meditation a stress-relieving approach

Do you often feel stressed at work? Do you feel angry when you are stuck in traffic? These feelings are natural but also unpleasant. Meditation has shown to help you deal with these stressful conditions by increasing your resilience to stress, patience, and awareness to what is presently around you.

Meditation conditions your mind to direct your focus on what’s important and away from distractors. This practice enhances your attention throughout the day and help you get more tasks done. It may also improve your sleep quality, making you feel more refreshed and motivated to get things done.

Stress can be a good thing, but too much stress for a long time may lead to problems, such as anxiety, sleeping disturbances, muscle aches, and a weakened immune system. Meditation, however, has shown to improve these problems as well as alleviate stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, and fibromyalgia.

We recommend starting with 5-10 minutes per day, 3-7 times per week. Next week or when you feel ready, add 5 minutes to your sessions or add one more session per week.

The more consistent you are, the better!

When you are just starting out, you may have expectations on how your meditation session should go. Don’t add on more stress by trying to reach these expectations, as there is no “perfect” way of doing it. All that matters is that you feel more relaxed and better overall after meditation.

Even with years of practice, you may still get distracted by your thoughts or surroundings. Let go of these distractions without being hard on yourself and continue to focus on that present moment.