How to stay mindful in the face of seasonal stress

As a college student, Emily Lindsay personally benefited from intentionally setting goals and practices that helped her to balance the everyday challenges that came from being a student.

“When I started practicing yoga and meditation, I experienced a profound change in my perspective that allowed me to let go of unhelpful thoughts that intensified stress and practice better health behaviors, like sleeping,” said Lindsay, a University of Pittsburgh research assistant professor. “This motivated me to study how contemplative practices can benefit stress and health.”

Her experience with what she calls mindfulness meditations or interventions and a longstanding fascination with the mystery and power of the mind led her to study psychology and eventually to Pitt. 

Pittwire connected with the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences scholar to understand how to stay mindful during holiday madness and finals and what practices can help you do so.

Please explain your research and the correlation between the mind and health.  

Much of my work has examined how mindfulness meditation training influences stress and emotions in daily life in ways that can impact physical health. This work is grounded in health psychology and our understanding of the bidirectional pathways linking mind and body; our thoughts and feelings influence our body’s physiology and vice-versa. We’ve found that mindfulness training changes people’s physiological responses to stress and immune functioning in ways that could influence health. We’ve also found that acceptance training — learning to welcome present-moment experiences, whether ‘good’ or ‘bad’ — is important for these effects.

How do psychological and biological pathways tell us that mindfulness interventions impact stress, emotion, health and more?

Mindfulness meditation is a practice of bringing awareness to present-moment experiences — thoughts, emotions, body sensations, sounds in the environment — from a perspective of acceptance and openness. We’ve found that mindfulness practice reduces stress, boosts positive emotions and increases social interactions in daily life. Alongside these psychosocial changes, we’ve found that mindfulness practice changes brain pathways (increasing attentional control and reducing automatic emotional reactivity), lowers blood pressure and cortisol responses to stress and changes cellular immune functioning in ways that could benefit health. 

How do people typically experience stress? 

People experience stress in many ways. Some show intense reactions to stressors, both physical (rapid heart rate and blood pressure, sweaty palms, tense muscles) and psychological (feelings of being overwhelmed, fixation on stressful feelings). Some show blunted reactions to stressors, again physical (slowed responses) and psychological (avoiding or suppressing feelings). Sometimes stress can motivate, help you focus and achieve goals, and sometimes stress can reduce motivation and focus. People have many ways of coping: planning, exercising, substance use, sleeping less or more than usual, eating more or less than expected, seeking out friends or family for help, avoiding the stressor, distraction, reframing the situation positively, etc.

What are the most common triggers or causes of stress during finals and the holiday season?

This is a busy time of year, and it’s challenging to find time to do it all. With an increased workload and social calendar, slowing down and recharging is hard. The body and mind can get caught up in the busyness and become overwhelmed, and it can be difficult to get out of this state.

What mindfulness interventions would you recommend people engage in to mitigate stress?

Mindfulness meditation benefits from regular practice and experienced instruction, much like learning to play an instrument or a sport. But it’s also accessible to everyone in daily life. As much as it feels like there’s no time to slow down and rest, really try to find these moments each day. 

Is there anything about the relationship between mind and health you think readers would be surprised to know?

We know from a few decades of research that stress can make a person more susceptible to illness. Most people have probably noticed that they catch a cold during or right after a stressful period of time. However, we also know the effects of stress on the body and immune system are reversible. Even though chronic stress changes brain and immune functioning, these changes are not necessarily permanent. So do what you can to get lots of rest and manage your stress during finals and the holiday break. 

— Kara Henderson, photography by Aimee Obidzinski