Stress has the ability to affect the body in harmful ways. Effects include weakening of the immune system, sleep problems, fatigue, muscle pain, and even depression. Fortunately, there are a variety of techniques to help lower stress. Meditation is a fast simple technique that is used to relax the mind and body and combat stress. Anyone can learn how to meditate. It may look complicated, but the process is simple and perhaps the best part, inexpensive. Meditation requires no special equipment. All that is needed is something to sit on (a chair, cushion, bed, or floor), and a quiet environment. You may also opt to use a timer or relaxing music during your session, but that is not necessary. If in doing so, make sure the timer’s alarm and/or music is not jarring. Start by setting aside a certain time of day where you will not be interrupted by anyone or anything. A good time is in the morning before the rest of the household awakens, or in the evening before going to sleep. This time slot can range from 5 to 30 minutes. For beginners, 5 minutes is an ideal time due to the difficulty level of meditation. The next and …show more content…
Your mind will frequently wander. You will feel restless. This is completely normal as your mind is used to being constantly stimulated by thoughts, music, conversations, etc. It is important to not push away your thoughts. You must simply acknowledge their presence, but do not interact with them. Imagine your thoughts are clouds, and you are simply watching them pass by. Then, slowly but naturally, return your focus to your breathing. Observe the physical sensation of breathing: the cool air entering your nostrils, the expansion of your stomach, and the warmness of the air leaving your body. A technique for those who struggle to focus is counting breaths. Begin by counting “one” as you take in the first breath, then “two” as you breathe out. Repeat this to the count of 10, then start again at
However, meditation is not as common within Buddhism as most believe. There is a large assumption “that Buddhism and meditation go hand in hand”, but the majority of Buddhists have focused on “cultivating moral behavior, preserving the Buddha’s teachings (dharma), and acquiring good karma”(Braun 2014, p.1). Meditation and Buddhism are often assumed to be one and same, but this is also not true. As Buddhism has gained popularity among lay people it’s practices have changed Buddha’s teaching of the middle path has adapted to meditation being “possible in the city” rather than with monks in jungles and caves (p.4). As seen in Burma, in less than 75 years Buddhism and meditation were able to grow “from a pursuit of the barest sliver of the population to a duty of the ideal citizen” (p.5). While meditation is not the core of Buddhism it has encouraged the growth of Buddhism as it’s practice of mindfulness has been inspiring an approachable model (p.6). Meditation and mindfulness are easily manipulated to secularization, but still have significance in Buddhism and following the patterns of your
While some people may choose to work with a therapist and there may be others who may invest some money in a paid course or books to acquire more knowledge about the subject but that is not a necessity. There are numerous free online resources for those who do not want to spend too much money on this discipline. There are also free meditation groups in many large cities. In addition, you can utilize several free mindfulness apps to help you guide through the process. In short, anyone can afford mindfulness as it is more or less
Steps for concentrative meditation, (1) find a quiet place, (2) sit in a comfortable position upright, (3) find an object to dwell on, for example your breathing, or on a particular word that is repeated, (4) a passive attitude, meaning do not get upset when distracting thoughts
For thousands of years people have practiced mediation for spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. Albeit there are many mediation types, in this paper I will be discussing and focusing on mindfulness mediation. Before further exploring mindfulness mediation, it is crucial to define mediation as a whole. Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016 state “Meditation can be defined as a form of mental training that aims to improve an individual’s core psychological capacities, such as attentional and emotional capacities” (p.213). Having that in mind, we can dive into mindfulness mediation. Mindfulness meditation is defined as “nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experiences (Tang, Holzel, & Posner, 2016).” A useful analogy to consider is going to the gym, going to the gym allows one to enhance the body, well similarly, practicing mindfulness is akin to taking the mind to the psychic gym, it enhances it. Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on your breathing and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present all while dismissing discursive thoughts and maintaining a special focus on breathing.
Though Buddhism has long been a disciplined and strict religion since its’ beginning in the 3rd Century, it has recently gained positive utilitarian use within the psychological and neurological fields of science. Programs dedicated to improving and helping the lives of those who suffer from mental illness have started to incorporate the use of meditation as a form of treatment. Meditation is enforced in many schools of Buddhism as a method, or a way of life, to becoming enlightened. With growing qualitative and quantitative research on meditation, it becomes more evidential of the positive and life changing impact meditation serves in improving overall health of the mentally ill. Additionally, meditation can be implemented as a preventative
Jewish meditation is a spiritual insight with G-d. This process of getting close to G-d is called "devekut". Devekut is not only getting close, but also actually melting into G-d. This requires much training and rules. It is said that one cannot even look at the Kabbalah (the Jewish mystical text) unless one is male and over forty years of age. A girl the age of twenty was afraid to touch the text let alone talk about it (Warner). The Kabbalah is both fear and love ("Kabbala" 271). Devekut is an actual metamorphosis of the self. Practicing...
When these and other questions and uncertainties emerge, you need to flip thorough hundreds of blog posts or books to unearth what you want to know. Several concerns, and doubts awaken in our minds when we start meditating. Unfortunately, there is no book to answer them all. Especially this can be a problem, if you live in an area, where no qualified consultant or mentor is available to help you. On the other hand, it is possible, that you discover a meditating course close to your place, but you don’t have time or you don’t find enough commitment to go there and try
Meditation is an age-old practice that has renewed itself in many different cultures and times. Despite its age, however, there remains a mystery and some ambiguity as to what it is, or even how one performs it. The practice and tradition of meditation dates back thousands of years having appeared in many eastern traditions. Meditation’s ancient roots cloud its origins from being attributed to a sole inventor or religion, though Bon, Hindu, Shinto, Dao, and later, Buddhism are responsible for its development. Its practice has permeated almost all major world religions, but under different names. It has become a practice without borders, influencing millions with its tranquil and healing effects.
Other techniques to reducing stress, is listening to music, pampering yourself a massage/spa day, talking it out to family/friends, baking/cooking, praying/meditating and even playing with your pet.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). (2010). Health info. Meditation: An introduction. Retrieved from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm
In the past two decades, many philosophers, spiritual leaders, and psychological transitions have accentuated the importance of the quality of consciousness for the maintenance and enhancement of well-being. One of the characteristics of consciousness that has been discussed in relation to well-being is mindfulness. In concentration with the psychology discipline, mindfulness meditation practices have been increasingly used to treat a majority of pain, stress and anxiety-related conditions and also, increasing well-being. The ideology of mindfulness meditation has core roots in Buddhist philosophy and other pensive traditions where awareness and conscious attention are actively cultured (Brown, Kirk Warren,2003).
Meditation is not a time devoted to thinking or reflecting about oneself, but a time to redirect one’s thoughts and emotions away from the outside world and onto something simple, such as the wind or one’s own breathe. By learning how to meditate, an individual can learn how to react appropriately to “the circumstances one finds oneself in, i...
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
Stress is not always harmful, many individuals need a bit of low levels of stress to improve their performance. For example, students preparing for an exam will be motivated to do exceptionally well on the exam. High levels of stress will increase in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and tension.
Guided hypnosis is very similar to meditation in that you reach a relaxed state. However, with guided hypnosis, you 're also hearing a message. There are many YouTube channels dedicated to hypnosis, but the best I 've found is by Jody Whiteley. Her YouTube channel has guided hypnosis sessions for everything from insomnia to depression and anxiety. Sessions last anywhere from 30 minutes to 8 hours. Her creepy voice has gotten me through a great deal of stress. If meditation doesn 't work for you because you have trouble focusing your mind on your own, this might be a great