Mindful Meditation

I’ve been taking a class in school on stress management and it’s honestly helped me realize a few things about myself: I’m more stressed than I ever realized, I need to practice self-care more, and I need to start meditating.

The first thing I used to think when I would see the word ‘meditation’ is monks and sitting down on a pillow and ‘om’. But it’s so much more than that. Meditation can be something like listening to music with no other distractions, or praying, or even a hobby, like gardening. These things help bring us down to a level where we can relax and feel less stress from the things going on around us.

There are different kinds of meditation, but mindfulness meditation is the one I feel the closest to. I am always trying to be mindful of what I’m doing in the moment, like when I’m writing; if I’m on my laptop, I try to be mindful of how my fingers are moving, and if I’m writing in my notebook, I am mindful of the way I write my f’s and g’s. I don’t know why I am mindful of those, but I guess it’s because I write them in an unconventional way compared to the other letters.

At the risk of teaching or treating this like a school paper, I want to explain how much mindfulness can help your mind, body, and soul.

Mindfulness helps relieve stress as we all know, but it also treats heart disease, lowers blood pressure, reduces chronic pain, improves sleep, and reduces anxiety levels. There’s a technique called mindful self-inquiry. It brings awareness to any of your stressed or anxious feelings and allows them to be. That doesn’t mean to let them control you. It means to let them happen. It makes you human. It’s how you react and how little control you let it have over your other emotions. The technique allows you to learn more about those feelings, and it helps you learn more about yourself too, basically gaining a new perspective of stressful or anxious situations.

I urge you to read more into mindful meditation and consider utilizing it into your daily life. Practicing this for even ten minutes can work, even if you’re busy throughout the day. It’s worth it to slow down, take a break, and meditate.

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