Stress Reduction Meditation

Thus Page briefly describes what Stress Reduction Meditation is and what it can achieve.

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of entering into the quiet that's already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.”
Dr. Deepak Chopra – Renowned Physician and Author of Mind-Body Books

In this busy life we live in which both our minds and bodies are constantly working, we need to find a way to relax, reduce stress and to energise ourselves.
One of the strategies you can employ is stress reduction meditation.

There are many different ways to do this, depending on your own particular beliefs and preferences. You may even choose to attend classes in Yoga, Tai Chi, Guided Meditation and Qi Gong.

The great thing is that you don’t have to necessarily go to a class to meditate if you don’t want to. You can practice it anywhere, any time, on your own and for as long as you choose. It’s a fairly simple thing to learn, but it’s a skill and you do need to practice it.

Whichever way you want to approach it, what meditation aims to do is to help you to become more peaceful by balancing your physical, mental and emotional states. It will not magically solve all your problems! Meditation is one of the tools at your disposal and is a useful step towards knowing yourself better, and therefore being able to change some of the things which are not serving you.

So what exactly is Meditation?

There are many definitions, however for this purpose we can define it as “the quietening of the mind which allows us to re-connect with our inner calm and peace” (yes, it is in there somewhere!) The point is to quieten down the busy mind.

A common point of focus when meditating is on our breathing – as it is always there. If we focus wholly on breathing in a smooth relaxed easy way, unnecessary thoughts and worries will stop. The more we practice, the easier it will become.

So, what does this achieve?

Benefits will vary from person to person, but among other things it can bring:

• a deep state of relaxation
• a reduction in stress experienced
• emotional stability
• control over your own thoughts
• a calmed and tranquil mind
• a sense of peace
• an increase in your energy
• improved concentration
• greater intuitive skills
• improved concentration
• greater creativity
• increase self-esteem
• better quality of sleep
• enabling your natural healer to operate

Through these you’ll have a better chance of:

• finding your purpose in life
• giving up bad and harmful habits
• creating balance in your life
• discovering yourself and your potential
• improving your relationships
• living in and paying more attention to the present

Our minds are generally cluttered with out of date thoughts that have accumulated over time, we often run through these thoughts habitually, preventing ourselves from focusing on the here and now.

By clearing these away it can make your brain more alert, enabling you to become quicker to respond, be more creative, giving you different perspectives and making you more self-aware.

Physically during meditation your heart rate, and breathing rate can decrease, together with a specific, major stress hormone; it can ease chronic pain, help your muscles to relax, improve your and increase your immunity to illness.

Because the effects remain after your meditation session it can have lasting effects on both your emotional and physical well-being. If practised on a daily basis - maybe at the beginning or end of the day, or both - it means you continually learn to control what has the potential to create stress, and start a new day, clear of all the debilitating baggage you normally carry with you.

Meditation has been around for thousands of years, been practiced by many different faiths as well as agnostics, and is now widely used to generally help people with both the mind and the body.

You may also find this page on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction of interest.