Can Mindfulness Meditation Cause You Emotional Harm?

Mindfulness meditation is often touted as an incredibly beneficial practice that can significantly help reduce your stress, anxiety, depression and generally help reduce negativity. You might be wondering how useful mindfulness meditation is in practice and if it actually helps with stress. There is no denying that this meditation method can indeed be a very effective form of meditation, but could it also be causing you emotional harm?

Let's take a look at how mindfulness meditation can actually affect you.

What Is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness meditation is a specific type of meditation that focuses on developing the skills that are needed to recognize and accept both inner and outer life experiences.

The theory of mindfulness meditation is that by mastering your awareness and being mindful of each and every moment, individuals can become more in-tuned and live a fuller life because they are consistently present in every moment in their lives. How does mindfulness meditation work in practice, though?

How Does it Work?

Mindfulness meditation works by teaching individuals how to become aware of and then release any negative emotions or thoughts they may have. By doing this, it encourages the awareness of only positive feelings and emotions.

Is it Effective?

Although it may not work for everyone, current research suggests that mindfulness meditation can be effective for individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. A recent study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that mindfulness meditation was equally effective as traditional antidepressant medications in treating depression.

Can it Cause Emotional Harm?

Although mindfulness meditation can be a highly effective tool for handling stress, it is not a magic cure for negative emotions. Although this type of meditation can help you, it cannot be relied on as a sole source of problem solving.

If you avoid all negativity rather than learn how to handle negative situations (which are a normal part of life), it can lead to unrealistic attitudes and ultimately do more harm than good. To address negative emotions, you must first become mindful of them so that you can pay attention to what they are telling you. If instead you detach from negative emotions and ignore the problems that come with them, in the long run things will get much worse.

Is There a Downside to Mindfulness Meditation?

There can be. Because mindfulness meditation encourages individuals to learn how to accept all situations they encounter, it contradicts opposing theories that state that you have to go through negativity to get over it. When it comes to stressful situations, emotional pain and suffering, physical discomfort and pain, or any other unwanted condition, many professionals believe that there are more effective ways to work through these situations other than just acknowledging and accepting them.