Using Meditation As Part Of Your Self Care Routine
5 tips to get started with your meditation practice.
Meditation is a practical means to relax and quieten the chatter of the mind by observing our thoughts without judgement, in order to gain more focus, clarity and connect with ourselves.
Evidence of the practice of meditation has been found as early as 5000 BCE, with origins in religions of ancient Egypt, China and India. However, the great thing about meditation is that you don’t need to follow any specific religion to benefit from it.
“The research shows that meditation is the UK’s favourite form of wellbeing therapy, with over a quarter (26%) of UK adults saying they have meditated as a way to improve their mental wellbeing in the past five years. Men are doubling down on the road to enlightenment, with almost a third of men (30%) practising meditation in this time period compared to 18% of women.”
Source: https://www.bupa.com/newsroom/news/meditation-brits-favourite-wellbeing-therapy
29 January 2019
Not Just A Tough Day At Work
“Meditation and life are not separate. Meditation simply helps us to see and understand life more clearly.”
Source: @Headspace
Picture this…you’ve been assigned a global project which is critical to your organisation to get right. No pressure! You’ve got many senior managers keen to work with you, but they’ve each got their own demands and their own teams that need co-ordinating throughout the project. You’ve been putting in the hours to close out a couple of other projects over the past few weeks and haven’t had a break.
You start to feel a sense of overwhelm as you think about all the areas you need to plan, the conversations you need to have, how you’re going to manage suppliers, teams and difficult stakeholders. On top of that, you’re in a bustling open plan office, it’s mid-morning and the noise is building. You wander around looking for a quiet space for a bit of respite and an opportunity to think about how you’ll set your mission in motion.
You can’t find a single space. Even the ‘pods’ where there is barely enough room to swing your legs under the table are all occupied. You can feel your anxiety building, you’ve got meetings around the clock to get to know your new team. Your heart is pounding. Thoughts go into overdrive… what if they’re expecting you to have all the answers from the first meeting? How will they react if you don’t know every detail about the project?
This was my experience of anxiety early on in my career, just before I started my first large-scale project. I sought advice from one of my mentors who introduced me to the practice of daily meditation and I started noticing a positive change. To make sense of my experience, I looked into the science to understand why on a physiological level, meditation reduces our reaction to triggers in our external environment that may cause stress and anxiety. I needed some evidence that it wasn’t just an esoteric practice or ‘all in my mind.’
The Science Behind Meditation
The autonomic nervous system regulates many bodily systems such as respiratory and circulatory systems without us having to consciously direct them. The sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems are two of its branches. We need the sympathetic nervous system for our survival. When this is activated, it puts us in a ‘fight or flight’ mode. The parasympathetic nervous system when stimulated, produces a feeling of calm. The two systems complement each other. So, if one is highly activated, the other is less active.
There are lifestyle factors that can cause these systems to become imbalanced. Consistently living life at a fast pace, without taking the time to relax and slow down can cause the sympathetic nervous system to be more active. We can experience this in the form of increased heart rate, blood pressure and the release of stress related hormones. In contrast, the parasympathetic nervous system reduces all of these factors. You can read more about this in a research study published by the International Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Sciences. The study carried out various tests using meditators and non-meditators of the same age group. The results found that the parasympathetic activity was increased in meditators while sympathetic activity was less.
I needed to have some of what these meditators were experiencing!
5 Tips To Get You Started With Your Own Meditation Practice
Since I’ve formed a habit of it, meditation helps me to relax, feel more grounded and allows me to take a step back from the continuous stream of thoughts in my mind, so that the important things that I need to know and to act on, are allowed to bubble to the surface.
If You’re A Beginner, Try Guided Meditations
Source: https://www.mindful.org/
Guided meditations are great to keep you focused and in the moment. There are many apps you can download onto your device, to use at your own convenience. I started with short guided meditations that were no longer than a few minutes and built up with longer sessions once I got used to sitting on the floor. If you find it uncomfortable to sit on the floor, you can use a chair. Choose the position that’s the most comfortable for you.
These apps offer guided meditations that I’ve used and enjoyed. Have fun trying them to find your favourites. All are available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store:
Some of the apps listed above also offer walking meditations. You can try some here on Insight Timer.
Plug in your headphones, listen to guided walking meditations or calm music whilst you set out for your walk and enjoy being in the moment. Allowing yourself to pay attention to your surroundings and the walk itself will distract you from any thoughts or worries occupying your mind . Walking meditation is convenient and can easily fit into your routine. Give it a go and let us know if it works for you.
“One of the most useful and grounding ways of attending to our body is the practice of walking meditation. Walking meditation is a simple and universal practice for developing calm, connectedness, and embodied awareness. It can be practiced regularly, before or after sitting meditation or any time on its own…”
Source: Jack Kornfield - https://jackkornfield.com/walking-meditation-2/
2. Make It A Part Of Your Self-Care Routine
“At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I’ve made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.”― Ringo Starr
You may find that meditating in the morning helps to set the intent for the day, uplifts your mood and increases your focus.
Alternatively, if your morning is filled with the breakfast routine for your family, planning how you’re going to keep the kids occupied for the six weeks of summer holidays, exercise etc, then you may want to set aside time in the evening.
I’ve found myself drifting back off to sleep when I’ve tried to meditate in the mornings, so for me, the evening helps to de-stress before bed. Figure out the timings that suit you best.
3. Let the Thoughts Come...and Go
“What you resist persists”
Carl Jung
For the first five or so minutes of my meditation, the thoughts of the day rush into my mind. When I first started the practice, this would frustrate me as the more I would try to resist these thoughts, the more they would claim my attention.
Once I started letting the thoughts come and go without trying to stop thinking or holding onto them, the practice became a lot easier.
The moment you find that you’re distracted, start observing your thoughts and gently bring your attention back to your breathing pattern or your guided meditation. Stick with it, be patient with yourself and remember that the mind thinks thousands of thoughts a day, it’s just doing its job by serving up the endless stream. The goal is not to control the mind but to observe it.
4. If You Meditate Later on In the Day, Start Winding Down 30 Minutes Before Your Meditation Starts
I’m writing this blog at a time when EastEnders re-runs are being shown due to the pause in filming as a result of the COVID-19 social distancing measures. I’m not an avid watcher of EastEnders, but back in the day, I was a fan. Last night, I caught a classic episode which would have had me chuckling all the way through my evening meditation. If you remember this scene, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about…
Whether you want to listen to some calming music, catch up on your reading, watch a more relaxing TV program, before you meditate, the goal is to ensure that you’re priming your body for relaxation in the same way that you would prepare yourself for sleeping.
“It’s very hard to shut down your brain or quieten anxious or worrying thoughts when you’re on the go before bedtime. You want to separate your day from the night time”- Stephanie Silberman, Sleep Specialist.
Recently, the FurLearn team hosted a webinar with Sleep Guru, Alison Francis (Anandi). Listen to the recording available here and explore some effective techniques to experience sound sleep through challenging times.
5. Keep A Journal
“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.”
— Mina Murray, Dracula
Journaling is a great way of creating a space that allows us to observe our thoughts and feelings about the day, without any judgement or filter, writing whatever comes, and in that process of exploration, perhaps even making new discoveries or unleashing creativity.
Keeping a journal to jot down my thoughts and worries about the day acts as a release and calms my mind before I sit down to meditate.
Source: https://www.thefield.com.au/blog
At FurLearn, we are big on developing a positive mindset and inner resilience to get us through these changing times. Do you have any meditation techniques that have worked well for you that you’d like to share?
