Practicing mindful meditation can reduce stress

With the New Year just begun—and with not much having changed (wasn’t everything supposed to be better in 2021?)—it’s easy to fall prey to sadness and disappointment. And that can be stressful.

Meditation may help. The practice requires people to sit or lie down, relax their muscles, and attempt to clear their minds. “When you meditate, in general, the breath slows down, heart rate slows, blood pressure decreases, stress decreases, digestive function improves and the sense of tension in the body decreases,” Dr. Stephanie Cheng of the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Medicine told U.S. News & World Report.

Meditation has also been known to help control pain, improve sleep, strengthen attention spans and slow memory loss.

There are many forms of meditation, among them transcendental, centering, guided and mindfulness. The latter involves concentrating on the present moment and blocking out any judgments or fears of the past or future.

Practitioners suggest wearing comfortable clothing and finding a quiet space to sit, whether on a chair or on the floor. The head, neck and back should be straight but not stiff; limbs should be relaxed. Breathe naturally, but pay attention to the air moving in and out of the body. As the mind wanders, take note of the thoughts, but then refocus on breaths and let the moments pass. In Psychology Today, Dr. Karen Kissel Wegela writes, “Remember that mindfulness meditation is about practicing being mindful of whatever happens. It is NOT about getting ourselves to stop thinking.”

Those new to meditation should consider setting a timer for 10 or 15 minutes—long enough to relax and release stress, but not so long as to cause stress on the body, such as stiffness. The important part is to find peace. “We are trying to be with ourselves as we already are,” Wegela writes, “not trying to change ourselves into some preconceived notion of how we ought to be instead.”