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Meditation?
Does anyone here practice meditation or mindfulness? I’m interested in learning more and adopting it into my daily routine to help with stress and anxiety. However, a lot of meditation includes breathing exercises and… well… when your lungs aren’t the best and you’re told to focus on your breath, that only brings me more stress and anxiety hah. Perhaps I’m overthinking it, but I’m curious to hear your experiences.
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4 Replies
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Alyssa,
I practice daily as a way to help with work stress and overall anxiety. I dont necessarily focus on breathing. I was taught to set an alarm for 2 minutes and just sit in quiet contemplation as my intro to meditation. I usually will read something spiritual prior, so I then have something to ponder OR focus my thoughts back to. If I just try to sit there and be quiet, I tend to have racing thoughts and never really relax. And i dont beat myself up when my mind does wander. I just redirect back to the moment or the idea/reading, etc that i was initially focusing my attention on. After the 2 minutes is up, I then go about my day. After a week or two of doing 2 minutes, i increase the time to 5 minutes. Then after a few weeks at 5, i increase to 7, etc, etc. I have been practicing this mindfulness/meditation for a few years now and no longer set an alarm. I usually average 15 to 20 mins. The key is to practice every day.
And for the breathing part of it, that just comes on its own as my mind starts slowing down. I dont have to focus on it. HHope this helps
shane
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Shane, this is so helpful. As a spiritual person myself, I especially love your idea of reading— or even listening— to something spiritual before starting. I have an extremely difficult time quieting my mind, but I like the concept of having something deep to focus on to redirect my thoughts. Did you start off by doing 2 minutes just once a day? Or multiple times a day? Thank you for your input! I’m going to try this out starting today.
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I started with just 2 minutes a day in the morning, but I was once told that I can choose to restart my day at any time. So, I did find myself doing 2 minutes at other times during the day, especially when I would find myself frustrated, etc. Its amazing how just taking 2 minutes to stop, slow down and focus on something positive/meaningful versus continuing to focus on the insanity that my mind is focused on (work issues, disability frustrations, spouse/partner frustrations, etc), actually does help.
Again, after practicing with 2 minutes for a few days or a week, and you find yourself experiencing the quieting of your mind during that exercise, you will probably want to increase the time by a minute or 2 (not more than 5 mins).-
Thank you for clarifying, Shane. Again, this has been so helpful and I’ve already started on my 2-minute meditations. So far, so good!
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