Meditation and City Living: How Meditation Can Relieve Stress

Stress is a word we commonly hear in today's society. It seems that almost everyone is stressed. You may have also heard about the benefits of meditation for stress reduction and long-term health. But what exactly is stress? What is meditation? How can meditation relieve stress?

Stress is anything that throws your body out of balance. The causes can vary greatly and can be anything from environmental toxins to famine to running from something that is chasing you to relationships, divorce, a demanding boss or even public speaking. The effects of stress are cumulative and if ignored, over time, can lead to health problems.

The body responds to stress by increasing the production of hormones, increasing blood pressure and muscle tension among many other things. The only way to undo this is to relax. So how do we relax? One way is through meditation. It can reverse your stress response.

To relax, the mind needs to focus on something repetitive such as sound, breath or movement. There must be an attempt or conscious effort to let go of other thoughts. This is where meditation comes in. It is one very effective way to quiet the mind and take full conscious breaths. With repetition and a constant redirecting of the mind away from intrusive thoughts we can begin to relax and completely change our energy. Not only is breath awareness a meditative practice in itself but once focus is put on the breath, breathing begins to slow and the other involuntary functions also change. Blood pressure lowers, heart rate slows, and stress hormones are reduced. Breath is the only involuntary function of the body that we can control. One we learn to lengthen the breath and breathe consciously, the other functions follow.

While we cannot control a lot of things that happen in the world, we can affect, to a certain extent, how we respond to them. So much of our stress is created by the story we tell ourselves about what is happening. When practiced regularly, meditation can change the way we see things by giving us space from all the illusions and stories the mind creates. It gives us some distance. From that space we find clarity. Benefits can be felt immediately, but they are also cumulative. Meditation allows you to connect to something beyond the mind and many claim it to be the source of their healing and inspiration. The best part is it's free, and it can be done anywhere at any time.

Emily Schreter recently returned home to New York City after 8 months of travel abroad in South America and Europe. She is currently pursuing her passion for yoga and is enrolled in the 200 hour yoga teacher training at ISHTA yoga in NYC. In addition to yoga and travel, Emily enjoys writing, painting, walking, reading memoirs, live music, and food.

Original article

How You Can Relieve Your Stress With Meditation

The word meditation simply is defined as being a continuing contemplative thought. If you have stress in your life, know that you are not alone, as everyone has some form of stress, even children. Many times, your stress might be work-related,or have to do with your relationship with others. If you make some time to meditate, you will have relief from the stress you are feeling.

It might sound absurd to suggest to a busy person like yourself, to make time for meditation, but is it really? Consider the fact that meditation will calm your tensions and this will give you a better mindset with which to manage stress and stressful situations, so it's really just a question of priorities and decisions. If you can decide that meditation is important to helping you to relieve stress then you can find some time, even is only a few minutes just to quiet your thoughts. It's a great start and you can always build on that in the future. The important thing is to decide, prioritize and then start.

There are many breathing exercises you can do to help yourself with meditation. Take a few minutes with your breathing so that you can get your thoughts together when meditating. Afterall, if you are hyperventilating or even just breathing short quick breaths instead of long deep breaths, it's might not be most conducive to getting the great benefits meditation can give you.

One really nice thing about your meditation time is that in those moments, whatever your stress is about, it cannot harm you at that meditative time. In those few sacred minutes, you are safe and free from all disturbances. It's important to learn how to have peace of mind, which is a huge accomplishment in life, and meditation can do that for you so that you can access stress relief at any time Finding peace of mind is one of the greatest values you could ever find in life because once you have found it, no one can take it from you. It's so precious that it cannot be purchased anywhere for any price. It's truly the all-time greatest gift you could ever give yourself and meditation is the road that will get you to your destination.

Every time you meditate, remember to clean out all negative ideas about yourself and other people, places and things. Once you practice concentrating on the peace of mind meditation gives you, you will see new ways to improve your life. Meditation is a valuable tool that has stood not only the test of time, but has done so for centuries. The more you practice this valuable tool, the more peace you will gain and there will come a time that you wonder how you could have ever done without it!

At Laughs heal, we offer you positive solutions to stress management. Would you like to have stress relief and greater peace in your life today? Then come visit us because we have many tools you can start using right now to improve the quality of your life today!

Original article