Can Spirituality Actually Help Anxiety or Are We Just Spiritualising Mental Health?

8 Uncomfortable Questions Modern Life Asks Ancient Wisdom: Day 7

When I went through depression after my MBA, my life did not look broken from the outside.

I had moved countries, completed a degree and was building a new future. Yet inside, I was struggling.

I knew that difficult times pass and that we should not become attached to one chapter of life. But knowing a wise sentence and living it are not the same thing.

The mind does not become peaceful because we tell it to.

This is why “have faith,” “stop overthinking” or “just meditate” can hurt. When fear remains, the person carries a second burden: “Why is spirituality not working for me? Is my faith weak too?”

The real question is: what job are we asking spirituality to do?

Arjuna Was Not Given a Peaceful Quote

The Bhagavad Gita begins with a man who can no longer meet the role expected of him.

Arjuna’s limbs weaken. His mouth becomes dry. His body trembles. His skin burns and his bow slips from his hand. His mind reels, and he cannot see a good path forward.

We should not give a modern diagnosis to an ancient figure. Yet the Gita does not present distress as only a bad thought. Fear appears in Arjuna’s body, judgement, relationships, identity and purpose.

Krishna does not fight for him. He helps Arjuna examine what he fears, believes and must do. The conversation ends not with Arjuna becoming emotionless, but with greater clarity.

The Gita is not simply a story of fear disappearing. It is a story of someone changing his relationship with fear enough to choose an action.

Equanimity Is Not Looking Calm

Later, Arjuna asks about the sthitaprajna, the person of steady wisdom. We often imagine such a person as always calm, never angry and never anxious.

But a calm face can hide a frightened mind.

Equanimity is the space between what we feel and what we do next. It says, “Fear is here, but fear does not make every decision.”

Suppression says, “I should not feel this.”

Equanimity says, “I feel this. Now what is the wisest response?”

One hides reality. The other helps us stay with it.

What Samayik Can Do, and What It Cannot

In Samayik, a Jain steps away from ordinary roles and tries to remain in equanimity for forty-eight minutes. For a while, we are not the founder, parent, employee or person who must have every answer.

This matters because anxiety often fuses a thought with reality.

“I may fail” quietly becomes “I am failing.”

“Someone has not replied” becomes “I have damaged the relationship.”

Samayik creates distance. Instead of saying, “Something terrible will happen,” I can notice, “My mind is producing a frightening prediction.” The situation may still need attention, but the prediction is no longer the only voice.

Silence is not safe for everyone at every moment. For some, sitting still makes panic or painful memories louder. A 2020 review estimated that about 8 per cent of meditation participants had an adverse experience. Meditation can be powerful and still require context, guidance and honesty.

Forcing ourselves to sit longer is not always spiritual discipline. Sometimes wisdom is taking a walk, speaking to someone or seeking professional help.

When Pratikraman Becomes Self-Punishment

Pratikraman asks us to recognise harm, seek forgiveness and choose better action.

But an anxious mind is often too willing to take responsibility.

A delayed message becomes, “I upset them.” A difficult meeting becomes, “I ruin everything.” Reflection becomes a trial where the same person is accused, judge and punishment.

So Pratikraman needs boundaries. Ask:

1. What was actually mine?
2. What was never mine to carry?
3. What can I repair now?

Healthy responsibility leads to a specific repair. Unhealthy guilt makes the whole self feel defective.

Anitya Is Not a Promise That Everything Will Be Fine

Anitya Bhavana reminds us that situations and emotions change.

Anxiety wants certainty. It asks, “Can you promise this will not go wrong?” Anitya gives a more honest answer: “I cannot promise the outcome, but this moment is not the whole future.”

That is not positive thinking. It is freedom from treating today’s fear as tomorrow’s fact.

Yet impermanence should never be used to keep someone inside an unsafe home, harmful workplace or untreated illness. Some pain passes with time. Some pain continues until something changes.

What Research Supports, and What It Does Not

The World Health Organization says anxiety disorders affected 359 million people in 2021, yet only about one in four received treatment. This is not a problem caused by insufficient faith.

In a trial of 276 adults with anxiety disorders, an eight-week mindfulness programme reduced anxiety by a similar amount to escitalopram. It involved trained instructors, weekly sessions and home practice. It did not test a motivational video, religious quote or instruction to calm down.

Evidence for structured mindfulness does not prove every spiritual claim. Spirituality may offer meaning, values and a different relationship with pain. Professional care can assess severity, safety and treatment needs. The two can work together.

My Personal Reflection

Losing my father to a stress-related illness changed how I understand strength. Silent endurance can look impressive until the body pays the price.

During my own difficult period, turning inward helped, but turning inward did not mean handling everything alone. I had to stop filling every quiet moment, let a few people see beyond the capable version of me and accept that seeking support was not a failure of faith.

Spirituality gave pain meaning. It did not make every symptom disappear. The experience also gave direction to the mental health work I am building today.

I no longer believe that the most spiritual person is the one who needs the least help. Sometimes the most honest prayer is, “I am not okay, and I cannot carry this alone.”

The Three Door Test

To judge whether a spiritual practice is helping, ask whether it opens three doors:

1. The door of truth: After praying or meditating, can I name what I feel in ordinary words, without hiding behind “karma,” “detachment” or “everything happens for a reason”?
2. The door of action: Can I identify one response, such as setting a boundary, resting, repairing harm, changing a situation or keeping an appointment?
3. The door of support: Does the practice make me more willing to speak honestly and receive help, or does it make me hide so that I appear spiritually strong?

If a practice gives calm but closes these doors, it may be helping us escape, not heal.

Use Samayik to pause. Use Pratikraman to see what is yours to repair. Use Anitya to remember that fear is not a fixed future. Use the Gita’s insight to return to wise action. And when anxiety keeps affecting sleep, work, appetite or relationships, place spiritual practice beside qualified care, not in front of it.

Spirituality can help anxiety. But its deepest purpose may not be to make every painful feeling disappear. It may be to help us face the feeling without shame, see reality without distortion and take the next honest step.

References

• World Health Organization, “Anxiety Disorders,” updated 8 September 2025: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/anxiety-disorders
• Hoge et al., “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders,” JAMA Psychiatry, 2023: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36350591/
• Farias et al., “Adverse Events in Meditation Practices and Meditation-Based Therapies,” Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 2020: https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.13225
• Bhagavad Gita 1.28 to 1.30 and 2.54 to 2.72, Gita Supersite, IIT Kanpur: https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/
• Jainism Simplified, Chapter 18, Samayik and Pratikraman: https://websites.umich.edu/~umjains/jainismsimplified/chapter18.html

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