If stress leads to feelings of anxiety, tension and worries, you must consider giving meditation a try. Meditation can help overcome the day’s stress, bringing inner peace along with it. Spending just a few minutes in mind meditation can help in restoring your inner peace and calm.
Anyone can practice mind peace meditation. It is inexpensive and simple, and it does not need any special equipment. What’s more, you can practice mind-calming meditation wherever you are: whether you are taking a walk, travelling by bus, waiting at your doctor’s clinic, or even in the middle of an important business meeting.
Understanding Meditation
Meditation has been in practice for thousands of years in India. Originally, it was practised to help get a deeper understanding of the mystical and sacred forces of life. However, in today’s 21st-century world, it is typically used for relaxation and reduction in stress levels.
Regular meditation can be seen as a form of mind-body complementary medicine. This is because meditation can induce a deep state of relaxation and tranquillity.
During mind relaxing meditation, your attention is focused, and the entire stream of jumbled thoughts that could be crowding your mind and leading to stress is eliminated.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation can help in giving you a sense of peace, calm, and balance that can be beneficial to not only your emotional wellbeing but also to your overall health. In addition, these benefits do not end when your session of meditation ends. Meditation for a calm mind offers benefits throughout the day and may even help in managing the symptoms of some medical conditions.
Meditation Promotes Emotional Wellbeing
When you practice calm mind meditation, you stand a chance of clearing away the information overload that steadily builds up each day, which can cause stress. Mentioned below are some of the emotional benefits of meditation.
- Gaining a fresh perspective on stressful situations
- Enhancing stress management skills
- Focusing on the present moment
- Increasing self-awareness
- Getting rid of negative emotions
- Enhancing creativity and imagination
- Increasing levels of tolerance and patience
Meditation and Illness
Meditation for mind peace may also be beneficial to your body if you have an ongoing medical condition, particularly if it is worsened by stress.
Some research indicates that meditation peace of mind might help individuals manage the symptoms of the following medical conditions:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Chronic pain
- Asthma
- Sleep disorders
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Tension headaches
Make it a point to consult your healthcare provider about the advantages and disadvantages of using meditation if you are diagnosed with any of the above-mentioned health conditions or problems. It should be noted that meditation is not a replacement for traditional medical treatment but handy addition to scientific treatment.
Type of Meditation
Meditation is basically an umbrella term for the numerous and diverse ways to achieve a relaxed state of being. There are scores of meditation types and relaxation techniques that have components of meditation. All share the common goal of attaining inner peace.
Some of the tried and tested types of meditation are mentioned below:
- Guided Meditation
- Mantra Meditation
- Mindfulness Meditation
- Tai Chi
- Qi Gong
- Transcendental Meditation
- Yoga
Elements of Meditation
Different meditation types may involve different features that help you meditate. Some of the most common features of meditation are mentioned below:
Focused Attention
Focusing your attention is by far the most common element of meditation. The act of focusing your attention helps free the mind from several distractions that cause worry and stress. You may focus your attention on a specific object, image, mantra, or breathing.
Relaxed Breathing
This technique involves even-paced, deep breathing that uses the diaphragm muscles to expand your lungs. The entire purpose is to slow your breathing, intake more oxygen and effectively reduce the usage of the upper chest, neck and shoulder muscles during the breathing process to ensure efficient breathing.
A Quiet Setting
If you are a beginner, practising meditation could be much easier if you are in a quiet environment with minimum distractions, including lack of access to your smartphone, television and radio. That said, as you become more proficient in meditation, you may be able to practice it anywhere, particularly in highly stressful scenarios, such as a traffic jam, meetings at the workplace, or long queues at the grocery store.
A Comfortable Position
You can successfully practice meditation even while you are sitting, lying down, walking, or engaging in other activities. Just make it a point to be comfortable so that you can obtain the most out of your meditation. Moreover, you must aim to maintain a good posture throughout the process.
Open attitude
It is important to have an open attitude to let thoughts pass through your mind without you needing to pass any judgement.
Everyday ways to practice meditation:
Mentioned below are ways you can practice meditation whenever you choose, on your own:
- Breathe deeply
- Scan your body
- Repeat a mantra
- Walk and meditate
- Engage in prayer
- Read and reflect
- Focus on love and gratitude
The Final Word:
Do not judge your meditation skills, which may only add to your stress. Keep in mind that meditation takes practice. It is common for your mind to wander during practice, no matter how proficient you may be. Experiment with meditation techniques to find out what works
This article is reviewed by Suchitra Marwah
