If you’re human, you’ve inevitably dealt with your share of challenges and uncertainty. While we can’t control everything that happens around us, we can control how we experience our life.
According to DailyOM course creator Cynthia Kane, a bestselling author of three books on the applications of Buddhism, the principles and practices of Buddhism have the capacity to transform your relationship to anxiety, fear, doubt, and overwhelm — and this is the foundation for cultivating self-trust and fostering an environment for healing on every level.
Interested in learning more? Check out The Buddha Way to Trust the Body’s Healing Powers
Meet Your Teacher: Cynthia Kane
Cynthia Kane often thinks of her life in two phases: before 2011, and after. “In 2011, two major moments happened. My first love passed away, and I found Buddhist teachings and philosophy,” she recalls. Once she was introduced to the principles, practices, and meditation of Buddhism, she knew she’d found her way out of suffering. “I truly believe that these practices made me start enjoying my life and helped me to find love again and create healthy relationships.”
Now the CEO and founder of the Kane Intentional Communication Institute, a leading institute for high-achieving individuals that provides a holistic approach to effective communication, she has also written How to Communicate like a Buddhist, Talk to Yourself like a Buddhist, and How to Meditate like a Buddhist.
What Is Buddhism?
According to Kane, Buddhism is simply about helping yourself and others suffer less. “I believe the essence [of Buddhism] is compassion for the self and others,” she says.
Although Buddhism is considered a religion — one with roots in South Asia around the fifth century — Buddhist principles can be of benefit to everyone and anyone looking to improve their way of life, externally and internally. “The practices are secular in nature,” Kane notes. “No matter what you believe in, you can start using them. And you don’t have to become religious to do the practices or get the benefits, either.”
Integrating Buddhist principles (see “The 4 Noble Truths,” below) into your life can be a complete game-changer, Kane adds. “These principles and practices help us change our relationship to fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, and overwhelm. We learn to find calm in uncertainty — and expand our capacity for discomfort.”
The 4 Noble Truths (or Main Pillars) of Buddhism
- There is suffering. “Suffering exists, and it can include any unsatisfactoriness, imperfection, anxiety, discomfort, irritation, or anything unpleasant,” Kane explains.
- There is a cause of suffering. “The cause of suffering is desire,” Kane says. “However, it is really the attachment to our desires that brings about suffering. The moment we want things to change and be different than they are is the moment we suffer.”
- Suffering can end. “And it ends when we stop chasing pleasure and avoiding pain. When we stop fighting with what is,” she says.
- There is a path out of suffering. “The eightfold path, outlined by the Buddha, is made up of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration,” Kane explains.
Why Is Buddhism So Impactful for Healing and Self-Growth?
Kane sums it up well: “What I love about Buddhism is that it’s not about the why of how we got here; it’s more ‘This is where we are, let’s pay attention to it, allow it, and choose our next right action with intention.’”
Moreover, she points out that “it really gives us the how of changing and shifting and transforming.” Buddhism isn’t just philosophical in nature or a set of lofty principles, but rather can become a practical filter for everyday life.
In other words, Buddhist practices can be a steady guide throughout your ever-evolving healing process, helping you to grow and transform in mind, body, and spirit — no matter what circumstances you face.
5 Ways Buddhist Principles and Practices Can Support Your Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Healing Journey
Kane has seen firsthand the physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits of meditation and mindfulness, which are at the heart of Buddhist practices. Here are some of the most compelling reasons why implementing this kind of approach has the power to uplift your entire well-being.
1. They help you develop a greater sense of self-trust — and trust in something bigger than yourself.
Buddhist practices teach us that we don’t need anything external to thrive. Rather, we have everything we need within us to help ourselves. “We become more present and start trusting ourselves more and more,” Kane says.
“On a spiritual level, these practices can deepen a sense of faith and trust in something greater,” she adds. “They can increase feelings of connectedness with life, feelings of safety, and trust in our intuition and knowing.”
2. They can help you improve your relationships.
Per Kane, Buddhist principles and practices increase our awareness of where we’re focusing our attention, which helps us engage better with people and our environment. “Our self-awareness increases, as well as our self-compassion and self-confidence. Our emotional reactivity decreases. With these practices, we learn how to let go and forgive, and allow and accept.”
Interestingly, according to a study, schoolteachers who underwent a short, intensive meditation program decreased their depression, anxiety, and stress levels while feeling more compassionate and aware of others’ feelings. And another study out of the U.K. linked just seven minutes of doing a Buddhist loving-kindness meditation to a reduced racial bias.
3. They can boost your emotional health, alleviating depression, increasing contentment, and boosting self-confidence and self-esteem.
A big reason Buddhist practices can be so beneficial for our emotional well-being: “They help us quiet the negative self-talk that runs in our heads, and instead, strengthen the muscle of self-compassion and a sense of care for the self that many of us don’t have,” Kane explains.
Working with Buddhist principles every day can also help us speak consciously, clearly, and concisely, which “gives us the tools to move our attention away from that which isn’t helpful to us and others to that which is,” she says.
Case in point: In 2022, researchers discovered that integrating the tenets of Buddhism eased the symptoms of depression in people with high levels of stress and neuroticism.
4. They can help you heal on a physical level.
In Kane’s personal and professional experiences of working with Buddhist principles and practices, she has witnessed improvement in physical health and vitality.
“They’ve helped me and those I work with to regulate blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and normalize blood sugar; they also help to reduce insomnia, improve circulation, and increase fertility,” she shares, based on her anecdotal experiences.
One study, which examined the health ramifications of a variety of mindfulness modalities, found that when used in conjunction with mindfulness-based stress reduction, Zen meditation (rooted in Buddhist psychology) proved beneficial for pain management.
5. They can support your mental well-being and cognitive sharpness.
Per Kane, Buddhist practices can enhance concentration, diminish compulsive behavior, and may even mitigate ADHD and ADD symptoms. “They help to reduce stress, reactivity, and anxiety, and increase our decision-making and mental clarity,” she explains.
In fact, one study found that Buddhist meditation can improve attention span, particularly when it comes to focusing for a long period of time on a task that requires people to make fine visual distinctions.
Similarly, research has linked Buddhist meditation to increased cognitive performance. And another study suggests these cognitive benefits may be long-lasting; the authors concluded that subjects who underwent intensive meditation training and reaped the benefits of cognitive gains were able to sustain these improvements seven years later.
The Bottom Line
Buddhist principles and practices have the potential to support you in moving out of suffering and into a state of calmness and connection. They can reinforce the inner knowing that you have everything you need inside you to not only heal yourself, but also to live a joyful, fulfilling life in the here and now.
