Feeling Stressed? How Meditation Can Help You Relax By JoBeth Levina At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

In my last article I was talking about how while we're all told to do this and do that to lead healthier lives, it can be hard to get good advice on HOW to incorporate "this and that" into our lives, including eating healthy and reducing stress and I then went on to offer some tips on how to incorporate mild exercise into our lives.

Today I want to follow that up with a look at how we can reduce stress in our lives and coping with the effects of stress using meditation techniques - I'm no expert on meditation and have no medical training, but I have tried some of these things and know what works for me.

Before I move onto meditation, I want you to think about when you feel stress in your life. Is it because of work, your personal situation, a particular person or circumstance, or something else completely? Sometimes we become stressed because of our own reaction to a situation, and it can help tremendously simply by avoiding the triggering situation completely in future or reframing the situation and seeing it in a different way.

However, those aren't always possible, in which case we need to make a conscious effort to relax, and while you should be better off if you have followed my advice on taking up some form of exercise, one of the oldest ways of calming the mind leading to reduced feelings of stress is through meditation.

Meditation is usually associated with Eastern philosophies of life, with inner peace and enlightenment brought about single minded focus by concentrating in an object or idea, focus on breathing or chanting. However, it doesn't have to be this and the same benefits can also come from so-called active meditation, for example when you're swimming length after length and just get lost in the activity, losing all sense of the number of lengths you've swum, time or anything other than the here and now. This can apply to most activities from any sport - think about when athletes are "in the zone" - to painting, reading, cooking, or even washing the car!

A simple way to start meditating is to sit or lie where you are unlikely to be disturbed, dressed comfortably and warm. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing but without trying to control it - just notice as you breathe in and then out again.

As you do this you'll find that your mind wanders to other thoughts, but each time you find your mind drifting you should focus it once more upon your breathing. The more you do this the better the results will be and if you can manage a single session of 15 minutes every day you'll soon find yourself dealing with stress far better than before - by calming you mind you also gain control.

Rather than focus on your breath, you may wish to repeat a positive affirmation to yourself to "reprogram" you thoughts - for example repeat to yourself "I am relaxed and confident in all situations" - just make sure you say it with feeling and it will help boost your spirits immensely and change your way of thinking.

Often these distracting thoughts will be about the stress in your life - your worries and troubles. By having less of these thoughts your body relaxes from the "fight or flight" response that causes prolonged stress, good for our survival when we needed to be alert of predators, and good in certain situations in our lives, but no good at all when the response hinders our potential by being present all or most of the time.

By having less of these negative thoughts you should find that you have happier, more positive thoughts instead and that will have a real benefit in your outlook to life.

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