Meditation is a form of alternative medicine that promotes relaxing and mental calmness through breath and controlling or suspending thoughts. Meditation involves physical and mental relaxation. As a result, it’s a great way to relieve stress.
Notable research on meditation’s usefulness in relieving stress was done in 1968 by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University. He conducted a series of experiments on popular meditation techniques and published his findings in “The Relaxation Response.” He discovered that meditation has a “real effect on reducing stress and controlling the fight-or-flight response.”
Dr. Benson wrote that meditation increased the skin’s resistance to damage or infections, slowed the heartbeat and breathing rate, and reduced oxygen consumption. Along with many other key indicators towards the benefits of meditation and stress relief.
Meditation is consciously relaxing your mind and body for a period of time. It will help you focus inwardly so that your mind is busy concentrating on breathing and body form. This helps alleviate you from focusing on the events causing you stress.
The act of meditation can be quite simple to do. It does not require you to be a mystic or to be spiritual. Meditation is something that anyone can do almost anywhere.
Prepare Yourself For Meditation
When you prepare yourself for meditation, be sure to set aside a certain amount of time where you’re guaranteed not to be interrupted. Meditation doesn’t require hours of practicing at a time for it to be effective in reducing stress. Meditating in ten- or twenty-minute time slots is good enough.
Effective meditation requires that you’re in a comfortable, quiet environment. For instance, you should make sure that you’re wearing comfortable, unrestrictive clothing when you practice. Similarly, the atmosphere temperature (indoors or outdoors) should also be comfortable. This helps you to make your meditation session as stress-fighting as possible.
Stress-relieving meditation is all about mindfulness.
Once you’re fully comfortable, (you can sit or lie down) close your eyes. A good tip for beginners trying meditation, focus your attention on your breathing throughout the entire session. Count your breaths. You can even say the numbers out loud to discourage your mind from wandering to other thoughts.
Another way to control wandering thoughts when you’re meditating is to use imagery. Imagery is very popular in meditation. All you have to do with imagery is to focus on something you consider refreshing or pleasant.
Music is also a popular way to help mind concentration during meditation. You can hum or use soothing music. Music that features plenty of nature sounds is commonly used for meditation.
The key to meditation is the autonomy of your mind and thoughts. As you learn to control your mind, you can manage your thoughts, and you’ll better control your muscles’ functions.
This may take some time to learn. As you improve, it becomes easier to not let your mind wander while you’re in a meditation session.
Once you’ve become comfortable with meditation, you will discover you’ll be able to do it almost anywhere. As a result, you’ll gain the ability to relax when you’re feeling overwhelmed with stress.
Have you had success with meditation and stress relief? Please share your experience in the comments
Thank you for this simple, straight-to-the-point lesson on meditation. I’ve never tried meditation before but as I get older it does seem like something that can be extremely beneficial. Especially with everything that’s been going on in the world the past 18+ months, meditation seems like a great, healthy exercise in dealing with the stresses of everyday life. Things I’ve done in the past is to keep active with exercise or getting massages, but this has me interested as well. Thank you sharing your expertise and knowledge on this topic!
Thanks and I agree with you. I was the same way, I did a lot of physical activity but had to learn how to better train myself mentally. Mediation provides countless health benefits beyond just reducing stress. I definitely recommend you give it a try and stick with it for a while. The results will come and you’ll notice the difference.
This mediation article explains everything in detail to help us control our thoughts when meditating and having a strong mind. The meditation strategy that you provide, the tips are great with using imagery and music.
We will share this with everyone we know will benefit one like us, who needs to relax more and get our mind right.
Cheers,
Mathew&Deloris
Thanks for reading and I appreciate your comment, insights, and of course the share. I hope the tips on meditation help with stress relief and relaxation.