How to meditate for relaxation and stress relief
Relax. You deserve it, it’s good for you, and it takes less time than you think.
Video Transcript
American Heart Association: “Four Ways to Deal With Stress.”; PubMed Central: “Psychosocial and Psychophysiological Effects of Human-Animal Interactions: The Possible Role of Oxytocin.”; NIH News in Health: “Can Pets Keep You Healthy?”; Cleveland Clinic: “Want a Healthy Heart? Laugh More!”; HelpGuide.org: “Laughter Is the Best Medicine.”; Association for Psychological Science: “Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal; Displays Affect Neuroendocrine; Levels and Risk Tolerance.”; Harvard Business School: “Power Posing: Fake It Until you Make It.”; IZA.org: “The Effect of Sexual Activity on Wages.”
You don’t need a spa weekend or a retreat. Each of these stress-relieving tips can get you from OMG to om in less than 15 minutes.
A few minutes of practice per day can help ease anxiety. “Research suggests that daily meditation may alter the brain’s neural pathways, making you more resilient to stress,” says psychologist Robbie Maller Hartman, PhD, a Chicago health and wellness coach.
It’s simple. Sit up straight with both feet on the floor. Close your eyes. Focus your attention on reciting — out loud or silently — a positive mantra such as “I feel at peace” or “I love myself.” Place one hand on your belly to sync the mantra with your breaths. Let any distracting thoughts float by like clouds.
2. Breathe Deeply
Take a 5-minute break and focus on your breathing. Sit up straight, eyes closed, with a hand on your belly. Slowly inhale through your nose, feeling the breath start in your abdomen and work its way to the top of your head. Reverse the process as you exhale through your mouth.
“Deep breathing counters the effects of stress by slowing the heart rate and lowering blood pressure,” psychologist Judith Tutin, PhD, says. She’s a certified life coach in Rome, GA.
3. Be Present
“Take 5 minutes and focus on only one behavior with awareness,” Tutin says. Notice how the air feels on your face when you’re walking and how your feet feel hitting the ground. Enjoy the texture and taste of each bite of food.
When you spend time in the moment and focus on your senses, you should feel less tense.
4. Reach Out
Your social network is one of your best tools for handling stress. Talk to others — preferably face to face, or at least on the phone. Share what’s going on. You can get a fresh perspective while keeping your connection strong.
5. Tune In to Your Body
Mentally scan your body to get a sense of how stress affects it each day. Lie on your back, or sit with your feet on the floor. Start at your toes and work your way up to your scalp, noticing how your body feels.
Continued
“Simply be aware of places you feel tight or loose without trying to change anything,” Tutin says. For 1 to 2 minutes, imagine each deep breath flowing to that body part. Repeat this process as you move your focus up your body, paying close attention to sensations you feel in each body part.
6. Decompress
Place a warm heat wrap around your neck and shoulders for 10 minutes. Close your eyes and relax your face, neck, upper chest, and back muscles. Remove the wrap, and use a tennis ball or foam roller to massage away tension.
“Place the ball between your back and the wall. Lean into the ball, and hold gentle pressure for up to 15 seconds. Then move the ball to another spot, and apply pressure,” says Cathy Benninger, a nurse practitioner and assistant professor at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.
7. Laugh Out Loud
A good belly laugh doesn’t just lighten the load mentally. It lowers cortisol, your body’s stress hormone, and boosts brain chemicals called endorphins, which help your mood. Lighten up by tuning in to your favorite sitcom or video, reading the comics, or chatting with someone who makes you smile.
8. Crank Up the Tunes
Research shows that listening to soothing music can lower blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety. “Create a playlist of songs or nature sounds (the ocean, a bubbling brook, birds chirping), and allow your mind to focus on the different melodies, instruments, or singers in the piece,” Benninger says. You also can blow off steam by rocking out to more upbeat tunes — or singing at the top of your lungs!
