Meditation for Holistic Stress Management

Meditation is one of the alternative therapies methods.

Meditation is used by people interested addressing conditions such as anxiety, pain, depression, emotional problems, insomnia, and stress. Meditation is also the ultimate brain workout.

Meditation is considered as a simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states; a way to tranquillize the busy mind.

Our mind is always crowded with endless thoughts and to uncluttered our mind from these thoughts we can use meditation.

Meditation opens our blocked energetic channels and we are able to receive the Divine good, which then flows to us permanently. We are able to find out our real self and be the prosperous person we really are and deserve to be.

By learning to meditate, you can reap the benefits of this body state which include relaxation, energy and perspective on your life.

Our negative thoughts are those that make us preoccupied, anxious, and they are what ad the stress. Even more, we used to identify us with our thoughts.

During mediation, when we let our thoughts flow, but not bother us, and our emotional and spiritual well being awakens, and improvement of our physical health and our body starts to heal itself.

Meditation fills our mind with serenity and peace and consequently we feel less stressed, and we are able to deal with new stress much more effectively and make our minds more useful tools.

The effects of practicing meditation help us to stay calm also during daily situations, both difficult and stressful.

Meditation focuses on the quietening of our busy mind.

We cannot remove the outside world, or our thoughts. One thing we can do, and meditation helps in that, is let our thoughts be, observe them but not let them dominate over us and overcome us.

Meditation fills our mind with a feeling of tranquillity and peace, accordingly not leaving space for worries, depression or stress.

By observing stressful thoughts don’t disappear, but our calm mind teaches us to accept things just in the way they are, without attempt to change them, which is not possible in most cases, anyway. The fact that we are becoming more accepting to things, not the way we would love them to be, but in the way they are, finally affects nearly all aspects of our life. We become more accepting and lovable to ourselves, this increases our self-confidence and as a result we also become more tolerant and accepting to others and different circumstances.

We learn to accept situations and get rid of fears, and negative automatic thoughts. Consequently, when we accept circumstances and people we cant change, our mind gets calmer and we feel better.

There are two main groups of benefits that we gain from meditation: physiological and psychological.

Physiological benefits are: deep muscle relaxation: muscles become less tight; the blood pressure normalizes and heartbeats reduces; metabolism rate decreases; body cleanses itself from toxins, and provides renewed energy; lowers the stress hormone cortisol level, and thereby decreases the high cortisol level which damages the body systems; and improved flow of air into the lungs resulting in easier breathing.

Psychological benefits make the main and the most visible group.

During the meditation we are able to reach our deeper and real self, as we let our daily thoughts and worries to go. We let our nerve system relax, and our mind becomes calmer, we find out that we are not our thoughts, so it increases the self – acceptance and self- confidence.

Meditation unblocks the clogs of negative emotions and cleans the canal where the Divine can come in. It is impossible to be aware to of the Divine completely and let it work in us. If there are unresolved emotions and emotion clogs, we do not let our body to heal itself and the higher good to work in us. When we are listening only to our negative thoughts and different worries we are not able to get out of them, we drive into an anxious and depressed state of mind. Meditation allows us to look at our thoughts like from the side – we see the problems and worries but do not let them influence our lives that much.

Practicing meditation we become calmer not only during the meditation session but also when we face any stressful event - we remain calm. In this calm state of mind we are more capable to deal with problems, we avoid unnecessary generalizations and exaggerations.

When calm, we are able to communicate much better with others.

Mediation also decreased irritability and moodiness, improves memory and the ability to concentration.

Meditation can be considered an antidote for stress, fears, worries and anxiety that we all go through.

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Many beginning meditators have experienced performance anxiety.

I find these great meditation metaphors by Joan Borysenko, the author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind very helpful for to overcoming that nagging anxiety:

" Meditation is a form of mental martial arts. Its not that the mind stops attacking, but that you learn to take a different stance toward the attack. If you start to berate yourself for being restless, you have picked up the invitation of your mind to do the battle, and battle is what you will experience, as tension and anxiety. Instead, learn to adopt the stance of the aikido student. Move gracefully aside and let thoughts speed by without engaging them in a struggle. In that way, your mind will tire itself out as you hold the centered position of witnessing your own thoughts."

"The process of meditation is similar to that of trying to balance your checkbook with the television turned on. At first you are into adding up the checks, concentrating on the task at hand. Then something occurs on the TV, maybe a commercial. For a moment it grabs your attention. You get involved in the show. Sooner or later you say, “Wait a minute, I’m supposed to be balancing my checkbook”, and you let go of the TV and surrender once again to the checkbook. This dance of going back and forth may continue for quite some time. So it is with the process of meditation. When you finish balancing the books, you won’t say, “What a lousy checkbook balancer I am – I keep getting distracted”. Instead, its more likely that you will be pleased at having completed the task. It’s the same with meditation. Remember the only definition of a good meditation is one that you did. "

”Its not a question of learning much… On the contrary…. Its a question of unlearning much” - Osho

Many of the skills learned in meditation can be applied during your daily life.

Meditate when:

• waiting in line
• doing the dishes
• feeling upset

Take a two-minute breathing break several times during the day. Watch as your thoughts and ideas turn up at work, in conversation, or while you are solving a problem. Use the same experimental mindset and watch how you behave and think throughout the day.

Dr.Inese Millere , M.D. is lifestyle coach in holistic wellness and mindful eating coach for busy women after 40 who want to be Fit, Balanced and Ageless: to manage stress, stress eating, have a healthy and joyful relationship with food and enjoy healthy living and longevity.

If you'd like to talk about working with me, please contact me directly at info@inesemillere.com with a brief description of your situation.