De-stress with Meditation

I came across another good article about relieving stress through Meditation.

Meditation A Quick Fix for Stress. While the article talks about a medical study and the benefits of meditation, they don’t describe the different ways you can meditate, so here are some suggestions.

One way to meditate is to be silent. You don’t need any meditation CD. You don’t need to sit on the floor with your legs crossed like a pretzel. You don’t need to lay on the bed. All you need to do is find a quiet place, close your eyes, and stop talking. While it might sound easy, this is actually one of the hardest ways to meditate. Why? Because we all have busy minds. It’s easy to find a quiet place, close your eyes, and not speak, but our minds are multi-tasking all of our waking moments and even in our dreams. “I should start the laundry. I need to pick up my daughter from school at 3 p.m.. I have to stop at the store and pick up food for dinner. I have to finish this report before I leave work.” I think you got the idea.

So, there are tricks that we play on the mind to help us meditate. Here are a few that I use. Try them all and see which ones you like best. Do this 20 minutes every day. I find when I meditate in the morning, my entire day is less stressful.

Trick #1. Go find a quiet place to sit in nature. Find a quiet park bench, a beach, a clump of trees, a field of flowers. Take a towel or blanket so you don’t dirty your clothes and sit. Concentrate on the sounds of nature as you close your eyes and stop talking. The rustle of leaves in the trees, the rolling waves on the beach, the bee that buzzes as it sips the nectar from the flower, the children playing in the distance.

Trick #2. If your mind continues to distract you from listening to the sounds of nature, try listening to soft, relaxing music. There is a large collection of music available on the market these days. If you like opera and find that relaxing, then listen to opera. There is also soft instrumental, new age, soft jazz, easy listening, alternative, world music, and sounds of nature on CD. Whatever relaxes you, listen to that. I like to listen to songs I hear in my yoga classes. It take me to a quiet center, deep in my heart. If you still find yourself distracted with ambient noises, use headphones or ear buds.

Trick #3. When you don’t have music available, listen to your breath. When you’re stressed, you may find that your breaths are short or that you’re holding your breath and not breathing at all. You’ll find that when you have a slow, even breath, it sounds like a calm ocean wave. Play a game with your breath. Place your hand on your abdomen. Breathe deep into your belly and watch your hand move outward. As you exhale, feel your belly contract. Try to slow your breath by counting. Inhaling for a count of three, then exhaling for a count of three. Continue breathing to a count of three, five times. Then change to a count of four. Inhaling for four, exhaling for four. Breathe this way five times. As you become comfortable with slow, even breaths, you may find you can increase your count higher. There are a number of different breathing techniques, and I’ll talk about them another time. Just know that if your mind is busy and you want to de-stress, counting your breaths will help.

Trick #4. Repeat a sound, a word, or short saying that resonates with your heart. The AH sound is associated with the heart. Take a deep breath in and let all the air out of your diaphragm and lungs with the sound of AHHHHHHHHH. Repeat the sound over and over until you find your shoulders relaxing and your breath deepening. Pick a word, like peace or gratitude and repeat: “I am peaceful.” or “I am grateful.” Once you get the hang of repeating a word or short phrase, you can expand it. “I am grateful for ... (reminding yourself of all the good things in your life). When you’re under stress or depressed, it’s hard to remember the good things in your life, but when you do remember something good, write it down in a gratitude journal. Then when times are stressful or depressing, open your journal and read what you’ve written.

Trick #5. Another meditation technique is visualization. There are books you can read that take you to a quiet beach or deep into a forest. You can buy visualization CDs. Or you can use your imagination. Imagine yourself on vacation in the Bahamas. The water is warm, aquamarine in color. You wade into the water then float on your back, stretching your arms out to the sides. The ocean is cushioning your entire body as you feel weightless. The sun warms your face. Sea gulls squawk on shore. The sky is deep blue. You have no where to go. Nothing to do, but float in the calm crystal clear water.

Ahhhhhh. I feel more relaxed just writing this blog. Happy meditating everyone.