9. Get Moving
You don’t have to run in order to get a runner’s high. All forms of exercise, including yoga and walking, can ease depression and anxiety by helping the brain release feel-good chemicals and by giving your body a chance to practice dealing with stress. You can go for a quick walk around the block, take the stairs up and down a few flights, or do some stretching exercises like head rolls and shoulder shrugs.
Continued
10. Be Grateful
Keep a gratitude journal or several (one by your bed, one in your purse, and one at work) to help you remember all the things that are good in your life.
“Being grateful for your blessings cancels out negative thoughts and worries,” says Joni Emmerling, a wellness coach in Greenville, NC.
Use these journals to savor good experiences like a child’s smile, a sunshine-filled day, and good health. Don’t forget to celebrate accomplishments like mastering a new task at work or a new hobby.
When you start feeling stressed, spend a few minutes looking through your notes to remind yourself what really matters.
Sources
American Psychological Association: “Exercise fuels the brain’s stress buffers.”
Bennett, M. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, March 2008.
Bennett, M. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 2003.
Cathy Benninger, RN, CNP, MS, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
Joni Emmerling, wellness coach, Greenville, NC.
Robbie Maller Hartman, PhD, clinical psychologist, health and wellness coach; founder and owner, Centered Coaching, Chicago.
Harvard Health Publications: “In Brief: Sing along for health.”
Koelsch, S. Frontiers in Psychology, June 2011.
Judith Tutin, PhD, psychologist, life coach, Rome, GA.
Last Updated: January 20, 2021 References Approved
This article was co-authored by Masha Kouzmenko. Masha Kouzmenko is a Meditation Coach and the Co-Founder of Silicon Valley Wellness, a company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides holistic health education services such as mindfulness meditation and yoga instruction to businesses. She has over five years of meditation and yoga instruction experience and specializes in guided meditation. She has a BA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
There are 13 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status.
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Do you feel on edge, tired, stressed, or frustrated? Meditation is an ancient mind-body practice that promotes relaxation and well-being. Research shows that meditating may have stress-relieving psychological and physical health benefits that include reduced blood pressure, anxiety, insomnia and depression. Additionally, meditation has been shown to reduce the number of times you get the flu or a cold as well as how long and how severe symptoms are. [1] X Research source You may think that learning to meditate effectively is hard or too time consuming, but you really only need a few minutes in your day to practice these simple exercises and feel refreshed.
Megan Monahan is a certified meditation instructor and has studied under Dr. Deepak Chopra. She is also the author of the book, Don’t Hate, Meditate.
Hero Images / Getty Images
Meditation has many health benefits and is a highly effective way to relieve stress and maintain a healthier lifestyle. With practice, meditation becomes both more of an easy habit to maintain and more of an effective one as well, given that it builds resilience to stress over time.
Putting in the effort to learn and practice meditation can actually transform your experience of stress in your life. There are many different ways to meditate, and this technique is one of the most basic. With practice, you can use this technique to feel inner peace whenever you need it.
Basic Meditation Practice
Here’s how to begin a basic meditation practice:
Step 1: Get Into a Comfortable Position
Choose where and how you’ll sit. Many people like to sit in a comfortable chair while others prefer to sit cross-legged on the ground. You want to be able to completely relax while still staying awake.
Ensure that your posture is correct. It is easier to stay awake through long meditations if your back is straight. If you begin your meditation practice with this in mind, your body will become used to the position as you move on to longer periods of time.
Tip: Should you feel your shoulders slump while meditating, simply straighten back up. A straight back will also prevent soreness during longer meditations.
If you choose to sit in a chair, sit toward the front of the seat and place your feet firmly on the floor. This will improve your posture and help you concentrate on your practice.
Step 2: Close Your Eyes Gently
When you are in a comfortable position, look into the distance with a soft gaze, then slowly lower your lids. Keep your jaw slack and slightly open as well. You want to relax all of your facial muscles.
Tip: Do not squeeze your eyes tight. If you feel your face tighten, slowly open your eyes, refocus on that soft gaze and lower them again.
At this stage, your goal is to relax every part of your body. If you feel some tension in certain parts of your body, take a deep breath and allow it to relax you.
