Alleviate stress through meditation

knight1986

Hello Everyone


Firstly this take is dedicated to a smart, wonderful and kind hearted young lady I have the pleasure and privilege of meeting here on Gag. She truly is an inspiring young lady.


Many years ago while I was at university I remember going through a really tough phase in my life and i would continue feeling like this right up until I met my wife. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon this technique but I wanted to share it with all of you and i hope that it can bring "stillness" and "calmness" to both your mind and body. So whether you are going through a difficult divorce, boyfriend/girlfriend issues, study stress, insecurity issues, this might be able to relieve some of that stress.


Alleviate stress through meditation


Meditation


I know there are many meditation techniques that people use, I personally have not tried many of them, however what I would like to do is to share the one technique that I have found to be beneficial to me in my daily life and I hope will reduce the stress within you.


So the technique is simple:


1. Sit cross-legged on the floor in a space your feel comfortable in(similar to picture). I generally place my palms on my knees facing towards the sky. I set my timer on for exactly 20 minutes. Now you can meditate for any amount of time you want to, but my suggestion would be around 10 minutes.


2. Close your eyes and take 2 deep breathes in and out. Now you are good to go...Don't worry if you figid around and find it uncomfortable, you will get used to it with time.


3. Now when you do this, your mind will generally start to wonder around. You will hear all the noises around you and you will begin to have good and bad thoughts. This is fine, just let each thought come into your mind, good or bad, allow them to come. Now this might get a little tricky, but try not to dwell on any specific thought. For example, if you experience a bad thought just let it be and observe it, don't try and reason with it, don't analyse it, just let that thought float into your mind and let it float away. This will take time to get used too, so don't worry if you struggle with it initially. I am reminded of a saying that "whatever you resist will persist", so try not to resist/hold onto any thoughts as they come.


Alleviate stress through meditation


Now when you start to meditate, you will find it difficult to sit still or even close your eyes or control your thoughts but it is normal and just takes time to practise it. Now to assist with focusing the mind, I find that controlling your breath helps to change the state of our mind.


Now the following is my observation of myself and i don't know if there is any scientific proof about this. Have you noticed how our breathing changes depending on how you feel, for example, if you are angry, what happens to your breathing? You will find it becomes erratic and very forceful. Similarly, when you are tired, happy, sick, having fun, and exercising, your breath changes and has profound influences on your body and state of mind. So in conjunction with meditating we can control our breathing to influence our state of mind to a more relaxed state. You will notice also that the breathing will clear your mind of thoughts because you are now focused on the the breathing itself, so it will increase your focus. Below is a technique I learnt from watching multiple videos of people meditating with this breathing technique.


So this is the procedure I follow while meditating to relax my mind. Memorize the steps below first then start with meditating:


1. Close your eyes and take one deep breath in, and then breathe out.


2. Now this might be tricky but it takes time. Breath in normally and while you are breathing in count 1…2…3 in your mind. When you start at 1, this is when you start breathing in and by the time you reach 3 you should complete breathing in(you don’t have to completely fill your lungs with air but just enough that you feel comfortable)


3. …then hold your breath and count in your mind 1…2…3


4. Now breath out and count 1…2…3…4…5…6 as you start breathing out


5. Then hold your breath again and count 1…2....then go back to step two where you breathe in again and the cycle repeats for as many times as you want while meditating. Personally i do this at least 8 times. With this breathing technique i find that i am able to focus my mind with ease.




Ok great, so I meditate daily in the morning and afternoon for about 20 minutes everyday. I hope that this will help those who are stressed or facing some sort of adversity in their lives. Take care and feel free to ask any questions. :)

Alleviate stress through meditation
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