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2.Meditation
Smart device applications like the Calm App, Headspace, and Insight Timer provide guided and nonguided meditations for all levels, and these companies also have social media pages and YouTube channels to follow for helpful tips and mindfulness/meditation practices. Another simple way to meditate is by focusing on your breathing. Try to practice breathing in slowly through your nose and out even slower through your mouth. In order to stay focused, it may help to count in your head inhaling for about 4 seconds, pausing for a brief moment, and then exhaling for approximately 8 seconds.
3. Changing Mindset
If you’d like to learn more about changing your mindset about stress, Kelly McGonigal (psychologist, researcher, and author) gave a wonderful presentation called “How to Make Stress Your Friend.” In this talk, she
presents research indicating that it is believing stress is harmful to your health (not the stressors themselves) that can damage our well-being. Dr. McGonigal shares that “studies show if you embrace the energy of stress, such as by calling it excitement or telling yourself you’re getting ready, it helps people do better and feel more confident.”
After reading this, I hope you now understand how practicing mindfulness and meditation can help put stress into perspective by placing you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your own health and well-being. Viktor Frankl explained this well when he said, “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” “When you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control how you respond to what’s happening. That’s where your power is.” – Unknown
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