Step 3: Put Thoughts Aside
While you can’t control your thoughts, you can control how much power they have over you. This doesn’t mean you should ignore or suppress them, but simply remain calm, note them, and then use your breathing to bring you back to the moment. Learning to do this during your meditation practice can help you to let things go in the rest of your life as well.
Tip: If you get carried away in your thoughts, don’t be hard on yourself. Take a moment, without judgement, to observe where your mind went off to and then return to your breathing.
Step 4: Keep Going
That’s it, really! Keep putting aside any thoughts that may pop into your mind. The quiet spaces between thoughts will become longer and more frequent the longer you practice.
Tips to Help Your Meditation Practice
Here are a few more tips to keep in mind as you move along on the road to mediation.
Give it time
Meditation takes practice and a lot of it. If you’re expecting to do it “perfectly,” you may actually create more stress than you relieve. There is no “perfect” meditation session and if you go into it with an expectation of perfection, you may let yourself down and won’t want to stick with it.
Start Small and Work Up
Begin with a short session of 5 minutes. After you are comfortable, move to 10 or 15 minutes until you are comfortable meditating for 30-minute sessions.
With practice, this type of meditation becomes easier and more effective. You will come out of a meditation session feeling relaxed and refreshed, ready to face the rest of your day.
Track Your Time and Set Goals
It can be easy to lose track of time while meditating and two minutes can seem like an eternity when you are just beginning. This can cause you to worry and have thoughts like “Is my time up?” or “Have I meditated long enough?”
Those thoughts defeat the purpose of clearing your mind. To combat this, you may want to set a timer. Use an app on your phone and set it for the amount of time you want to meditate during that session.
Be sure to use a gentle tone or set it to vibrate so it doesn’t startle you when time is up, then turn off the screen and relax.
With practice, you may eventually find yourself saying, “Wow, that was 10 minutes? I could go longer!” When you are comfortable, skip the timer and allow your meditations to last as long as needed.
Try Another Style of Meditation
If the experience is frustrating for you and you don’t really want to continue, you may find more success with other types of meditation like the karate breathing meditation.
Stress can affect everyone in the family. Your kids can get stressed by school work, friends, and lots of after-school activities. You can get it from work or being busy with carpool and keeping everyone happy. All that stress can lead everybody to make unhealthy choices — like skipping exercise to veg in front of the TV or choosing junk food instead of eating healthier.
Teach your kids that it’s important to learn healthy ways to beat stress. Relaxing and recharging gives us the energy and focus to make healthy choices.
One great way to ease stress is with meditation. It’s an easy, fast, healthy way to relax, and it can make you feel better. It’s easy for you to teach the kids. You can even practice together.
How to Start
There are no rules about where to go, how to sit, or how long to practice when you meditate. The key is to find what you and the kids like.
“Part of the challenge, like with diet or exercise, is to find the way that will work for you and that you’ll continue with,” says Tobin Hart, PhD. He wrote The Secret Spiritual World of Children and is a professor of psychology and the University of West Georgia.
A simple way is to start is to get comfortable. Sit or lie down in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
Then focus on your breathing. Take a few slow, deep breaths. Place your hand on your belly or your chest if that helps you stay aware each time you inhale and exhale. Follow your breath as it comes in. Follow it as it goes out.
You’ll probably notice your mind start to wander. You might think of errands you have to run or an itch that you want to scratch. That’s OK. Just recognize that it was on your mind and re-focus. When your kids get distracted, encourage them to gently bring their minds back to their breath.
For some people, it’s easier to focus on a mantra they repeat in their head instead of concentrating on breath. Have everyone find a word that relaxes them like “peace” or “love.” Have them say it slowly to themselves as they breathe in and out.
Continued
Or, you may find it’s easier for you and your kids to meditate while moving rather than sitting still. Getting out in nature and walking can be calming. Once you lace up and head outside, find a gentle rhythm. Now’s not the time for a powerwalk.
