Meditation for Stress Relief: How to Meditate for a Calm Mind

What do you do when you are incredibly stressed out?

Do you depend on any addiction, or go for a walk with your ear pods and mobile?

You can cope with stress in many ways, especially if the focus is chronic and it has already started to pave the way for more physical and psychological issues. A particular form of relieving stress can work for some. This is because our body has different types of coping mechanisms and handling stressful situations. Therefore, you need something that is effective and yields positive results within a short time.

Living life with stress is nowhere easy for any person, no matter how experienced or old they are. This is why finding the best solution to manage stress and eliminate the same from life is crucial. According to several studies, meditation has proven to be one method through which anxiety can be handled easily and lowered significantly.

What are some of the consequences of dealing with stress?

Before knowing about the resolutions for stress, it is essential to understand what effects stress can bring in your life when you allow it to become permanent. We often don't realize when we get stressed or start to compromise with the same. Well, only when it is too late can you see significant changes in your physical, spiritual, and psychological health. For example, if you deal with chronic stress for months, you will soon start feeling depressed and get frequent panic and anxiety attacks. Similarly, stress can also impact your cardiac health, focus and concentration, senses, digestive system, metabolic activities, and hormonal activities.

So, knowing more about stress's effects on a human being is very important. Not only will it let you know how difficult it is to live with stress, but you will be more aware of the symptoms of living a stressful life.

1. First and foremost, stress is often considered a silent killer. You wouldn't even know when stress affected your metabolic rate to an extent where you either don't feel hungry or are always famished. Similarly, you can't say when you suddenly develop hypertension; the blood pressure always remains a notch higher than the regular limit.
2. Stress cannot be quantified, but it certainly has a lot of impact on your health. For example, when every examination report comes normal and you still feel pain in the chest, shortness of breath, palpitation, lower or fluctuating oxygen concentration in blood, and more, it's natural to assume that stress is the cause.
3. If you are stressed, your mood will always stay the same. Even after sleeping eight hours, you will feel tired and lethargic and won't even be able to concentrate on smaller tasks, let alone the bigger ones. You will scream, feel irritated, and even become aggressive if you allow the stress to continue to build up with the news.
4. When you succumb to stress, you start getting problems in your sleep routine. Since you know your body cannot function without sleep, you rely on artificial methods for inducing slumber, like taking new relaxing pills or sleeping pills. Either way, these are pretty harmful to the body because they can make you an addict. As you continue to take the pills, you will realize they become ineffective after a couple of years. As a result, you will either go for higher dosages or suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

How can meditation help you manage stress?

Since meditation is a fantastic stress reliever, it is better to understand how this small exercise can help make your life stress free in all aspects. In the below section, we have explained how meditation has become so fruitful for human beings in recent times. This will give you an overall idea of how powerful this mental exercise is, and you can understand the depth of seriousness.

Improves focus and concentration

One of the significant benefits of meditation is improvement in focus and concentration. Stress often leads to clouded thoughts as your brain engages multiple neurons at the same time. This can easily create a hodgepodge in your mind, preventing you from thinking and acting straight. So, the best way to deal with such a mess is meditation. 

During meditation, you will focus on a particular subject. Therefore, there is no question of your thoughts going haywire. Your brain will learn how to focus on a specific matter at a time instead of thinking about multiple subjects at once. Plus, your concentration power will increase considerably, and you can easily focus on your studies or education. 

Stimulates the release of anti-stress hormones

If your body is engaged in multiple activities at once, you will start feeling intense psychological pressure. As a result, the cells won't be able to secrete the right amount of dopamine and serotonin, which are nothing but anti-stress hormones. The stress level will automatically skyrocket without the hormones that can control your brain activities. 

This is why meditation is so essential for everyone. It can not only induce the secretion of more anti-stress hormones, especially serotonin and dopamine. Therefore, the stress levels will soon come under control, and you won't have to deal with the consequences of living a stressed life. Also, it will reduce the secretion of adrenaline, the flight and fight hormone, which often leads to more stress, especially when you encounter an unwanted situation. 

Calms down the frenzied nerves

Another reason you need to meditate is to calm down the frenzied nerves. Often when you are riled up and stressed about something, your nerves become hyperactive. You could feel the stress pouring out of every orifice, which is not the right thing. If you let the nerves remain in such a condition, it can cause many problems.

So, meditation can significantly help you exercise control over your neural activities. First, meditation can stimulate the release of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that blocks the electrical impulses from any internal or external stimulus triggering stress. Therefore, your nerves won't get frenzied. Plus, with the incentives being blocked, the nerves will relax and come out of the hyperactive state. 

Improves metabolism

One of the significant consequences of stress is drastic changes in the body's metabolic power. Metabolism highly depends on the physical and psychological state of your body. Therefore, if you feel stressed out all the time, there are high chances that your body might not be able to maintain the metabolic rate at the correct value. This might lead to stress eating, lack of appetite, nausea, etc. 

The best way to get the issue resolved is through meditation. It can help restore a proper balance in your body and ensure that metabolic activities are not hampered. For instance, you won't have to eat junk food or other items out of stress. Plus, you will feel hungry in the usual manner, with no loss of appetite.

Reduces depression and stress

Another significance of meditation is a reduction in depression and stress. When you are too stressed, there are high chances that you will fall into depression. If you do not pay attention, the depressive state of mind will soon become chronic and disoriented. Therefore, you should continue to meditate consistently.

This way, you won't have to deal with the consequences of depression, especially chronic depression, which is not easy to alleviate. Plus, it will also help you deal with anxiety and panic attacks since you are stressed. You will gain more clarity, so stopping your overthinking habit will become much more manageable. 

Boosts proper sleep 

 

Last but not least, meditation will boost sleep and improve its quality. Stress often leads to poor sleep quality and insomnia, which are associated with several other health problems. Therefore, it is suggested that you take proper care of your sleep routine. Meditating before going to bed can help calm down the neurons and wick away tension. 

Therefore, not only will you get enough hours of sleep, but its quality will also improve. As a result, you will feel refreshed and rejuvenated the following day when you wake up. You won't even feel irritated or frustrated with anything, regardless of how troublesome the problem is.

What is the right way to meditate?

The right way to meditate is in a quiet and calm room where no one will disturb you. In addition, you also need to set the right mood. You can use aromatic candles, especially those infused with lavender, chamomile, peppermint, tea tree oil, lemongrass, cinnamon, and vanilla. You can also use an oil diffuser or reed to make the room smell soothing and comforting. 

Also, you should be consistent. If you miss meditating one day, it will be quite hard for you to work on the same the next day.

Conclusion

As you know, the significant benefit of meditation, you won't have to worry much about living a stressful life. With this guide, you can figure out how beneficial meditation is. So, plan to meditate, choose an ideal place, and start with the process. Also, you do need to ensure no one disturbs you while you are meditating.