An article in the Daily Mail Newspaper said that according to the Mental Health Foundation around seven million adults in the UK are so tense that if they saw a doctor they would be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
They headline this article as follows: ‘As Cheryl Cole turns to meditation to cope with her divorce we show you how emptying your mind can alleviate stress’. I suppose that connecting an article to a well known name is the art of journalism.
As a Stress Coach I fully support the notion of meditation as a method for people to adopot in their armoury against the effect of stress. Meditation is an exercise, aiming to prevent thoughts in a natural way, by deeply relaxing the physical body and then trying to keep the mind completely “blank” with no thoughts whatsoever.
With the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and over-worked. It often feels like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Stress and tiredness can lead these people to being unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect their health.
A simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation can help you to overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance. Meditation can also help to transform ones mind from negative to positive, from disturbed to peaceful, from unhappy to happy. Overcoming negative minds and cultivating constructive thoughts is a key advantage of meditation.
Daily meditation is an important tool for maintaining your mental, emotional and physical health. With daily meditation, your aim will be to achieve a clearer mind so you can achieve deeper relaxation and allow your body to focus on healing and revitalizing itself. Use daily meditation techniques to alleviate tension and achieve deep relaxation that enables your body to repair. Long term stress contributes to more serious illnesses, and daily meditation is the only effective way to prevent it accumulating to that point.
People decide to learn meditation for a variety of reasons. Some learn meditation to relax and relieve stress, while others learn meditation to be more productive and gain better results at work or school. Many learn meditation to lose weight or cure addictive behaviors like smoking, alcohol or non prescribed drugs and others learn meditation to alleviate many stress related illnesses. Some learn meditation to find inner peace and happiness, while others want to be more in touch with their spiritual self.
You will learn and practice meditation because it is a key step in this your new healthy lifestyle plan. It will help you in so many ways.
Here i introduce to you a very simple meditation technique:
Choose a quiet place to meditate where you will have a minimum amount of disturbance.Sit in a chair, get comfortable, while keeping your back straight and upright to prevent your mind from becoming lethargic or drowsy.Now stay very still and quiet, with no distractions around. Your body should be comfortable and relaxed.
Turn your entire attention and focus to your breathing. Allow yourself to breathe naturally. Don’t try to adjust your breathing. Don’t consciously try to make any changes. Just let yourself breath. Keep observing your breath.
Notice your breath coming in and out of your body. Does it come in your mouth and out your nose? Notice your chest and tummy rising as you breathe. Just sit still and pay attention to your breathing. If your thoughts turn away from your breath, simply bring them back.
If you find your attention starting to drift away from your breathing, such as thoughts about other things popping in to your head, or distractions caused by external noises, gently bring your full focus back to your breathing. Just let any other thoughts go. Keep your complete attention on your breathing. Just observe your breaths.
Notice the speed of your breathing. Become aware of the rhythm of your breaths. Discern the depth of each breath. Keep breathing. Notice the subtle changes that will automatically happen. Still, remain just an observer, don’t try to adjust your breathing in any way, just let it happen on its own.
Keep concentrating on your breath, and simply watch it come and go. Spend at least a couple of minutes merely noticing your natural breath as it is happening, experience the rising and falling of both your chest and abdomen. Observe how air passes through your nostrils and throat. Examine the sensation of your breaths leaving through your lips.
Keep concentrating on your breathing. If you are not breathing in through your nose and out through the mouth, this is the time to adjust it. Let your breaths go deeper, but let your mind remain silent.
Just observe how you take in the air. Feel it filling your lungs. Now hold your breath for a second or two, keeping it in your lungs, then breathe out, and then wait for another second or two before you breathe in again. Keep doing this for about a minute.
Now go back to breathing naturally without trying to control your breathing, refocus on the sensation of each breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Concentrate on this sensation, nothing else.
Now adjust your focus to the sensations you feel at the end of your nose and to your lips as you take each breath in and out. Relax. Simply observe.
Keep focused on each breath you take. Remain focused single-mindedly on the sensation of the breath. Keep your mind concentrated on your breath
When the otherwise incessant flow of our distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, our mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. We should stay with this state of mental calm for a while. When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within. Experience this sense of inner peace, contentment and relaxation.
Keep observing the air coming in and out your body. Feel the sensations in your nose and mouth. Keep watching. Just be aware. You are simply observing.
Breath in, breath out.
Now, breath in to the slow count of eight, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, hold your breath to the slow count of eight, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8and breathe out to the slow count of eight, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. By doing this you will give yourself an oxygen boost, and take you into an even more relaxed state.
Now go back to breathing naturally without trying to control your breathing, refocus on the sensation of each breath as it enters and leaves your nostrils. Concentrate on this sensation, nothing else.
Merely stay in this position of watching your breathing as long as you wish.
When you wish to exit the meditation state, still keep your eyes closed and just sit quietly for two or three minutes, then gradually open your eyes becoming aware of your surroundings. Stretch out, and resume your activity.
Try this exercise for a week. Enjoy!
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