Worried about your financial future as the stock market continues to tank, banks and investment firms continue to go belly up, and your 401(k) continues to lose value? You’re definitely not alone.

But a new study by researchers at Emory University has discovered an ancient practice that could go a long way toward alleviating your anxiety and stress -- compassion meditation.

Compassion meditation draws on ancient Tibetan Buddhist teachings to instruct people to meditate on why they dislike a particular person and how to overcome that dislike to take a more empathetic view of that person. While the concept focuses on individuals, the practice actually allows the person meditating to adopt a more accepting and positive view of the world as a whole, even in the midst of global economic insecurity.

The Emory researchers found that when presented with a stressful task, those who had been instructed in compassion meditation had lower levels of the hormone cortisol, which has been linked with stress, than did study subjects who did not meditate.

Study subjects who saw the greatest physiological benefits meditated for about 20 minutes per day, four to five days per week, report the researchers.

“We’re using meditation to try to generate positive emotions and thoughts about everybody, whether you like them personally or you don’t like them personally,” Charles Raison, assistant professor of psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine, told CNN.com. “It’s a way of using meditative concentration to change your mind so you say, ‘I should be more equitable towards everybody.’”