Instead, once you all are on the sidewalk, talk to the kids about being present. Explain what that means. It means being aware of things around you. Have everyone notice the sky and the trees. Ask, “How does the ground feel under your feet? Do you feel a breeze or warmth from the sun on your skin?”
Feel how your body moves as you take your steps. Have everyone repeat their mantra to themselves, if they like. Or have everyone just focus on their steps.
Ways to Include Younger Kids
Repeating a mantra and concentrating on breath might be too much for a preschooler or young grade-schooler, says Sarah Wood Vallely, author of Sensational Meditation for Children.
So how do you get younger kids to try meditation to help them relax? Make it fun.
Meditation doesn’t have to always be quiet. Instead, play games and teach them how to let worries go, Vallely suggests. That can be a fun, kid-friendly type of meditation.
She plays the “Let-Go Hokey-Pokey” with kids as young as 4 or 5. They sing the traditional song and do the dance, but instead of putting a “right arm in” or a “left foot in” the circle, they think about “putting in” things they don’t want to think about. They might say “cleaning my room.”
“The thing that’s most important is to present meditation as something fun,” says Vallely. “That’s why I like to incorporate games and fun as part of the experience.”
Explain to the kids that relaxing can be a cool way to make their bodies and minds feel better.
Where, How Often, and How Long
Once kids have tried a couple kinds of meditation, let them choose what kind they want to do. Let them sit or lie down — whichever they feel like doing.
Continued
In the beginning, it might be easiest to meditate where it’s quiet, but it’s OK to do it anywhere.
“They can meditate at school and people don’t have to know,” says Vallely. “Just sit at their desk and close their eyes for a minute if they have anxiety about a test.”
“As they get better at it, they really can meditate in a place that’s not as quiet,” says Vallely. “They will start to pick up that ‘I can meditate in my backyard, on the playground, in my room.’”
Tell kids that any time they start to feel stressed, they can use what they learned as a healthy way to feel better. Explain that meditation is a healthier choice than grabbing junk food or trying to feel better by playing video games or watching TV.
It would be great to try and get everyone to meditate at least a few times a week. There’s no set amount of time your family should try meditating for, but Vallely suggests about 1 minute of meditation time for every year of a child’s age. So a 10-year-old should be able to work up to meditating for 10 minutes at a time.
When the whole family is stressed with school, work, and activities, try to take time out for a few minutes of meditation. It’s a great family activity with awesome benefits.
Sources
Black, D. Pediatrics, Sept. 1, 2009.
Tobin Hart, PhD, author, The Secret Spiritual World of Children, New World Library, 2003; professor of psychology, University of West Georgia.
NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: “Meditation: An Introduction.”
Sarah Wood Vallely, author, Sensational Meditation for Children, Satya International, Inc., 2008.
By Pamela McLean | Submitted On February 28, 2011
Meditation for relaxation may be one of the very best reasons to meditate. People start meditating for a variety of reasons, but what will keep people coming back to their meditation practice is the fact that it helps them feel better and frees them from the effects of the stressors of daily life.
Let’s take a look at how meditation and relaxation go hand-in-hand.
Meditation and Stress
A major benefit of meditation is that it can greatly reduce stress. When we are under stress, our bodies produce stress hormones such as cortisol. This is just a fact of being human and in more primitive times these hormones were quite useful, such as when being chased by a lion, for example. This is known as the Stress Response. However, in our modern lives it is becoming common to be under the under the influence of these stress hormones for extended periods of time. This is not only an uncomfortable situation; it can be deadly.
When stress causes the body to produce excessive cortisol, the hormone will, in essence, break down the body over time. That’s a nice way of saying that it will slowly kill us.
So, for better health (and better, longer lives) we need to find a way to rid ourselves of the debilitating and chronic stress that is so rampant in our modern world.
Meditation and Relaxation
Medical studies have shown that meditation reverses the stress response and therefore the release of cortisol into our bodies. So while stress hormones break down the body; meditation has been shown to help the body repair itself and strengthen itself against new damage from stress. This is known as the Relaxation Response.
