Our busy lifestyle brings a whole range of stresses everyday. The stress of work, annoying colleagues, running from one meeting to another, keeping the boss happy, managing family life and kids – sometimes life feels like an never ending chore one after the other which keeps taking a toll on our body and mind.
Most of us take the wrong approach to dealing with stress – hoping or trying to change others. The concept of changing others is a contradiction in itself. If a person fundamentally changes, even for a short period of time, they would they would be forcing themselves into an unnatural state – which would make them fundamentally unhappy and hence do little to alter our stress levels.
Hence its important to take a step back and shift the focus to ourselves – learning to deal with the everyday stress of life without letting it impact our happiness.
Regular meditation is one of the surest way to reach the state of peace, calmness and bliss. It is a fallacy that one needs to take out a lot of time to meditate or join regular courses to learn the art of meditation. Even taking out a minute a day at work can lighten your mood and ease stress levels. Next time when you’re in the middle of a stressful situation – just stop doing everything for a minute. You’e allowed to look at the watch counting a minute – but in that one minute – don’t speak to do anybody, don’t do any work and if possible try not to think of anything. Just that one minute could make you totally relaxed.
If you want to try regular meditation. Try this 5 minute routine every morning. Make it a habit and you would see a difference in personality in just a week.
First of all, find a comfortable place to sit – it could be your bed or sofa or the carpet on the floor. Ideally an environment with minimal external noise.
Sit in a comfortable position – cross your legs if you can. Place your hands on your knees and take deep breaths. Inhale with your nose and exhale with the mouth. Do it for a minute (or approximately 30 deep breaths in and out)
Next we move to breathing by one nostril. Close one nostril with your thumb and breathe in deeply. Now close the other nostril with the finger and breathe out. The technique is called Om – vilom. You can watch youtube videos to clarify any doubt on the technique.
The third minute we again move back to deep breaths but this time try to focus on the breaths. Focus on how the air enters your nostrils, flows down the neck and fills up your lungs. Now feel it going out of your lungs and out from your mouth. As your mind focusses on the breath, other thoughts will leave your mind making you peaceful and relaxed.
The fourth minute is to focus on your body which is natures most perfect machine. Start with the tip of your toes and start focusing on each part of your body – spend a few seconds focussing on your feet, your ankles, knees, the navel, stomach, heart, throat, face and head and then repeat the process back starting from the head and back to your toes.
The last minute is to focus on the positive things in life. Focus on some positive thoughts. Be thankful for what you have. If you’ve recently had a fight with someone focus on some good qualities that the person might have. And if someone has been nice to you, take a moment to thank them in your thoughts.
Try the above routine regularly every morning and soon you would see the stresses in your life disappear.
