Meditation to lower blood pressure?
- Dmitri Konash
- Aug 29, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Apr 19
How to lower blood pressure with meditation in minutes. Where to start and what tools to use.
Hundreds of millions of people across the world who suffer from high blood pressure still consider a hypertension pill as their only solution. Some of them may have heard of the health benefits of meditation but consider this type of healing as ‘strange’ at best. Meanwhile there is growing scientific evidence that meditation and breathing exercises to lower blood pressure do help to manage hypertension.
What is scientific evidence that meditation to lower high blood pressure works?
It has been known for centuries that mindfulness practices, like yoga, meditation and slow breathing help to calm down and relax. Over the last few decades scientists have found a strong link between the efforts to calm the mind and its positive impact on the body.
According to an American Heart Association scientific statement, finally scientific research has confirmed that meditation indeed can lower blood pressure [1].
According to one of the randomized control studies, a group of subjects who underwent an 8 week meditation training program showed statistically lower blood pressure readings as compared to the control group [2].
In another study, participants went through a 10 session meditation for high blood pressure training program. The main benefits of this program were those with a systolic blood pressure reading of over 140 mmHg. These participants observed an average reduction in their blood pressure of 15.1 mmHg [3].
One more research has demonstrated that 12 weeks meditation course helped users to lower Sys blood pressure by 12mmHg and Dia blood pressure by 7 mmHg [4].
What is a meditation to lower blood pressure?
Meditation is a practice where an individual focuses their mind on a particular thought, activity or object and achieves a mentally clear and emotionally stable and calm mind. This state of mind engages a parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for a ‘rest and digest’ behaviour. The mind directs the body to dilate blood vessels which leads to lower blood pressure.
The best thing? Once you master meditation practice you will be lower blood pressure in as little as 5 or 10 minute. With no side effect!
How to lower blood pressure with meditation?
Sit in a quiet place where no one can disturb you and close your eyes. Relax your muscles and silently repeat a word or sound of your choosing over and over. You may also focus on the air coming in and out your nostrils as you breathe slowly.
When thoughts arise and interfere (as they will), let them come and go and return to your practice. Imagine that you are sitting on a bank of a river and look at the water slowly flowing in front of your eyes. You may observe an object, like a grass or piece of bark, carried by water. Make a mental notice of this object, then let it go and bring your focus again to your chosen sound or word.
What is a guided meditation to lower blood pressure?
It takes time and constant practice to learn how to meditate. It is better to start from guided meditations as you can relax and just follow directions from an instructor.
This 5 minute meditation to lower blood pressure is popular on YouTube with over 150K views and 97% approval rating.
Once you are able to follow a 5-6 minutes guided meditation and stay fully focussed, you may consider this longer 10 minute meditation to lower blood pressure which has over 50K views.
How do you know if a meditation to lower blood pressure has worked for you? Just measure your blood pressure before a meditation and right after it. We below we describe an easier method to judge objectively the effect of a meditation which is deployed in some mobile apps.
How to learn meditation to lower blood pressure?
Learning how to meditate requires time and continued effort. That is where technology can help.
The Muse headband is an effective tool to aid meditation practice and track its impact on brain activity. It uses EEG sensors to measure brain waves in real-time, providing visual and auditory feedback to indicate the level of relaxation achieved. This real-time feedback designed to gamify the process, helping users to learn how to reach a meditative state.
My own experience with the Muse headband demonstrates its effectiveness. The app presents audio cues, such as sounds of waves, rain, and birdsong, that shift as brain activity changes, providing users with immediate feedback on their level of relaxation. Check out this YouTube video which provides more details about Muse and how it helps to enhance meditation to lower blood pressure.
What is the best meditation app to lower blood pressure?
There are plenty of meditation apps available from Apple AppStore or Google Play.
Meditation apps to lower blood pressure have the following benefits:
- a user can perform meditations off-line
- meditation apps usually include a reminder to encourage regular use;
- meditation apps often include additional tools to lower anxiety and blood pressure
One example is a very popular relaxation app Calm, available from Apple AppStore and Google Play. It includes meditations and many other natural tools for relaxation, i.e. sleep stories.
Another popular meditation app is Headspace. Its functionality is quite similar to Calm but its graphic components are bright and the app includes more humor.
One examples of a meditation app specifically designed to lower blood pressure is BreathNow . In addition to calming meditations and breathing exercises it includes instructional videos with other relaxation techniques: for example acupressure and meditation music to lower blood pressure.
The unique feature of BreathNow is the heart rate and stress monitor within the app to measure objectively what calming techniques work best for you. Take a pulse and stress reading before meditation and another one right after. A meditation which led to most stress reduction is also the most effective in lowering blood pressure.
BreathNow app with meditations to lower blood pressure app is based on years of my personal experience of fighting and winning against anxiety and high blood pressure with natural tools, no medications. Please try it and let me know how it works for you.
BreathNow includes now 14 different meditations to lower blood pressure, including a walking meditation. It has meditations with 2 female and 2 male voices to suit different voice preferences. Android version of BreathNow is also available.
Other popular questions on this topic which we hear from users.
How long does it take for meditation to lower blood pressure and meditation to lower blood pressure quickly?
As we explained above it takes just 5 to 10 minutes for someone to perform a meditation to lower blood pressure to experience positive results. Check out the links to the popular meditations to lower blood pressure YouYube to check user feedback.
Like with any other skill, learning how to meditate requires constant practicing. Start from a guided meditation to lower blood pressure and consider using an app which will help you to learn this skill.
What is meditation and breathing exercises to lower blood pressure, and
breathing meditation to lower blood pressure?
Slow focussed breathing (or breathing exercises) is one form of a meditation to lower blood pressure. A user focuses on inhale and exhale cycles of his breath. Breathing exercises to lower blood pressure is probably the easiest form of meditation to learn. All you need to do is to focus on a guiding breathing circle of a mobile app or YouTube video. You can learn more about breathing apps to lower blood pressure in this post.
What is meditation music to lower blood pressure?
This is a type of music specifically designed to help users to achieve maximum benefits from meditation to lower blood pressure or breathing exercises to lower blood pressure. Some users get positive effect in lowering blood pressure just listening to relaxing music without comments from instructor. Here is one example of such meditation music to lower blood pressure on YouTube.
What is meditation to lower blood pressure for anxiety?
Quite often a primary reason for high blood pressure is a person feeling uncontrolled anxiety. In these situations meditation to lower blood pressure is particularly helpful. A meditation helps our parasympathetic nervous system to send a signal to the mind that we have nothing to worry about in this particular moment. The mind then directs the body to dilate blood vessels which leads to lower blood pressure.
Summary
- It has been scientifically proven that meditation for blood pressure delivers positive results.
- Learning meditation takes time and practice so it is better to start from guided meditations led by experts
- Meditation apps help to stay focussed and encourage regular use. Try BreathNow for free and let us know how it helped you to lower blood pressure.
References:
1. Meditation and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction, A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.
2. Benefits of mindfulness meditation in reducing blood pressure and stress in patients with arterial hypertension, Journal of Human Hypertension, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41371-018-0130-6
3. Mindfulness-Based Blood Pressure Reduction (MB-BP): Stage 1 single-arm clinical trial, Plos One Journal, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223095
Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Blood Pressure, Mental Health, and Quality of Life in Hypertensive Adult Women: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10222936/
