Meditation – A simple, fast way to reduce stress
We can all do with less stress in these days. Here’s an article from the Mayo Clinic on using mediation to lower your stress levels.
You can get started with only a few minutes a day to help return your inner peace. It’s simple to do, doesn’t really require equipment and is available wherever you are even on a walk, on a bus or in a waiting room.
This technique has been around for thousands of years early to deepen our understand of sacred and mystical forces in life. Today it’s more about stress reduction and is considered a complimentary medicine.
In your session, you focus primarily on one thing, your breath. Thoughts will come and go and you can’t stop that, but you don’t have to chase after them. The goal is better physical and mental well-being. Being centered on the breath can help you feel more calm and help manage some medial conditions which can include:
- Giving you a new way to look at things that cause stress.
- Building skills to manage your stress.
- Making you more self-aware.
- Focusing on the present.
- Reducing negative feelings.
- Helping you be more creative.
- Helping you be more patient.
- Lowering resting heart rate.
- Lowering resting blood pressure.
- Helping you sleep better.
More research is needed, and it can help alleviate some of the conditions above. For mental health issues talk to your health care provider to see if they approve of meditation for you.
Types of meditation:
Guided – you can be lead in this by a guide or teacher using visualization and pleasant mental images or soothing sounds or music. YouTube is a good source of many guided meditation videos both short and long.
Mantra – here you repeat a calming word, thought or phrase over and over.
Mindfulness – being mindful means recognizing the present via the flow of your breath. This is a gift that’s why we call it the present. Thoughts and feelings come and go. No need to chase or judge them. Let them float by. As your attention wanes, be gentle with yourself and return your focus to the breath. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not yet here. The present is the only thing that is real.
Qigong – this is a combination of mediation, relaxation, moves and breathing to restore and maintain balance.
Tai Chi – using a gentle form of martial acting training with postures and movements made in a slow graceful way together with deep breathing.
Yoga – combing a flow of postures with controlled breathing helps with flexibility and a calm mind. Pay attention to focus and balance and think less about what you have to do today. Be present.
By focusing on what you are doing, you think less about the worries of today. Breathing in and breathing out is your guide. Think of an object, an image, or a mantra to help you along. Try to slow your breath by taking in a breath over a count of four, hold it for four, and then exhale to a count of four and then hold it for four counts again. Repeat. Take in as much air deeply as you need so you won’t feel out of breath. The goals is to help lower your heart rate.
Mediation is easier for a beginner in a comfortable place with a pleasant temperature and quiet to reduce distractions. As you become more proficient, distractions will be less of a bother. Use a position that is comfortable. Sit upright in a chair, sit cross legged on the floor or lie down. You can even do it walking slowly. Let your mind be open. Thought will come in… just let them go out.
There is no right or wrong way. Do what works for you. You can attend meditation sessions lead by an instructor, watch or listen to videos, use a app or do it yourself. Keep up the deep slow breathing. Scan your body and aid the areas that need to relax or let go. Be aware of tension in your body. Focus of the ailing area and think “ahhhhh” or say that audibly.
Walking mediation can be accomplished by walking slowing in a area free of too many people or obstacles. Think about raising your foot, moving forward and then the next step. Focus on sights and sounds around you.
Prayer is a form of meditation for many faiths. Saying or reading them or some poetry can help with bringing calm.
Read and reflect on relaxing music or spoken words in recordings. Writing your thoughts in a journal is a great way to get things off your mind. Practicing love, kindness, forgiveness and compassion can help as it is accompanied by release of hormones that are soothing and providing a sense of well being.
It just takes some practice to meditate, and it will become easier and more natural over time. Can you set aside a little time each day? Adapt it to fit your needs. There no right way or wrong way. The goal is to relax and reduce your stress levels.
From the Mayo Clinic Staff ART-20045858