6 Ways Meditation Can Help Keep Your Diabetes Symptoms in Check

Diet, exercise, and medication are key to living healthily with diabetes. Healthcare providers typically recommend these as first-choice treatments. But there’s another tool that may help you manage diabetes: mindfulness.

Research suggests that mindfulness can benefit people with diabetes by regulating emotions, raising self-awareness, and lowering stress. By practicing mindfulness, you may find it a little easier to take on all the lifestyle habits required for managing diabetes.

What is mindfulness, anyway?

Mindfulness is the practice of being completely present in the moment. It helps you focus intently on your thoughts, feelings, and physical surroundings. It means not going through the motions of everyday life but experiencing life one moment at a time without judgment.

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While it can sound complicated, mindfulness helps you tune in to your five senses — what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. It also helps tune out distractions that can get in your way. And doing this can help you calm stress, manage lifestyle changes, and get in tune with what your body needs. 

You commonly hear people talk about mindfulness meditation. But there are many ways to add mindfulness to your daily routine. These include:

• Mindful or intuitive eating

• Mindful walking

• Yoga or tai chi

• Loving kindness or compassion meditation

• Deep breathing exercises

• Visualizing a calming place

How can mindfulness meditation benefit people with diabetes?

Mindfulness may benefit six key areas of diabetes management. 

1. Lower blood sugar

It may seem too good to be true, but research shows meditation may lower blood sugar. And it may also boost your mood. 

One small study suggests that meditation can lower blood glucose and A1C levels while raising happiness scores. Researchers believe there’s a link between the two because mindfulness can help you regulate emotions, be kinder to yourself, and lower overall stress and anxiety.

2. Eating more mindfully

One of the biggest challenges for someone with diabetes is managing what you eat. For some people, it may mean giving up some of your favorite foods. Mealtime may feel like more of a chore than a delight. 

Mindful eating can help renew your joy. It helps you explore and savor food options that will benefit your diabetes symptoms. Your focus isn’t on losing weight or lowering your A1c; it’s on being fully present as you eat. 

This mindful eating exercise can get you started (and you can swap in “fruit” for any food):

1. Set a piece of fruit in front of you and study it. What does it feel like? What does it look like? How does it smell?

2. Now, take a bite of your fruit. Chew slowly and chew each bite completely. Aim to chew much longer than usual.

3. Notice how the taste of the fruit changes before you swallow. After you swallow your first bite, notice the lingering taste in your mouth.

Mindful eating doesn’t require this level of detail for everything you eat, every time. Even eating slower than usual and focusing on the taste of your food is a great way to practice mindful eating.

3. Stress reduction

Living with diabetes can require major adjustments. These adjustments can be stressful. And it can make it harder to maintain lifestyle changes, control blood sugar, and have confidence in your ability to succeed. Research shows mindfulness practices can lower stress for people with diabetes.

When you practice mindfulness, it may help you:

• Better handle stress

• Use coping strategies

• Practice awareness

• Maintain memory

• Stay focused

• Regulate emotions

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs in particular can help with stress reduction.

4. Lower blood pressure

When you have diabetes, you’re more likely to have high blood pressure. This means your heart has to work harder, and your risk for stroke and heart disease go up. 

Lowering your blood pressure takes effort. You might need to limit the sodium in your diet or quit smoking. There are also medications you can take called ACE inhibitors and beta blockers. 

Practicing mindfulness meditation may also help. According to research, meditation can help lower blood pressure. 

5. Manage chronic pain

Diabetes is a chronic disease that may affect many areas of your body such as your: 

• Eyes

• Feet

• Blood vessels

• Nervous system 

Because of how diabetes can affect these areas of your body, it may cause chronic pain. Studies also suggest that the less you’re able to control your blood sugar, the more likely you are to experience pain.

While more studies need to be done, it’s possible that mindfulness may help lessen the pain that people with diabetes experience. 

6. Getting exercise

Like mindful eating, mindfulness may help you get into an exercise routine. For example, tai chi and yoga are great practices that combine mindfulness with movement. And they may offer bonus health benefits.

Studies suggest that yoga may affect the areas of your body that control your metabolism, immune system, nervous system, and psyche. This leads to lower blood sugar levels and better management of other conditions associated with diabetes, such as high blood pressure. 

Similarly, people with Type 2 diabetes who practice tai chi may have lower blood sugar levels.

Tips for adding mindfulness meditation into your diabetes care plan

You can kickstart a habit of mindfulness and meditation by following these simple steps. 

1. Find a teacher or class that can guide you on the basics 

Look for a meditation teacher, class, or guided practice by:

• Searching on Google for local classes or online workshops guided by an expert

• Looking for a mindfulness app or podcast

• Checking YouTube for meditation or guided visualization videos

• Asking a local college or university if they have a mindfulness program

• Finding a group on Facebook

• Following meditation instructors on social media

• Checking out organizations like Mindful.org

2. Explore what works for you 

Not every strategy to use mindfulness works for everyone. Experiment with different options and see what works best for you. For example:

• If you often feel stressed when trying to manage your diabetes symptoms, maybe try meditation or a guided visualization. This allows you to sit calmly and quietly. You can even try meditating sitting, standing, or lying down.

• If you’re having a hard time making diet changes, try mindful eating. This can take your mind off the pressure to change your eating habits and turn the experience into exploring something new.

• If you’re always checking the clock on your daily exercise, bring in some mindfulness. Whether you’re walking, stretching, doing yoga, or strength training, tune into your body and be curious about what you feel.

• Maybe, you want to try mindfulness to lower your blood sugar or blood pressure, but don’t want to do it alone. Search for a mindfulness class so you can practice with other people

3. Give it time 

The more you practice mindfulness and meditation, the more you’ll benefit. Aim to make it part of your daily routine. And keep an open mind. It’s a new experience, and it may take a while before you see a difference.

How often should someone with diabetes meditate?

Experts often recommend somewhere between 5 and 45 minutes of meditation practice a day, preferably guided by an experienced teacher who can give you feedback. 

To figure out your sweet spot, Eric Loucks, PhD, a Brown University associate professor and director of the school’s Mindfulness Center, says, “Trust your own experience and the amount of time that best suits your mental and physical well-being.”

Loucks recommends running an experiment on your own life by raising and lowering the time you practice until you find what works best for you.

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Written by:

Ana Gascon

Ana Gascon has over 15 years of writing and editing experience, with 8 years in health and medical content work. She is a versatile health and medical content creator who writes about acute conditions, chronic diseases, mental health challenges, and health equity.

Edited by:

Renée Fabian, MA

Renée Fabian is the senior pet health editor at GoodRx. She’s worked for nearly 10 years as a journalist and editor across a wide range of health and well-being topics.

Reviewed by:

Sophie Vergnaud, MD

Sophie Vergnaud, MD, is the Senior Medical Director for GoodRx Health. An experienced and dedicated pulmonologist and hospitalist, she spent a decade practicing and teaching clinical medicine at academic hospitals throughout London before transitioning to a career in health education and health technology.

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