Stress is a modern mental bogeyman, keeping nearly half of Americans up at night, according to a recent survey from the American Psychological Association. Many say they don’t do anything to combat it, yet it takes a toll; stress is linked to a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
Now, there’s fresh evidence in favor of mindfulness practices—not just sitting cross-legged in meditation—to help ease stress and anxiety. In a new study published in the journal Psychiatry Research, anxious people who took a mindfulness course where they learned several different strategies reacted to stress better and had a lower hormonal and inflammatory response than people who didn’t practice mindfulness.
