From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,
Your Guide to Stress Management.
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Your Guide to Stress Management.
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About.com Health's Disease and Condition
content is reviewed by Steven
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Pick Your Favorite Mindfulness
Exercises
The practice of mindfulness
can bring many benefits to your emotional and physical health, as well as to
the relationships in your life. Mindfulness is an amazing tool for stress
management and overall wellness because it can be used at virtually any time
and can quickly bring lasting results. The following mindfulness exercises are
simple and convenient, and can lead you to a deeper experience of mindfulness
in your daily life.
Mindfulness Exercise #1: Meditation
Meditation
brings many benefits in its own right, and has been one of the most popular and
traditional ways to achieve mindfulness for centuries, so it tops the list of
mindfulness exercises. Meditation becomes easier with practice, but it need not
be difficult for beginners.
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Simply find a comfortable place, free of
distractions, and quiet your mind. (See this article for more meditation
techniques, or this one for a basic meditation
for beginners.)
Mindfulness Exercise #2: Deep
Breathing
That’s right: mindfulness can be as simple
as breathing! Seriously, though, one of the most simple ways to experience
mindfulness, which can be done as you go about your daily activities
(convenient for those who feel they don’t have time to meditate), is to focus
on your breathing. Breathe from your belly rather than from your chest, and try
to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Focusing on the
sound and rhythm of your breath, especially when you’re upset, can have a
calming effect and help you stay grounded in the present moment. (See this
article for more on breathing
exercises.)
Mindfulness Exercise #3:
Listening to Music
Listening to music has many benefits — so
many, in fact, that music is being used therapeutically in a new branch of
complimentary medicine known as music
therapy. That’s part of why listening to music makes a great mindfulness
exercise. You can play soothing new-age music, classical music, or another type
of slow-tempo music to feel calming effects, and make it an exercise in
mindfulness by really focusing on the sound and vibration of each note, the
feelings that the music brings up within you, and other sensations that are
happening "right now" as you listen. If other thoughts creep into
your head, congratulate yourself for noticing, and gently bring your attention
back to the current moment and the music you are hearing.
Mindfulness Exercise #4: Cleaning
House
The term "cleaning house" has a
literal meaning (cleaning up your actual house) as well as a figurative one
(getting rid of "emotional baggage," letting go of things that non
longer serve you), and both can be great stress relievers! Because clutter
has several hidden costs and can be a subtle but significant stressor, cleaning
house and de-cluttering as a mindfulness exercise can bring lasting benefits.
To bring mindfulness to cleaning, you first need to view it as a positive
event, an exercise in self-understanding and stress relief, rather than simply
as a chore. Then, as you clean, focus on what you are doing as you are doing it
— and nothing else. Feel the warm, soapy water on your hands as you wash
dishes; experience the vibrations of the vacuum cleaner as you cover the area
of the floor; enjoy the warmth of the laundry as you fold it; feel the freedom
of letting go of unneeded objects as you put them in the donations bag. It may
sound a little silly as you read it here, but if you approach cleaning as an
exercise in mindfulness, it can become one. (I also recommend adding music to
the equation.)
Mindfulness Exercise #5:
Observing Your Thoughts
Many stressed and busy people find it
difficult to stop focusing on the rapid stream of thoughts running through
their mind, and the idea of sitting in meditation and holding off the onslaught
of thought can actually cause more stress! If this sounds like you, the
mindfulness exercise of observing your thoughts might be for you. Rather than
working against the voice in your head, you sit back and "observe"
your thoughts, rather than becoming involved in them. As you observe them, you
might find your mind quieting, and the thoughts becoming less stressful. (If
not, you may benefit from journaling
as a way of processing all those thoughts so you can decrease their intensity
and try again.)
Mindfulness Exercise #6: Create
Your Own!
You are probably now getting the idea that
virtually any activity can be a mindfulness exercise, and in a way, you’re
right. It helps to practice meditation or another exercise that really focuses
on mindfulness, but you can bring mindfulness to anything you do, and find
yourself less stressed and more grounded in the process.
Updated: January 18, 2008
Benefits and Different Types of
Meditation Techniques
From Elizabeth Scott, M.S.,
Your Guide to Stress Management.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Your Guide to Stress Management.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
About.com Health's Disease and Condition
content is reviewed by Steven
Gans, MD
Techniques for Relaxation
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation is widely recommended as a healthy way to manage stress, and for good reason. It provides many health-enhancing benefits, like reducing symptoms of stress and anxiety, relieving physical complaints like headaches, and even enhancing immunity to illness. (Read this article for more information on the health benefits of meditation.)
