Meditation and Cortisol: Slaying ‘The Stress Hormone’

Pick up a magazine or do some online browsing and you’ll see that a certain health boogeyman is back in the spotlight: cortisol, “the stress hormone.” You’ll find influencers on TikTok whose claims about “low-cortisol” diets and supplements make bigfoot hunters sound credible. Fortunately, if you’re reading this blog, you already have a powerful tool for managing cortisol: meditation.

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years across diverse cultures, but only recently has modern science begun to understand its profound effects on our bodies and minds. One of the most significant benefits of regular practice is its ability to reduce stress — and by extension, its ability to modulate cortisol.

Cortisol is produced by your adrenal glands  in response to stress. In small doses and for short periods, cortisol is actually helpful: it gives us energy and focus during challenging situations. However, when cortisol levels remain elevated for extended periods, it is associated with numerous health problems, including:

• Weight gain, especially around the midsection
• Sleep problems
• Digestive issues
• Headaches
• Heart disease
• Memory and concentration impairment
• Anxiety and depression

Rather than looking for a quick fix, healthy lifestyle changes, including meditation, can have a meaningful impact on your cortisol and overall well being.

Let’s look at what recent studies reveal about how meditation can help control cortisol.

The Shamatha Project: Mindfulness and Cortisol Levels

Research from the University of California, Davis published in 2013 provides compelling evidence of the relationship between mindfulness meditation and reduced cortisol levels. The study, known as the Shamatha Project, is one of the most comprehensive investigations into how meditation affects both mind and body.

Researchers measured aspects of mindfulness in volunteers before and after they participated in an intensive three-month meditation retreat. They also collected saliva samples to measure cortisol levels. During the retreat, participants were trained in:

• Mindfulness of breathing
• Observing mental events
• Observing the nature of consciousness
• Cultivating positive mental states like compassion and loving-kindness

The researchers discovered something remarkable: participants who scored higher on mindfulness tests had lower levels of cortisol, both before and after the retreat. Even more interesting, those whose mindfulness scores improved after the meditation training showed a corresponding decrease in cortisol levels.

According to lead researcher Tonya Jacobs, “The more a person reported directing their cognitive resources to immediate sensory experience and the task at hand, the lower their resting cortisol.” This is the first study to directly link resting cortisol levels with mindfulness scores.

The study suggests that by training your mind to focus on the present moment—rather than ruminating about the past or worrying about the future — you may be able to reduce your body’s production of cortisol. In simpler terms: being more mindful might help your body be less stressed.

It’s important to note that the researchers didn’t claim a direct cause-and-effect relationship. It’s possible that lower cortisol leads to better mindfulness, rather than the other way around. However, the correlation is significant enough to suggest that mindfulness practices could help manage stress-related health issues.

Growing Evidence on Meditation and Cortisol

Individual studies can tell us a lot, but what happens when we look at many studies together? Meta-analyses combine results from multiple studies to give us a broader picture. Let’s look at what two recent meta-analyses tell us about meditation and its effects on cortisol.

A 2020 review published in Health Psychology Review analyzed 10 studies with 395 participants who had their cortisol levels measured through blood samples. These studies covered various meditation approaches:

• Focused attention meditation based on mindfulness
• Transcendental meditation
• Body-mind and mind-body programs

The results? Meditation interventions had a significant medium-sized effect on reducing cortisol levels. This means that across different types of meditation practices, participants showed meaningful reductions in cortisol levels compared to control groups.

What makes this finding particularly valuable is that the researchers checked for publication bias (the tendency to publish only positive results) and found the results to be robust. This means we can be more confident that meditation really does help reduce cortisol levels.

An even more recent meta-analysis from 2024 published in Psychoneuroendocrinology confirmed similar findings. This comprehensive review analyzed 58 studies with over 3,500 participants, categorizing stress management interventions into four types:

1. Mind-body therapies
2. Mindfulness meditation
3. Relaxation techniques
4. Talking therapies (like counseling)

Overall, stress management interventions were effective at reducing cortisol levels, with a medium-sized positive effect. But here’s where it gets interesting: mindfulness/meditation and relaxation techniques showed the strongest effects on cortisol levels, significantly outperforming mind-body therapies and talking therapies.

The study also found that measuring cortisol levels first thing in the morning (the “cortisol awakening response”) showed larger effects than measurements taken throughout the day. This suggests that meditation might be particularly effective at regulating our body’s morning stress response—when cortisol is naturally at its highest.

These scientific reviews give us several important insights:

1. Different meditation styles work: Whether you prefer mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, or other approaches, the research suggests they can all help reduce cortisol levels. This means you can choose a style that resonates with you personally.
2. Morning practice may be especially beneficial: Given the stronger effects on morning cortisol levels, consider adding meditation to your morning routine for maximum stress-reduction benefits.
3. Consistency matters more than length: The 2024 review found that the length of the intervention didn’t significantly influence effectiveness. This means that regular, consistent practice may be more important than how long each session lasts.
4. Results are real, not placebo: Interestingly, the 2024 study found stronger effects when comparing meditation to active control groups (people doing other activities) rather than passive control groups (people doing nothing). This suggests that meditation’s benefits go beyond simply taking time for yourself—there’s something specifically effective about meditation practices.

Adding Meditation To Your Stress Management Toolkit

The scientific evidence is clear that meditation can be an effective way to lower stress, and help to bring cortisol into balance. From the intensive three-month retreat studied in the Shamatha Project to the various approaches analyzed in the meta-analyses, meditation consistently shows positive effects on our body’s stress response.

If you’re new to meditation, remember that you don’t need to be perfect. Start with just a few minutes each day, focusing on your breath. As you become more comfortable, you can gradually extend your practice time and explore different techniques. The key is consistency—making meditation a regular part of your routine.

By incorporating meditation into your life, you’re not just following a trend — you’re embracing a practice backed by thousands of years of tradition and an ever-growing body of scientific research. Your mind, body, and cortisol levels will thank you.

A note on our sources:

Still Sitting is committed to writing and researching articles that are accurate and informative. We know there are many places to find information online. So, we work hard to ensure that we are a trusted source for all of our readers. This blog is intended to help you learn about our products and the cultural subjects that we hold dear. As part of this commitment, we include the sources we use to write our posts:

Cleveland Clinic: Cortisol
Healthgrades: TikTok Low Cortisol Diet

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