

While the body relaxes, blood pressure drops, inflammation and blood vessel tightness slow down, and blood vessels widen. This effect seems to be caused by nitric oxide, a molecule that our bodies make that helps keep blood pressure in check by relaxing and widening blood vessels. The results would seem to be quite dramatic.

But it’s not only cardiac issues that may be addressed by mindfulness training because it has been used in stress as well. A large project looked at how well single, short mindfulness interventions worked in a multi-site study that took place at 37 sites and had 2,239 valid observations. The researchers discovered that mindfulness exercises — body scan, mindful breathing, mindful walking, and loving-kindness — helped people feel less stressed than a control group.

Exercise and Eating, Too

One study found that combining physical activity (PA) with mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) provided a positive feedback loop. When used together in interventions, PA and MBIs may have bigger benefits than either one alone, probably because of working together in ways that complement each other. For example, mindfulness training might make it easier to start doing PA by teaching people to accept and not judge their possibly uncomfortable experiences. On the other hand, doing PA can increase a person’s sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep doing it.

Can mindfulness help with other issues? It seems to can be used in aiding people with their eating habits. The MB-BP (Mindfulness-Blood Pressure) program might help people change the way they eat, which is one of the main causes of high blood pressure.

Even though the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) plan can lower blood pressure (BP), most people do not follow it very well. Mindfulness training that is tailored to promoting healthy habits that lower blood pressure may help people stick to the DASH diet, in part by raising their interoceptive awareness of what they are eating.

DIY Mindfulness

Anyone who is unfamiliar with mindfulness may find these three Mayo Clinic outlines helpful:

Meditation with a body scan: Put your arms at your sides and your legs out in front of you. Your hands should face up. Pay careful attention to each part of your body one at a time, going from toe to head or head to toe. Be aware of any feelings, thoughts, or sensations that each part of your body brings up.

Meditation while sitting: Hold your hands in your lap and keep your back straight. Your feet should be flat on the floor. Pay attention to how your breath moves in and out of your body as you breathe through your nose. If thoughts or feelings come up during your meditation, write them down, and then focus on your breath again.

Meditation while walking: Start walking slowly in a quiet area 10 to 20 feet long. Pay attention to how walking and standing feel and to the small moves that help you stay balanced. When you get to the end, turn around and keep walking while paying attention to how you feel. In fact, new research has attested to slow walking as opposed to jogging, so there’s an additional plus here. And it may even help with weight loss.

Is mindfulness something anyone can do whenever they want? It would seem so and the benefits are great, plus there’s no need to enroll in special programs or limit it to a specific time frame — it’s at your disposal every day of the week for how long you want to maintain its use. But using it regularly appears to be a good thing, so it might be something to consider.