Meditation and Mental Health
Causes of Stress and the Role of Meditation
Meditation is a practice that involves the focus of your mind on something in the moment- usually a particular aspect of your mind like counting breaths- aimed at achieving a state of psychological, emotional and also physical wellness. While meditating, you get learn to experience and manage the numerous thoughts that might have resulted due to daily stress. This can help strengthen the relationship with our emotions and create an enhanced feeling of serenity and calmness within ourselves.
Meditation is an ancient tradition that found its way to the present due to its therapeutic effect in individuals experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, chronic pain, sleep issues, impulse disorders, and other struggles which impact daily functioning. Meditation has gained popularity over the years as statistics shows over hundreds of millions of people are practicing meditation worldwide. This increase in popularity has helped meditation to be considered a complementary health practice that drives us into a state of awareness, establishes mental clarity, and also keeps us in control of our responses to emotions.
Psychological stress on the other hand, can impact our emotional regulation and cause our body to release stress hormones. As humans, stress is a common part of everyday life. How we respond to it can help or hinder our overall functioning. Stress can have many different sources and we are all bound to experience stressful situations from time to time. For some of us, it occasionally or randomly occurs. For others, it is seen as a normal occurrence in their daily life.
As we go through our daily activities, we are exposed to various factors that are capable of inducing stress. We can experience physical stress; physical fatigue overexertion, inadequate sleep, traumatic injury, poor diet. There is also emotional stress, such as; death of a loved one, interpersonal or romantic relationships, career difficulties, or family conflict. When exposed to stress our normal physiological state is altered, the body responds by releasing stress hormones such as catecholamines and cortisol resulting in an increase in our heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen consumption and blood glucose this eventually creates a negative impact on our health (Ranabir & Reetu, 2011)— mental health particularly.
Psychological stress, if not controlled, throws us into a state of restlessness, anxiety and worry as we battle with the stream of thoughts that floods our minds. In order to cleanse these worrisome thoughts off our mind, the benefits of meditation can be put into practice and encouraged as a healthy habit.
From my experience, the questions most individuals ask when discussing meditation and how it can help them look like:
• How and why is meditation a good and effective way to manage my stress?
• I can’t clear my mind when I have tried meditating before, am I doing it wrong?
My common answers to these two questions are: “anyone can practice meditation, there is no wrong way. The goal is to practice focusing on one thing at a time and to take a break and breathe.”
Adding Meditation into Your Life
Now, let’s proceed to how meditation can help us manage stress. Firstly, its universal application is unique and unmatched if done the right way. It’s even safe to say that meditation can be practiced wherever you are — whether you are working from home, out for a walk or an early morning jog, riding the bus to school or office, in a coffee shop, waiting in a doctor’s office, or even in the middle of a zoom meeting. Although it’s helpful to have silence and privacy while meditating, most experienced meditators can practice meditation anywhere. The average person is not at this particular level and require a more isolated and secure environment, myself included!
For beginners there are certain elements that would help you to have a successful meditation: a quiet and serene surrounding with as few distractions as possible; a specific and comfortable body posture (e.g sitting, walking, lying down and so on); a direct focus of attention (on an object, a word or set of words, or even sensations from within yourself); and an open minded attitude (such as letting distractions come and go without paying it attention and ignoring them completely). This last point is difficult at first and many guided meditations help you build the skill of letting such distractions go like; ever growing to-do lists, conversations we are over analyzing, or dwelling on something we have no control over anymore. The aim is to not have a thoughtless mind, but to be able to divert our attention away from stressful thoughts.
Furthermore, during meditation, we focus our attention achieving a peaceful state of mind and in the process help eliminate the stream of scrambled thoughts that might have crowded our minds and resulted in stress. Through this process, we can achieve an enhanced physical, mental and emotional well-being.
Each and every one of us have our own way of dealing with stress, like taking a nap, working out, interacting with family or friends, playing music, playing video games, cleaning, or reading. All of these processes are associated with meditation in one way or another. As we all know at one point in our life, stress can make us miserable however it is usually manageable through meditation.
On a different note, why meditation is an effective way to manage psychological stress has correlating answers with the benefits of meditation.
Webster’s Dictionary defines meditation as an act “to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one’s breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness.” Meditation is a practice that’s can often be used as a type of mind and body complementary medicine. It can also be considered as a type of self-care which produces a deep state of relaxation and tranquility to one’s mind and body.
Meanwhile, stress is quite the opposite.
Psychological stress has its negative impacts on our lives such as;
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Impulsive or unhealthy decisions.
• Constant brooding or racing thoughts.
• Lack of motivation.
• Distorted sleeping cycle.
• Anger and irritation.
• Restlessness.
• Overwhelmed with mixed emotions and lack of focus.
• Memory Issues.
However all these effects can be managed by meditating. If stress has you antsy, tensed or worried, consider trying meditation. Spending even a few minutes meditating can restore your calm and replenish your inner peace.
Once we begin to carry out this practice, it gradually becomes a part of our daily routine which helps in building resilience to stress. We can also use meditation as a technique to become centered when feeling thrown off by stress. After continuous practice, meditation can be a quick-fix stress reliever to help us reverse our body’s response to the stress and allow us to relax mentally and physically.
Moreover, it’s simple, inexpensive, and it doesn’t even require any special equipment to carry out the activities related to it. There are even apps for your phone that provide guided meditation plans for free or a subscription fee. Such apps like Calm and Headspace are more well known apps.
By learning to understand your body’s way of meditating and being able to calm your body and mind, your psychological stress will eventually lessen with dedicated practice. This can leave you feeling better, refreshed, and ready to face the challenges of the day with a healthy and positive attitude. With regular practice of meditation over time, you can even experience and enjoy greater benefits that come with meditation.
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References
[Stressed male with glasses]. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from: https://img.etimg.com/thumb/msid-64926728,width-650,imgsize-250839,,resizemode-4,quality-100/mental-health-depression-anxiety-stress-thinkstockphotos-858738378.jpg
Ranabir, S., & Reetu, K. (2011). Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 15(1), 18–22. Retrieved 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3079864/
Webster, Merriam. “Meditate.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, 2020, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meditate.
Calm.com, Inc. (2012). Calm (version 5.8) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://www.calm.com/
Headspace Inc. (2012). Headspace (version 3.139.0) [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://www.headspace.com/