Basics of Meditation:Meditation is widely recommended as a healthy way to manage stress, and for good reason. It provides many health-enhancing benefits, like reducing symptoms of stress and anxiety, relieving physical complaints like headaches, and even enhancing immunity to illness. (Read this article for more information on the health benefits of meditation.)
Meditation can be practiced in many different ways. While there are numerous different meditation techniques, a common thread runs through virtually all meditative techniques:
- Quiet Mind: With meditation, your thinking mind becomes quiet. You stop focusing on the stressors of your day or your life’s problems, as well as solving these problems.
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You just let that voice in your head be
quiet, which is easier said than done. For example, start thinking about
nothing now. (It’s OK; I’ll wait.) If you’re not practiced at quieting your
mind, it probably didn’t take long before thoughts crept in.
- Being In The Now: Rather than focusing on the past or the future, virtually all meditative pracgtices involve focusing on right now. This involves experiencing each moment and letting it go, experiencing the next. This, too, takes practice, as many of us live most of our lives thinking toward the future or relishing and rehashing the past.
- Altered State of Consciousness: With the quiet mind and focus on the present, comes an altered level of consciousness that isn’t a sleeping state but isn’t quite your average wakeful state, either. Meditation increases brain activity in an area of the brain associated with happiness and positive thoughts and emotions, and some evidence shows that regular practice brings prolonged positive changes in these areas.
Types of Meditative Techniques:
There are many different ways to meditate. Here I’ll mention some basic categories of meditation techniques so you can understand some of the main options and how they differ from one another. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can give you some ideas.
There are many different ways to meditate. Here I’ll mention some basic categories of meditation techniques so you can understand some of the main options and how they differ from one another. This is not an exhaustive list, but it can give you some ideas.
- Basic Meditation Techniques: This involves sitting in a comfortable position and just trying to quiet your mind by thinking of nothing. It’s not always easy to do this if you don’t have practice with it. But a good way to begin is to think of yourself as an ‘observer of your thoughts,’ just noticing what the narrative voice in your head says, but not engaging it. As thoughts materialize in your mind, just let them go. That’s the basic idea.
- Focused Meditation Techniques: With this technique, you focus on something intently, but don’t engage your thoughts about it. You can focus on something visual, like a statue; something auditory, like a metronome or tape of ocean waves; something constant, like your own breathing; or a simple concept, like ‘unconditional compassion’. Some people find it easier to do this than to focus on nothing, but the idea is the same -- staying in the present moment and circumventing the constant stream of commentary from your conscious mind, and allowing yourself to slip into an altered state of consciousness.
- Activity-Oriented Meditation Techniques: With this type of meditation, you engage in a repetitive activity, or one where you can get ‘in the zone’ and experience ‘flow.’ Again, this quiets the mind, and allows your brain to shift. Activities like gardening, creating artwork, or practicing yoga can all be effective forms of meditation.
- Mindfulness Techniques: Mindfulness can be a form of meditation that, like activity-oriented meditation, doesn’t really look like meditation. It simply involved staying in the present moment rather than thinking about the future or the past. (Again, this is more difficult than it seems!) Focusing on sensations you feel in your body is one way to stay ‘in the now;’ focusing on emotions and where you feel them in your body (not examining why you feel them, but just experiencing them as sensations) is another.
- Spiritual Meditating: Meditation can also be a spiritual practice. Many people experience meditation as a form of prayer -- the form where God 'speaks,' rather than just listening. That’s right, many people experience ‘guidance’ or inner wisdom once the mind is quiet, and meditate for this purpose. You can meditate on a singular question until an answer comes (though some would say this is engaging your thinking mind too much), or meditate to clear their mind and accept whatever comes that day.
Whichever meditative techniques you use,
the potential benefits are clear and numerous, making it one of the more
commonly recommended stress management practices.
Sources:
Astin JA, Shapiro SL, Eisenberg DM, Forys KL. Mind-Body Medicine: State of the Science, Implications for Practice. The Journal of the American Board of Family Practice March / April 2003.
Davidson, Richard, et. al. Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 2003.
Kabat-Zinn J, Massion AO, Kristeller J, Peterson LG, Fletcher KE, Pbert L, Lenderking WR, Santorelli SF. Effectiveness of a MeditationBbased Stress Reduction Program in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, June 1992.
Venkatesh S, Raju TR, Shivani Y, Tompkins G, Meti BL. A Study of Structure of Phenomenology of Consciousness in Meditative and Non-Meditative States. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, April 1997.
Updated: January 16, 2008
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