Meditation for Mindset
Have you ever been told by someone - a family member, a friend, a colleague, or even your doctor - that you should try being less stressed?
Makes you want to scream, doesn’t it? Like you can just turn stress off like a light switch. Like the stress is even up to you and not caused by 62 million outside factors over which you have no control.
Instead, you start to feel stressed about being so stressed, and then try to find ways to reduce your stress but get stressed about fitting your stress-reducing activities into your already stressful day. Suddenly you’re hiding under a blanket refusing to come out until you stop feeling stressed about your stress.
OK, let’s take a breath. It’s true you can’t flip your stress off with a switch - but you can manage it without screaming into a pillow (unless that’s your thing, in which case, scream on).
Our method for managing stress without scaring our pillows is meditation.
Mediation gives us space to step back from our stressful, overwhelming and intrusive thoughts. By practicing meditation, we can find peace within ourselves and not let the outside stressors overwhelm us or steal our joy.
The core of mindful meditation is a straightforward process. We know the word meditation puts you in mind of old men in red robes on mountain tops intoning “ooommm” but trust us, you can do it in your pajamas on your couch - or wherever else you need to focus and take a mini-mental-break, too.
Here’s a short practice to get you started:
+ Sit comfortably but erect - you can do this in the “traditional” crossed-leg position or on a comfortable chair.
+ Focus on your breath. You can close your eyes, or simply focus the gaze down on a spot in front of you.
+ Take ten breaths to calm your mind and when your mind begins to wander, bring it back to the breath. If you need a little more focus, place one hand on your stomach and feel the rise and fall as you slowly breathe in and out.
Congratulations, you have meditated! No mountains or weird outfits required.
By practicing meditation, when the stress starts to creep in, we will know what to do to be able to move into the headspace that keeps us calm, relaxed, and enjoying the moment - and much less likely to want to smack people who tell us to “just don’t be so stressed!”