The relaxation response brings your body back into its natural balance of deeper breathing, slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and relaxed muscles. These are the documented physical responses; there are also the beneficial effects of increased focus and energy, increased motivation, sharper mental abilities, and reduction of bodily pains.
Starting Meditation for Relaxation
Make Time in Your Daily Schedule. Sometimes I think that one of the greatest things about meditating is the time that we set aside to do it. When it’s time for you to meditate you know that right here, right now-this is your time. Just the simple fact of setting aside time for you is a relaxing idea!
Meditate While Fully Alert. Many people choose to meditate in the morning or at the start of their day because it is when they are most alert and when they get the most benefit from their practice.
Choose a Meditation Technique for Beginners. Try something relatively easy and rewarding such as counting each breath you take.
Stress can affect everyone in the family. Your kids can get stressed by school work, friends, and lots of after-school activities. You can get it from work or being busy with carpool and keeping everyone happy. All that stress can lead everybody to make unhealthy choices — like skipping exercise to veg in front of the TV or choosing junk food instead of eating healthier.
Teach your kids that it’s important to learn healthy ways to beat stress. Relaxing and recharging gives us the energy and focus to make healthy choices.
One great way to ease stress is with meditation. It’s an easy, fast, healthy way to relax, and it can make you feel better. It’s easy for you to teach the kids. You can even practice together.
How to Start
There are no rules about where to go, how to sit, or how long to practice when you meditate. The key is to find what you and the kids like.
“Part of the challenge, like with diet or exercise, is to find the way that will work for you and that you’ll continue with,” says Tobin Hart, PhD. He wrote The Secret Spiritual World of Children and is a professor of psychology and the University of West Georgia.
A simple way is to start is to get comfortable. Sit or lie down in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.
Then focus on your breathing. Take a few slow, deep breaths. Place your hand on your belly or your chest if that helps you stay aware each time you inhale and exhale. Follow your breath as it comes in. Follow it as it goes out.
You’ll probably notice your mind start to wander. You might think of errands you have to run or an itch that you want to scratch. That’s OK. Just recognize that it was on your mind and re-focus. When your kids get distracted, encourage them to gently bring their minds back to their breath.
For some people, it’s easier to focus on a mantra they repeat in their head instead of concentrating on breath. Have everyone find a word that relaxes them like “peace” or “love.” Have them say it slowly to themselves as they breathe in and out.
Continued
Or, you may find it’s easier for you and your kids to meditate while moving rather than sitting still. Getting out in nature and walking can be calming. Once you lace up and head outside, find a gentle rhythm. Now’s not the time for a powerwalk.
Instead, once you all are on the sidewalk, talk to the kids about being present. Explain what that means. It means being aware of things around you. Have everyone notice the sky and the trees. Ask, “How does the ground feel under your feet? Do you feel a breeze or warmth from the sun on your skin?”
Feel how your body moves as you take your steps. Have everyone repeat their mantra to themselves, if they like. Or have everyone just focus on their steps.
Ways to Include Younger Kids
Repeating a mantra and concentrating on breath might be too much for a preschooler or young grade-schooler, says Sarah Wood Vallely, author of Sensational Meditation for Children.
So how do you get younger kids to try meditation to help them relax? Make it fun.
Meditation doesn’t have to always be quiet. Instead, play games and teach them how to let worries go, Vallely suggests. That can be a fun, kid-friendly type of meditation.
She plays the “Let-Go Hokey-Pokey” with kids as young as 4 or 5. They sing the traditional song and do the dance, but instead of putting a “right arm in” or a “left foot in” the circle, they think about “putting in” things they don’t want to think about. They might say “cleaning my room.”
“The thing that’s most important is to present meditation as something fun,” says Vallely. “That’s why I like to incorporate games and fun as part of the experience.”
Explain to the kids that relaxing can be a cool way to make their bodies and minds feel better.
Where, How Often, and How Long
Once kids have tried a couple kinds of meditation, let them choose what kind they want to do. Let them sit or lie down — whichever they feel like doing.
