Why meditation is the perfect practice to relief stress and focus your mind!

We often hear about meditation as a great way to relief stress and focus your mind. It all seems something a little bit too zen and a little bit too exotic to those of us who are all immersed into our urban daily routines all about deadlines, schedules, stress and multitasking. I was into all that myself but then I decided to give meditation a try as I wasn’t in a good place anymore, stress was taking over and I couldn’t live my career and work life in a productive and healthy way.

My story

About 2 years ago I started meditating as I could not stop freaking out all day long over the things I had to do and the emotions I had to face because of work. I am working in a tech-environment and some of you might know what it means: being connected all day, being under extreme pressure and having very little time to dedicate to myself away from the same tools I use to work as, nowadays tech is basically everywhere. Meditation was a life-changer as it greatly helped me level my stress and calm my mind. It also helps to calm the monkey mind and not get distracted by all the offers life throws at you on a daily bases.

If you are living and working in a similar situation this article is exactly what you need to learn more about meditation, mindfulness and how these practices can improve your life quality and business goals.

Why do we lose our balance?

Stress, the inability to maintain attention and to listen, continuous distractions, up to anxiety and depression. It is the modern worker syndrome, fragmented between tasks that are often very different from each other and too many tasks to complete. The cure? According to numerous researches, concrete help could come from Mindfulness, a technique that trains the ability to pay conscious and complete attention to the present moment. And that has the effect of improving concentration and promoting productivity, creative thinking and effective communication.

What does stress do to us?

How many times during the last week have you forgotten something important or urgent that you had to do? Forgotten what someone had told you? Or eating without feeling almost no taste? How many times did you start something and then ask yourself, "What was I doing"? How many times have you felt overworked, working or not, or did you find yourself chasing time for fear of not being able to complete them? And how many times has this state of mind caused you to make mistakes or slow down your work? Or maybe you react disproportionately to an observation of a colleague or a boss?

This is a rather typical picture for many workers, managers or entrepreneurs, women and men alike. A framework that translates not only into a tighter climate in the workplace and in the family, but also with lower productivity, at all levels. On a psychological and mental level, we speak of excess stress, inability to maintain concentration and attention, of automatic thought. And for some years now, we have begun to think about practical and concrete techniques and tools that can contribute to the improvement of these situations and the key seems to be that of awareness.

Meditation and mindfulness to find your balance and relief the stress

To train awareness there are many techniques: from yoga, to Tai chi or to Qigong, as well as different forms of meditation. And one of these, the one that ultimately seems to be most successful in the West, is Mindfulness, a technique defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn, which theorized it, as "the ability to pay attention in a particular way: intentionally, in the moment present and in a non-judgmental way ?. The program he devised is one of the most widely used, Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Mindfulness, therefore, is not a simple relaxation technique, nor a classical meditation practice. But a sequence of techniques that allow you to develop and train your capacity for conscious attention in everyday life.

 Meditative practices, in general, have proven to be effective in reducing stress-related symptoms such as anxiety and depression: recent research by the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore has reviewed all the studies done so far on the forms of meditation, finding 47 clinical tests with over 3500 participants that confirm the described beneficial effects. Not only that, several studies that focused on Mindfulness showed that with eight weeks of training there is a significant increase in brain gray matter in the areas associated with learning, memory processes, the regulation of emotions and to the sustained attention, that is the ability to maintain attention and concentration on a given stimulus for a prolonged period of time: a fundamental faculty that today is strongly put at risk by the work and thought methods in multitasking. Furthermore, thanks to the practice of Mindfulness, there was also an increase in activity in the left prefrontal cortex that was correlated with the presence of happiness and well-being, as well as a general improvement in the responses of the immune system.

 Finding our balance with a mindful mindset

Those of us who try to cultivate a greater awareness sooner or later discover that it is more difficult to be aware of it precisely at times when it would be more useful. When we are under pressure, when we feel bad, when there seems to be no free time, these are the moments of the day when being present and aware can be a great challenge. They are also the moments in which we need them most.

 A useful practice for busy people

A useful practice in this regard is the "Three Minutes of Breath", developed and taught by Kabat Zinn in his awareness-based stress reduction program (MBSR). Not to be confused with the simple "take three minutes break and then return to hell" the purpose of this technique is precisely to allow an intentional change of attitude towards what is happening at any time. In a potentially difficult situation, this change in modality can be essential to implement an effective and timely response.

 Phase 1. Awareness

 Begin by adopting an upright and dignified posture, whether sitting or standing. If possible, close your eyes. So bring awareness to your inner experience and ask yourself. What is my experience right now?

• What thoughts go through my mind? As best you can, recognize your thoughts as mental events, perhaps translating them into words.
• What feelings are there? Orient your attention to any emotional discomfort or unpleasant feelings, recognizing their presence.
• What physical sensations are there right now? Perhaps you can quickly review the body to identify any feelings of tension.

 Step 2. Recollection

 Then reorient your attention, to focus on the physical sensations of the breath that enters and exits the body spontaneously. Focus on the perception of breath in the abdomen ... perceive the sensations of the abdominal wall that expands with inspiration ... and relaxes with exhalation.

Follow the respite for all the tastings and exhalation, using it to anchor you in the present.

 Step 3. Expansion

 Now extend the sphere of consciousness around the breath, so that, in addition to the sensations of the breath, it includes the perception of the body as a whole, your posture and facial expression.

If you become aware of any situations of distress, tension or resistance, concentrate on them, breathing in with each inhalation and breathing from them with each exhalation, while releasing tension and adopting a more open attitude. If you wish, with exhalation you can say to yourself: "all right, everything is already here; let's try to feel it ”. As best you can, bring this wider awareness later in the day.

 Conclusion

Our everyday life is can be stressful, demanding and it has some crazy rhythm to follow up. If we have a meditation session here and there in our daily routine, it will be a moment all by ourselves, a moment where we can finally leave all the defenses down and finally listen to us, to our emotions and our real self. No more social and working masks, no more need of pleasing others and showing what we got. It’s us and our breathe. Us and our vital force. Us and our being present here and now. After a few meditation sessions you will feel like you are back on track back again, with a renewed balance and a mindful mindset that will help you live your working and personal life in a whole new way with balance, focus and calmness.