While you are in the midst of the job search or going through a career transition during this stressful time, then meditation can help you relax. Now proper relaxation and release from stress and tension should be one of your chief health concerns. The anxiety on the mind will lead to pressure on your stomach. And if the stomach is stressed, then the whole circulatory system will also be under stress. It is a vicious circle of events resulting in sickness and ill-health.
Stress and Meditation
You accumulate tensions irrespective of whether you think more or less. If you work heavy physical work or you do not have any physical activities, your body will get stress. People feel pressure when they have little time to sleep or too much time to waste. You will gain tension even if you are having the best quality of foods or you are on a bad diet. These tensions amass in the different layers of the human personality. They accumulate in the muscular, emotional, and mental systems.
The uncontrolled stress of our lives contributes to collective psychological tensions. Gradually the build-up of the stress manifest in unhappy family life, chaos and disorder in social life, and aggression and conflict between individual and communities.
The concept of meditation state that one can find true peace within oneself. Therefore if we wish to create more peaceful surroundings around you, then you must first learn to relax and harmonize your own body and mind.
Categories of Stress
There are three basic types of tension, which will prevent you from getting the most of your life.
They are:
Physical strain: These are related to the body itself, the nervous system, and endocrine imbalances. You can relieve stress through physical relaxation.
Emotional Burden: Tensions that stem from various dualities such as love/hate, profit/loss, success/failure, happiness, or sadness are difficult to erase. It is because we are unable to express our emotions freely and openly. We often refuse to recognize them and they remain repressed. The resulting tensions become more and more deeply rooted. It is not possible to relax these tensions through ordinary sleep or relaxation, but a regular practice of meditation can relieve the entire emotional structure of the mind.
Psychological Pressure: These are the result of excessive mental activity. The mind is a whirlpool of fantasies, confusions, and oscillations. Our brain accumulated all the experiences registered by our consciousness over a long period. But times to times, stress becomes too unbearable. It results in outbursts, affecting our body, mind, behavior, and reactions. We often attribute the reason for our sadness, irritation, and stress to some external factors, . But the underlying reason behind our unusual behavior lies in the accumulated tensions beyond our capacity to handle. Meditation is the science of relaxation that enables us to dive deep down into the realms of the subconscious mind, thereby releasing psychological tensions and establishing harmony in all facets of our being.
Relax Through Meditation: Rest To Your Conscious & Unconscious Mind
improve sleep quality, and make it easier to fall (and stay) asleep
Sleep is not considered a form of relaxation. Most people do not know how to sleep. They fall asleep thinking over some problem or anxiety. Their physical body may be sleeping, but the stress remains active in their unconscious mind. They wake up feeling restless and go for a strong cup of coffee to overcome their feelings. This sleep deprives life adds stress to their already stressful life. The practice of meditation just before sleeping can help you to relax the whole body and mind for a sound sleep. The sleep will be fulfilling, and you will wake up with more focus and energy.
Meditation is a form of relaxation. Practicing meditation with full awareness will give rest to your ever-active conscious mind. Meditation is a kind of sleep where one is on the borderline between sleep and wakefulness. It is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. You can observe people practicing meditation by closing their eyes. They appear to be asleep, but their consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness. This kind of sleep is known as psychic sleep or deep relaxation with inner consciousness. In this threshold state between sleep and wakefulness, contact with the conscious and unconscious dimensions occur spontaneously.
When you are meditating in this way, the physical centers of the body become indrawn. It is the withdrawal of the mind from external influences. When the mind becomes focused on a center, blood and energy will flow to it. It causes withdrawal of the senses at that center. The tension gets released during the deep state of relaxation. The mind becomes clear, and thoughts become more powerful. In this state of psychic sleep, you can contact our inner personality and change your attitude towards others and yourselves. It is a method of introspection that has been used by sages since time immemorial to bring them face to face with the inner self. The same technique is being used by business leaders to relieve their stress and organize their thought process for more success.
Guidelines To Relax Through Meditation
- Always practice relaxation in a clean and quiet place in your home. Try to avoid excess heat, cold, and wind. Close the door or put on your headphone to avoid any distractions.
- If possible, try to practice meditation in the morning just after you woke up from sleep. Start your meditation practice for fifteen minutes. Gradually you can stretch it up to thirty minutes or forty-five minutes as per your preferences.
- Keep your bladder, stomach, and bowels empty to have better concentration.
- Lie down on a yoga mat or bed, or sit in a comfortable position with the back and neck straight.
- Focus on your breathing, on inhaling and exhaling. Let go of your thought and relax your whole body. Relax your breathing. Relax your mind. Do not allow yourself to fall asleep. Be relaxed, but alert.
- Direct all your positive thoughts to yourself, consciously relaxing with full awareness for 15 minutes.
- Do not get up straight away once the 15 minutes is over. Gently become aware of the ground and your surroundings. Gently move the fingers and toes. Bend the knees and slowly roll over to one side. Gently open the eyes and when you are ready, sit up.
It may take a few days of practice to feel the mind and body connection during the meditation.