Continued
In the beginning, it might be easiest to meditate where it’s quiet, but it’s OK to do it anywhere.
“They can meditate at school and people don’t have to know,” says Vallely. “Just sit at their desk and close their eyes for a minute if they have anxiety about a test.”
“As they get better at it, they really can meditate in a place that’s not as quiet,” says Vallely. “They will start to pick up that ‘I can meditate in my backyard, on the playground, in my room.’”
Tell kids that any time they start to feel stressed, they can use what they learned as a healthy way to feel better. Explain that meditation is a healthier choice than grabbing junk food or trying to feel better by playing video games or watching TV.
It would be great to try and get everyone to meditate at least a few times a week. There’s no set amount of time your family should try meditating for, but Vallely suggests about 1 minute of meditation time for every year of a child’s age. So a 10-year-old should be able to work up to meditating for 10 minutes at a time.
When the whole family is stressed with school, work, and activities, try to take time out for a few minutes of meditation. It’s a great family activity with awesome benefits.
Sources
Black, D. Pediatrics, Sept. 1, 2009.
Tobin Hart, PhD, author, The Secret Spiritual World of Children, New World Library, 2003; professor of psychology, University of West Georgia.
NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: “Meditation: An Introduction.”
Sarah Wood Vallely, author, Sensational Meditation for Children, Satya International, Inc., 2008.
How to use relaxation meditation techniques in just 10 minutes
So how do you relax using meditation? (And keep in mind that not every meditation technique is meant for relaxation.) There are multiple stress-relieving techniques you can try, most of which involve focusing your attention on the breath or an object that promotes calmness and increases body awareness. We’ll take you step by step through one of the more popular 10-minute methods below, but remember, it doesn’t matter which technique you choose. To get the most out of meditation, what matters is that you practice regularly and strive toward making it a part of your daily routine.
1. Breathe deeply. There’s a reason so many meditation techniques involve taking long, slow, deep breaths: it’s an incredibly effective, scientifically proven way to relax the mind and the body. Researchers at Columbia University found that slow, deep breathing was associated with reductions in stress in groups affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as groups managing daily stress. Essentially, through regular deep breathing meditation practice, we can learn to relax on demand. Here’s how to do it:
2. Focus on your breath. Find a quiet space and get comfortable. Take five deep, audible breaths — in through the nose and out through the mouth — focusing on the sensation of your breath. As you breathe in, think about taking in fresh air and expanding the lungs; as you breathe out, think about letting go of any stress in the body and mind. On the last exhalation, let your eyes gently close.
3. Check-In. Pause and take a few moments to settle into your body. Acknowledge your senses, noticing anything you can smell, hear, taste, or feel.
4. Body scan. Scan your body from head to toe, observing any tension or discomfort. Scan a second time, observing which parts of the body feel relaxed. Take about 20 seconds for each scan.
5. Awareness. Notice any thoughts that arise without attempting to alter them. Note your underlying mood, becoming aware of what’s there without judgment.
6. Back to the breath. Again, return your attention to your breathing. Don’t make any effort to change it; simply observe the rising and falling sensation in your body. Focus on the quality of each breath. Is it deep? Shallow? Long or short? Fast or slow?
Now, silently count the breaths: 1 as you inhale, 2 as you exhale, 3 on the next inhalation, and so on, up to 10. Then start again at 1. If thoughts bubble up or your mind starts to wander, don’t worry. Just guide your attention back to the breath.
7. Just sit. Spend 20 to 30 seconds just sitting, allowing your mind to be free. It doesn’t matter whether you’re calm and focused or inundated with thoughts — just let your mind simply be.
8. Prepare to finish. As your practice comes to an end, bring your awareness once again to anything physical you may be experiencing. For example, your posture or where your feet make contact with the floor. Notice anything you can hear, smell, taste, or feel.
Try to recognize how your mind feels and then make an intention to carry those feelings of calm and relaxation into the rest of your day.
