Meditation For Stress Release
If you are reading this in the U.S. we are in week 4 of quarantine. How are you feeling these days? Most days I wake up feeling pretty good, present, and centered. I am teaching and practicing yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation online so I still have some sense of a schedule and a routine. However, I am aware of the underlying stress because I wake up feeling less rested and rejuvenated.
Over the last 18 years, I have cultivated many tools to help me deal with stress; from my yoga practice and breathing exercises to a mindfulness meditation practice. They all help me to connect with my breath to feel more present and centered. Human beings are happiest when we are present with what we are doing, regardless of what it is. However, it is so easy to lose connection to ourselves and to what matters most.
When I was first introduced to meditation, I was taught to sit and try to quiet my mind. Every time I finished my meditation I felt like a failure, a fraud. I didn’t understand how to quiet my mind but when I looked around the room it seemed like I was the only one. I continued to try to find these moments of stillness but to no avail. Shortly thereafter, I gave up on meditation.
I was eventually introduced to mindfulness meditation. It was like a light went off inside of me. I connected to this practice immediately. Mindfulness meditation does not teach you to try to quiet your mind. It allows you to see your mind for what it is. It gives you permission to see the thoughts, emotions, and moods that run through your mind continuously. It teaches you to allow and accept them so they lose their power over you and are unable to draw you away from the present moment.
There is no judgment in this process. We begin to explore our minds with curiosity and openness. We are able to see our habitual patterns and not get caught up in them. We are given moments of pause so we can respond with clarity and empathy. We can literally begin to rewire our brain to become the person we want to be.
Mindfulness is a skill we acquire over time. Eventually, it becomes a way of living and not just something we practice during meditation.
In stressful and chaotic times like these, mindfulness meditation allows me to see my worry and my anxiety. I can sense these emotions in my body and I can choose not attach to them. Worry and anxiety do not live in the present moment. They are either in the future or the past. By acknowledging them, I can release them and return to the present moment, to what is truly happening and not the story I have created.
I think Pema Chodron says it best, “Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we already are.”
If you are interested in developing a mindfulness meditation practice of your own you can find a plethora of information on the internet. There are apps you can use and a ton of books available as well. I have attached a very rough copy of a 15 minute meditation to get you started. Have fun with it and let me know if I can help!
Lots of love,
Kathy