Stress affects people in different ways. I personally feel very tired and lethargic during these periods and start to worry about things, like a future event.
Other people suffer from panic attacks, become very shaky and nervous, feel sick in the stomach, become sad and can begin to think in a very negative way.
Most of the conditions I have described above are actually a mental and not so much of a physical problem. This is why I believe meditation to be an excellent form of stress relief or stress management.
I am very much aware of the many benefits of meditation and have done my far share of stressing. Stuttering ruined my early life and caused me to lose a lot of my self-confidence. I worked hard to stop stuttering and was eventually rewarded with fluency at the age of 21.
Stress and worry also affected my work life within the pet insurance company where I held quite a senior position. At time I would worry far too much about the trivialities of work.
The main benefits of meditation:
It reduces your heart rate
It relaxes your breathing and can even make it slower
It can lower blood pressure
It can increase your self-esteem by making you think in a more positive way
Helps you to think in a more logical and clear way
Helps you to reduce stress
Types of meditation:
Walking meditation
Mandala meditation
Yoga meditation
Sitting meditation
Prayer meditation
Visualisation meditation
I personally prefer the sitting meditation. I now like to meditate around 3 or 4 times a day, where possible. At the start I was quite unsure as to the whole aspect of meditation and whether it would prove to be beneficial. I must admit that I really found it hard to fully focus at this point. With practice and realising that I needed this to work for me, I managed to get enough concentration and focus to see the full benefits.
A lot of the people in my circle of friends think that I am a bit mad, including my best friends Dave and Pete who work providing people with various SEO services. They can not believe that I actually just sit there and think. Meditation has had such a positive effect on my life and continues to do so, therefore my friends can mock as much as they like. A few weeks I mentioned to the group that I thought it would be a great idea if they also tried meditation – have a guess what happened? Yes, they are laughed at the whole concept.
