The reputation of meditation correlates with mental and physical healing. Most holistic therapists recommend the habit to those coping with anxiety and depression thanks to its ability to elevate one’s mood while also calming one down.
Anxiety itself stems from several mechanisms of the brain and it occurs when one has the inability to govern ruminative cognitive thoughts, or rather, having excessive self-focus on one’s distress rather than finding solutions. This is associated with a decreased executive-level brain activity in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, PFC (regulates behavior, cognitive, and emotional functioning), and the anterior cingulate cortex, ACC (plays a major role in decision making and processing emotions).
The cognitive control of ruminative thoughts is mediated by the PFC and ACC.In other words, the brain creates a sense of fear due to uncertainty, and instead of thinking rationally towards a non-threatening situation, it blows it out of proportion.