Now as an adult most of us are EXHAUSTED with all the adulting that we have to get done in a day. I mean my mind could be on a thousand different waves, from laundry to work to paying this and that bill to oops you forgot to take out the chicken for dinner… I mean that itself is enough to awaken our not so friendly mind roommate anxiety. But it also heightens stress levels and honestly we just don’t have time for that. But don’t fret I have great news I have gone through my fair share of testing the waters with certain “calming” methods and nothing really stuck with me like my mediation sessions. So I have put together a little guide on how to relax the mind with mediation!
WHAT IS MEDITATION YOU ASK?
Meditation is a practice that has been used for years and years. Nobody really knows exactly when meditation was formed but from what I was able to dig up meditation was originated in India and China, and was preformed for religious and spiritual purposes, but is now used world wide. This practice is used in pretty much every culture today! Meditation is to train the mind to focus on an object, activity or thought. The mind is one of the most powerful elements in our bodies and also tends to be our biggest obstacle that stands in the way of us and our awareness.
Meditation targets and helps you understand your own behaviors and in time will contribute into lessening the anxiety that comes from living our everyday lives. Meditation also coaches you through finding that connection with yourself. Allowing you to regain focus and calm the extra chatter in your mind. This technique is designed to bring your mind back to a present state. Our minds often wander off to tomorrow, yesterday and don’t forget next week. Which is where all the chaos starts to build and just becomes too much for our minds to handle most of the time.
WHY MEDITIATION HELPS REDUCE ANXIETY LEVELS
When dealing with an anxious mind it is VERY difficult to think rationally, your mind goes into a state of panic which then starts to send defensive signals to your brain and naturally your brain gets suited and booted to get ready to fight off whatever is coming its way. It puts a thought in your mind that something frightening is about to happen and its time to defend itself from whatever that may be.
Now as you can imagine our mind going through all that has got to affect the body right. ABSOUTLEY… dealing with that amount of trauma that is happening in your brain creates crazy amounts of stress and in turn drains the body. Too much over stimulation of anything causes extreme exhaustion. Which probably explains why a lot of us that suffer from anxiety also experience severe fatigue.
With Meditation that was created to help us relax our minds and brings our physical back to a state of peace, allows us to not only calm our minds but also send those calming signals right down to the body allowing us to recharge. Anxiety attacks happen mostly out of being it that armed state of mind on high alert and not being able to communicate with the brain that the danger is gone. So when we place ourselves in the “trance” like state that meditation places us in allows everything to standstill and we then get to regroup and find our ZEN!
WHEN I FIRST BEGAN MEDITATING
It was everything but simple. As a person with anxiety bringing your mind to a state of “quiet” is not the easiest task to do, which is totally normal at first. Being able to train your mind to focus in or on something rather it is an object, activity, or thought in the midst of chaotic mind warfare is never easy. But with concentration and dedication I was able to overpower my mind and allow myself to focus. I started being able to meditate for about 5-10 minutes daily and even in that small amount of time I noticed a significant difference in my anxiety levels. They drastically began to drop and once that happened I was HOOKED!
After doing this for about 4 weeks I upped my time to 30 minutes daily. I noticed the more familiar I got my mind to being able to focus, the easier it was to be able stretch out my time. Now there is no right and wrong amount of time to meditate, you just want to find a good balance that works for you and allows you to fully be able to clear your mind!
THE STEPS!
For my beginner friends wanting to try out this healing method I put together some steps that I found most helpful when I was just starting out!
- Find your place of comfort your safe haven, wherever you are most comfortable at ideally without a lot of noise, rather it is your bedroom, basement, closet, bathroom or even outside create YOUR space there.
- Now this step is totally optional but I used this every time when I first started out to keep track of my time, I set an alarm for the desired time I wanted to meditate for on my phone. I do recommend that you start off at shorter time length so about 5-10 minutes. Simply because its normal for our minds to wander just a bit, its easier to control the wander in shorter quantities. You don’t want to become frustrated so allow yourself time to grow.
- Once you have found your space and you are comfortable, your going to want to sit in an upward position with your legs loosely crossed and drape your arms over your legs. You don’t want to tighten any muscles in this process. It makes relaxing a little more difficult if your body is tense, you also want to sit upright because you are actually putting yourself in a “trance” and you don’t want to be in a position that will allow you to fall asleep.
- Once you have mastered that I found it easiest to began to focus on my breathing. Find out if you are a person that breaths from the stomach or the nose and find the rhythm of the “in and out.” Focus completely on the breathing with eyes closed and head upward. You will start to find your mind drifting off but try not to focus to hard on that. When you notice that happening go back to following your breath.
- Do this in a time frame that works best for you where you know you’ll have no interruptions and as often as you desire!
SO IN CONCLUSION
This was probably one of the more challenges studies I have done. Only because like I said before training your mind to do what it is unfamiliar with is a task but its not impossible. I tried it and stuck with it and I am so glad I did. It works in so many ways for me and I hope it does for you as well. If you have any questions or comments feel free to reach out. TRY IT LEARN IT and LOVE IT. Why not be the best version of you!
