Meditation

If stress has you feeling anxious, tense and worried, consider trying meditation. Meditating for just a few minutes can restore calm and inner peace.

Meditation, originally intended to help deepen our understanding of life’s sacred and mystical forces, has been practiced for thousands of years. Today, meditation is commonly used to relax and reduce stress. Anyone can practice meditation — it’s simple, inexpensive and doesn’t require any special equipment. And you can practice it anywhere, whether you’re out for a walk, riding the bus, waiting at the doctor’s office or in a difficult business meeting.

Meditation, considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine, produces a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. Focusing your attention eliminates the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress, resulting in enhanced physical and emotional well-being.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation gives you a sense of calm, peace and balance that benefits both your emotional well-being and your overall health. These benefits don’t end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help keep you calm throughout the day and improve certain medical conditions.

Meditation and Emotional Well-Being

When you meditate, you clear away the information overload that builds up and contributes to your stress. Meditation can help you to:

• Gain a new perspective on stressful situations
• Build skills to manage your stress
• Increase self-awareness
• Focus on the present
• Reduce negative emotions

Meditation and Illness

Many healthy people use meditation to relax the body and reduce stress. But meditation may help if you have a medical condition, especially one that may be worsened by stress.

A growing body of scientific research supports the health benefits of meditation. Although these studies are far from conclusive, some research suggests that meditation may help the following conditions:

• Allergies
• Anxiety disorders
• Asthma
• Binge eating
• Cancer
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Pain
• Sleep problems
• Substance abuse

Meditation isn’t a replacement for traditional medicine, but it can be useful in addition to other treatment. Talk to your health care provider about the pros and cons of using meditation as a tool to cope with any of these medical conditions.

Types of Meditation

There are many types of meditation and meditative relaxation techniques, all with the same goal of achieving inner peace. Types of meditation include:

• Guided meditation: With this method of meditation, sometimes called guided imagery or visualization, you form mental images of places or situations you find relaxing using as many senses as possible — smell, sight, sound, taste and texture. You may be led through this process by a guide or teacher.
• Mantra meditation: With this type of meditation, you silently repeat a calming word, thought or phrase to prevent distracting thoughts. Transcendental meditation is a type of mantra meditation in which you reach a deep state of relaxation to achieve pure awareness.
• Mindfulness meditation: This type of meditation is based on being mindful, or having an increased awareness of living in the present moment. You focus on what you experience during meditation, such as the flow of your breath. You can observe your thoughts and emotions, but let them pass without judgment.
• Qi gong: This practice generally combines meditation, relaxation, physical movement and breathing exercises to restore and maintain balance. Qi gong (chee-kung) is part of traditional Chinese medicine.
• Tai chi: This is a gentle form of Chinese martial arts. In tai chi (tie-chee), you perform a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner while practicing deep breathing.
• Yoga: You perform a series of postures and controlled breathing exercises to promote a more flexible body and a calm mind. As you move through poses that require balance and concentration, you’re encouraged to focus less on your busy day and more on the moment.

Elements of Meditation

Different types of meditation may include different features to help you meditate, depending on whose guidance you follow or who’s teaching the class. Some of the most common features of meditation include:

• Focusing your attention. This is one of the most important elements of meditation. Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many distractions that cause stress and worry. You can focus your attention on an object, an image, a mantra or even your breathing. Don’t fret when your mind wanders. Just return your focus.
• Relaxed breathing. This technique involves deep, even-paced breathing, using the diaphragm muscle to expand your lungs. Slowing your breathing, taking in more oxygen, and reducing the use of shoulder, neck and upper chest muscles while breathing will help you breathe more efficiently.
• A quiet location. If you’re a beginner, practicing meditation may be easier if you’re in a quiet spot with no distractions — no television, radio or cell phone. As you become more skilled, you may be able to do it anywhere, even in such high-stress situations as traffic jams, stressful work meetings or while standing in a long line at the grocery store.
• A comfortable position. You can practice meditation whether you’re sitting, lying down, walking or doing some other activity. Just try to be comfortable so you can get the most out of your meditation.

Tips for Practicing Meditation on Your Own

Don’t let the thought of meditating the “right” way add to your stress. Sure, you can attend special meditation centers or group classes led by trained instructors. But you also can practice meditation on your own, as formally or informally as you’d like. Some people build meditation into their daily routine — for example, starting and ending each day with an hour of meditation. But all you really need is a few minutes of quality time for meditation each day.

Here are some tips for practicing meditation on your own, whenever and wherever you choose:

• Breathe deeply. This technique is good for beginners because breathing is a natural function. Focus all attention on your breathing. Concentrate on feeling and listening as you inhale and exhale through your nostrils. Breathe deeply and slowly. When your attention wanders, gently return your focus to your breathing.
• Scan your body. When using this technique, focus attention on different parts of your body. Become aware of your body’s various sensations, whether it’s pain, tension, warmth or relaxation. Combine body scanning with breathing exercises and imagine breathing heat or relaxation into and out of different body parts.
• Repeat a mantra. You can choose or create your own mantra, whether it’s religious or secular.
• Walking meditation. Combining a walk with meditation is an efficient and healthy way to relax. You can use this technique anywhere you’re walking — in a tranquil forest, on a city sidewalk or at the mall. When you use this method, slow down the pace of walking so that you can focus on each movement of your legs or feet. Don’t focus on a particular destination. Concentrate on your legs and feet, mentally repeating such action words as lifting, moving and placing, as you lift each foot, move your leg forward and place your foot on the ground.
• Engage in prayer. Prayer is the best known and most widely practiced example of meditation. Spoken and written prayers are found in most religious traditions. You can pray using your own words or read prayers written by others. Check the self-help or 12-step-recovery section of your local bookstore or talk with your rabbi, priest, pastor or spiritual leader.
• Read or listen and reflect. Many people benefit from reading poems or sacred texts silently or aloud, and taking a few moments to quietly reflect on the meaning of those words. You can listen to spoken words or any music you find relaxing or inspiring. You may want to write your reflections in a journal or discuss them with a friend or spiritual leader.
• Focus your love and gratitude. In this type of meditation, you focus your attention on a sacred object or being, weaving feelings of love and gratitude into your thoughts. You can also close your eyes and use your imagination.

Building Your Meditation Skills

Don’t judge your meditation skills — that only increases stress. Meditation takes practice. Keep in mind, for instance, that it’s common for your mind to wander during meditation, no matter how long you’ve been practicing. If you’re meditating to calm your mind and your attention wanders, slowly return to the object, sensation or movement you’re focusing on.

Experiment, and discover what types of meditation you enjoy. Remember, there’s no right way or wrong way to meditate, so adapt it to your needs at the moment. What matters is that meditation helps you reduce stress and feel better.