Meditation for Stress Relief and Relaxation
If you practice meditation for stress relief and relaxation you gain the world. There are so many people that struggle with stress and tension every day. Each and every one of those people has a solution within them that they may not know exists. The healing power within all of us allows us to live in the moment and relax in the now.
Take a Moment
If you are one of those people that struggles with stress and anxiety I encourage you to take a moment. Simply stop all that you are doing and think about right now. Ponder everything around you; the smells, the sounds, the temperature of the air. Take a mental snapshot of the precise second you are in at any point during your day and live in that moment. Draw your mind away from the future that causes anxiety, and from the past that causes pain. Take a second to focus on what you have to be grateful for in this moment. Take a deep breath and slow down just long enough to give yourself a break. After that you can go right back to your stress and anxiety if you would like, or you could learn to live in the state of now.
Meditation and Relaxation
Meditation and relaxation could be considered two different things. Most times when I meditate the point is to draw my senses away from the material world so that my spirit can be free. When I sit down to relax, however, the point is to merely let go of all the tension in my body. In my book there is a guided meditation for stress relief and relaxation that mixes the two together. This exercise works. In the exercise you mindfully address the tension in your body and purposely let it go one muscle group at a time. In doing this, you establish a relationship with your own body and are able to communicate with your areas of stress. Taking time to relax and reduce stress is essential in order to maintain a substantial amount of serenity in your life, otherwise you leave yourself prone to illness.
Relaxation technique 5: Mindful meditation for stress relief
Mindfulness is the ability to remain aware of how you’re feeling right now, your “moment-to-moment” experience—both internal and external. Thinking about the past—blaming and judging yourself—or worrying about the future can generate stress. But by staying calm and focused in the present moment, you can bring your nervous system back into balance. Mindfulness can be applied to activities such as walking, exercising, eating, or meditation.
Meditations that cultivate mindfulness have long been used to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. Some of these meditations bring you into the present by focusing your attention on a single repetitive action, such as your breathing, a few repeated words, or the flickering light of a candle. Other forms of mindfulness meditation encourage you to follow and then release internal thoughts or sensations.
Practicing mindfulness meditation
To practice mindfulness meditation, you’ll need:
- A quiet environment. Choose a secluded place in your home, office, or outdoors where you can relax without distractions or interruptions.
- A comfortable position. Get comfortable, but avoid lying down as this may lead to you falling asleep. Sit up with your spine straight, either in a chair or on the floor. You can also try a cross-legged or lotus position.
- A point of focus. You can meditate with your eyes closed or open so this point can be internal—a feeling or imaginary scene—or external—a flame, an object in your surroundings, or a meaningful word or phrase that you repeat throughout the meditation.
- An observant, noncritical attitude. Don’t worry about distracting thoughts that go through your mind or about how well you’re doing. If thoughts intrude during your relaxation session, don’t fight them, just gently turn your attention back to your point of focus.
Mindfulness techniques
There is more than one way to practice mindfulness, but the goal of any mindfulness technique is to achieve a state of alert, focused relaxation by deliberately paying attention to thoughts and sensations without judgment. This allows the mind to refocus on the present moment. All mindfulness techniques are a form of meditation.
Basic mindfulness meditation – Sit quietly and focus on your natural breathing or on a word or “mantra” that you repeat silently. Allow thoughts to come and go without judgment and return to your focus on breath or mantra.
Body sensations – Notice subtle body sensations such as an itch or tingling without judgment and let them pass. Notice each part of your body in succession from head to toe.
Sensory – Notice sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. Name them “sight,” “sound,” “smell,” “taste,” or “touch” without judgment and let them go.
Emotions – Allow emotions to be present without judgment. Practice a steady and relaxed naming of emotions: “joy,” “anger,” “frustration.”
Accept the presence of the emotions without judgment and let them go.
Urge surfing – Cope with cravings (for addictive substances or behaviors) and allow them to pass. Notice how your body feels as the craving enters. Replace the wish for the craving to go away with the certain knowledge that it will subside.
