Photo by Savanna Goldring

From Stressed to Blessed by Cynthia D. Chase offers a simple way to learn meditation for attaining relief and alleviating stress so you can live a better and more fulfilled life.

When people talk about stress, they are sometimes referring to very abstract emotions and feelings that are the result of singular or several events. Medically speaking, stress is your body responding to internal and external pressures. This can be very difficult to overcome without either a strong will or external aid. Both of which can be difficult to come by for most people.

If you are experiencing bouts of anxiety, tension, and paranoia, chances are you are stressed. Stress can be a very powerful force influencing people’s mental and physical states. So, if you ever find yourself overwhelmed by the world and you want to start the day off by attaining relief, you might want to try meditating.

Just simply meditating for a few minutes has been shown to calm your mind and refresh the worries brewing in your head.

I Can’t Stand It

There are countless warnings out there that say meditation might not be for everyone. And while there is some kernel of truth in that, it’s only really applicable if you narrow your definition of what meditation can be.

When people imagine what meditation is like, the image of a person sitting on the floor, legs crossed, their backs straight as a rod, eyes closed, and hands on their knees is perhaps the most common thing that pops to mind. 

This is a lack of imagination. Meditation has no definite form and comes in many varieties, from relying on smells to induce calm, listening to music to refresh the mind, eating certain kinds of food to tap into the unconscious, and a whole lot more.

There’s also a need to shell out hundreds of dollars. Meditation is open to everyone. You don’t need a teacher to meditate (although, for some, having a guide is helpful), and you don’t need any fancy and expensive equipment. You also don’t need to make space for it. Meditation can be done virtually anywhere and anytime. You can even meditate while taking a walk!

Of course, while you’re just starting out, exploration might just be too stimulating for you. So, start out with a simple way to learn meditation.

The First Steps Toward Attaining Relief 

The simplest way to start meditation and begin attaining relief during stressful episodes is to find a quiet place and just focus on what is happening, both inside your head and outside it. The goal is to completely shut off your worries. This can be done either by doing breathing exercises, repeating a phrase or mantra, or imagining a scene or moment of happiness. This is so you are caught in a peaceful rhythm.

After doing this, you will find that your body and mind are slowly easing out of their stress, and your anxiety is vanishing away. If you do this long enough, you can also learn how to look at things more positively.

A very beneficial one can learn from frequently meditating is the idea of mindfulness. This is the practice of being fully immersed in the moment without any other ideas. When one learns to be more mindful, one goes through life without ever missing a beat, always aware of life and never feeling as if they are being left out of anything. Mindfulness helps you break away from the unproductive cycle of thinking about the future or the past. When you are at peace with that, you find yourself attaining relief and encountering more moments of happiness.

In addition to reducing stress and increasing mindfulness, meditation has been shown to have various other health benefits, primarily reducing blood pressure and lowering the likelihood of experiencing depression and anxiety.