[basetensucks]

I agree with you to a degree, but I think you might be missing a major benefit mindfulness meditation. In particular, mindfulness meditation helps you to reprogram the way you relate to experiences and thoughts in a way that, in my experience, does eliminate stress.

In other words, my relationship with experiences and thoughts can tend to be either more objective or more subjective (perhaps reactive is a better word). The more objectively I view things, the less those things elicit a stress response. Again, this is in my experience and might not be universally true.

Sure there are stimuli that, for most people, will always elicit a stressful response. I would guess (emphasis on the word guess) this comprises at most ~10% of a person’s thoughts and experiences which is likely much less than most people think.

Anyways, just my two cents.

[hinkley]

You also realize when someone is trying to appeal to your insecurities to extract something from you. You start avoiding those situations and the kinds of stress that they embody.

[warent]

You just named a very specific thing that I've been wondering how to fortify myself against. Thank you for the succinct endorsement, this is very helpful for me