5 Relaxation Hacks That Work as Well as Meditation
Meditation has a slew of health benefits, but not everyone likes doing it. Here are some worthy alternatives.
Ittook decades for modern society to accept the idea that closing your eyes and breathing deeply could change your life. Today, meditation is considered a mainstream wellness practice. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of meditating Americans rose from 4% to 14%, according to a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s likely due in part because the practice is now hailed as a remedy for stress, anxiety, depression, pain, insomnia, and more.
But for some people, meditation isn’t so simple. The sitting still, ignoring mental chatter, and being nonjudgmental can take more time to cultivate than some are willing to commit. Others may not feel fulfilled by the practice, or they find it boring.
“I have personally tried [meditation] with several teachers, first while doing some Reiki classes, then [the app] Headspace. I’ve paid for Transcendental Meditation training, done a 10-day Vipassana meditation silence retreat, bought a Muse headband to track my progress, and nothing is helping,” one Reddit user wrote in the subreddit r/Meditation. “I’ve been doing it for years, and I honestly feel like it might simply not be meant for some people. Just like anything else, there is no one-size-fits-all with these practices.”
Research shows that meditation can increase the quality of life of longtime meditators due to the practice’s ability to change the brain’s structure. The good news for people who feel less inspired by the practice is that research also shows there are other ways to reshape the mind in positive ways. Here are some science-backed suggestions.
Listen to music
Meditation is believed to be effective at combating mood disorders in part because it teaches the mind to suppress activity in an area of the brain called the default mode network (DMN). Some studies have linked heightened activity in the DMN to mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. Listening to music, experts say, may confer some similar benefits.
One 2014 study showed that when people listen to music they dislike, the areas of the brain that make up the DMN appear poorly connected, similar to how the brain looks when people are stressed. But when people listen to music they like, the connections get stronger, suggesting that playing a favorite song can create deeper focus and feelings of relaxation.
“With music, you get a chance to target some of the regions of the brain that normally wouldn’t get targeted through your daily activities. It allows people a safe medium to experience emotional release.”
“Music helps capture the parts of your brain that would otherwise wander off,” says Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist who completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Baycrest Centre. Salimpoor led a 2011 study that found listening to music leads to the release of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine (it’s also released during meditating), which could be responsible for music’s mood-boosting effects.
“With music, you get a chance to target some of the regions of the brain that normally wouldn’t get targeted through your daily activities,” Salimpoor says. “It allows people a safe medium to experience emotional release.”
Get a good workout
Exercise can improve brain health in ways that are similar to meditation. Yoga, for example, often incorporates elements of meditation, such as deep breathing and awareness of the body and mind chatter. One study found that yoga practices that included elements of breathing and meditation increased overall brain wave activity and gray matter in the frontal cortex, which is part of the DMN and gives the brain its information processing power.
A 2016 study found that interval running can also improve the brain’s ability to focus, ignore distractions, switch between tasks, and solve problems. Another brain-imaging study showed that runners appear to have better coordination between areas of the brain associated with executive function and working memory, as well as a better ability to suppress activity in the DMN.
Lastly, during any kind of exercise, the body releases the happy chemical known as endorphins into the brain. This process is believed to reduce a person’s perception of pain and increase feelings of happiness.
Spend time outdoors
Getting out into nature is shown to heighten our sense of mindfulness. In the United Kingdom, researchers started the Rewild Your Life campaign, which challenges people to spend 30 minutes outside every day for 30 days. Those who completed the challenge reported significant increases in mood, well-being, mindfulness, and life meaning, compared to a control group. In Japan, doctors recommend the practice of forest bathing — the act of walking in the forest and “bathing” in its sights, sounds, and smells — due to its ability to reduce blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol, improve immune function, and increase our sense of mindfulness and well-being.
In another 2015 study, researchers found that people who went on a 90-minute walk outside in nature reported lower levels of rumination and lower activity in an area of the brain linked to mental illness, compared to people who walked in an urban area. “These results suggest that accessible natural areas may be vital for mental health in our rapidly urbanizing world,” the study authors wrote.
Tap into flow
Entering flow — also known as the feeling of being “in the zone” — is thought to have a similar effect on the brain as meditating. Researchers have found that, much like meditation, a flow state is characterized by an intense and focused concentration on the present moment, the merging of action and awareness, and the loss of reflective self-consciousness.
Psychologists believe that when we enter flow, we are working at our optimal level of performance.
Getting into a flow state is no one-size-fits-all endeavor, but any activity that you personally enjoy and are invested in can help you get there. It could be cooking, running, writing, or playing an instrument. Psychologists believe that when we enter flow, we are working at our optimal level of performance and therefore feel good and have more fun.
In the future: psychedelics
A less orthodox method for reaching bliss may be psychedelics.
Psychedelic research is enjoying a modern renaissance as studies increasingly show that the likes of LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA are potent treatments for everything from depression and anxiety to fear of death and addiction. Meanwhile, meditation is similarly being studied as an intervention for these issues. That led Frederick Barrett, a behavioral neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, to ask: Do psychedelics have a similar effect on the brain as meditation?
“At least anecdotally, the answer seems to be almost a resounding yes,” he says.
While their research has not been published, Barrett and his team conducted a study where they scanned the brains of long-term meditators before and after administering psilocybin. The researchers found that the areas of the brain activated during meditation saw an increase in activity after the psilocybin trip.
People in the study also shared that certain experiences of the drug trip were similar to things they had experienced during meditation, including “a profound presence or awareness of the present moment and a loss of a sense of self.”
While Barrett does not suggest that anyone should go out and try psychedelics on their own or do it as a way to launch a meditation practice, he does suggest that psilocybin could act as a meditation “crash course” for people with mood or substance abuse disorders in need of a serious intervention.
“It turns out meditation is hard, right? Not everybody can do it,” Barrett says. “But to the extent that meditation is being investigated as a therapeutic approach to [mood and substance abuse] disorders, if a person tries meditating and ends up not successful, it might be that psilocybin or other psychedelics are a second- or third-line treatment.”
What all of these alternative practices have in common is their ability to pull us out of daily thought patterns and increase feelings of pleasure and relaxation. With that in mind, any activity that encourages focus and relaxation could produce the same benefits as meditation. Try going for a run in nature while listening to your favorite song, and you just might reach nirvana — if that’s what works for you.
