Question: How can meditation reduce stress? Answer. Meditation attempts to control your reaction to stress8. You can reduce the stress feeling in your mind by increasing the time you experience a sense of well-being, calmness, and peace. It is healthier than some of the popular alternatives of sedatives, medication and drugs. It also gives you a baseline of zero stress from which you can recognize stress and your sources of stress. Here is how to use meditation for stress. • Practice daily meditation to develop internal calmness and to increase your ability to sense signs of stress. Realize that no unpleasant situation is permanent. • When you find yourself in stressful situations, do a mini-meditation (focus on your breath) to clear your mind. • Project feelings of unconditional kindness to anyone who stresses you; this dissociates him/her from causing stressful feelings in your mind. • Sometimes meditation will calm your mind enabling it to think of solutions to your stressful problems. When you first sense any stress stop your mind from feeling it by focusing on your breath touching your upper lip.
ANGER CONTROL
Question: How can I control my anger? Answer. Anger is a stressful feeling (in the mind); What you want to control is your reaction to your mind’s anger (which occurs in successive stages, e.g., sense perception, feeling, consciousness, stress, wronged, anger, fight decision, explosive reaction). To do this you must first be aware of the anger BEFORE REACTING. When you first sense the anger arising stop your mind from feeling it by focusing on your breath touching your upper lip.
HOW TO CONTROL STRESS/ANGER USING MEDITATION
By Li Chan1 http://www.MindObserver.com2
BREATH MEDITATION
Purpose: to train yourself to be aware of stress or anger arising, and then to stop it. Posture: Sit in a chair with your back straight up, or on a floor cushion with your legs comfortably folded. a. Gently close your eye lids. b. Now fully focus your mind on feeling your breath touching your upper lip3 when you breathe in and when you breathe out c. When your mind gets distracted, and it will, be aware of the distraction and try to name it, e.g., "sound, sound", “anger, anger” or "thinking, thinking." d. Stop your mind from thinking about the distraction and firmly bring it back to feeling your breath touching your upper lip2 when you breathe in and when you breathe out. When you are ready to end the meditation period, “Slowly open your eyes. Become awake and fully alert.”
Recommendations: • Practice daily meditation. • When your mind feels anger or stress (which can lead to anger) in everyday life, focus on your breath using the mini-meditation. Try to remember the stressful feeling so you can quickly recognize it the next time anger arises. • If you are sensing anger towards a person that you are interacting with, practice projecting feelings of unconditional kindness to this person. Negative effects of anger reactions o Respect & reputation o Cycle of violence o Friends & relations o Freedom o Enemies o Health o Peace of mind
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Mayo Clinic website, (2005) “Meditation: Focusing your mind to achieve stress reduction”
Written 4/10/2007 More information, including audio files of timed meditation guidance, is available at the website: http://www.MindObserver.com 3 If you breathe through your mouth, focus on a spot on your lower lip
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Practice everyday. Meditation is not a group or competitive sport, so learn to practice and enjoy it in solitude every day. Meditation has a cumulative effect: the more often you practice the greater its benefits. When to practice. Two regular times a day: (1) in the morning before you eat breakfast, and (2) when you want to sleep. Duration. In the beginning, practice daily for 5 minutes, which is about 80 in-breaths. Eventually (within months or years) extend the sessions to 20 minutes or more. If necessary, substitute meditation for sleep. Meditation will rest your mind and body to make up for the sleep reduction. Another time to fit in meditation is during a television commercial break (3 minutes, or about 50 inbreaths), or during a commute to work or school.
STRESS CONTROL
b. Imagine someone you know sitting and meditating like you with eyes closed. Project your rays of warm golden light of unconditional kindness to this person so it surrounds the person’s body shining on the person’s face, creating calmness and content. Repeat this several times. c. Repeat the previous step for selected people, e.g., apply this to someone you like, followed by someone you want to help heal, followed by someone who causes you difficulty d. Make her/him/them become smaller and vanish. e. Again, feel warm, golden light of calm unconditional kindness come down on you to surround your body. Let it spread through your body making you calm and content. f. Slowly open your eyes; become fully alert. Question: What is stress? Answer: Stress (or stressor) is some external or internal situation that triggers a stressful reaction within you. Some of the top stress situations are the death of a spouse, death of a close loved one, divorce. Physical signs of stress5: o Headache o Muscle aches o Chest pain o Clenched jaws o Pounding heart o Grinding teeth o High blood pressure o Insomnia Mental signs of stress3: o Anxiety o Sadness o Restlessness o Anger o Worrying o Mood swings o Irritability o Confusion o Depression Behavioral signs of stress3: o Overeating or loss of appetite o Increased use of alcohol and drugs o Increased smoking o Withdrawal or isolation o Changes in close relationships Question: How can stress hurt me? Answer: The stress reaction weakens your immune system that protects your body and allows the development of major diseases such as cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.6 It may also lead to mental depression7.
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MINI-MEDITATION
Purpose: to quickly calm your mind during the day. A mini-meditation is focusing on your breath, as in the breath meditation, for 3 or more breaths. There is no particular posture needed, so you can do it while your eyes are open, and while your are standing, walking, driving, etc. Recommendations: Practice mini-meditations in the following situations: § when you feel stress or emotions arising, or § when you are bored, or § when you don’t have time to sit to meditate.
HEALTH APPICATIONS4
Physical: Quickly fall asleep; reduce high blood pressure; reverse heart disease; cope with pain; complimentarily treat cancer. Mental: Increase concentration; reduce stress; control anger; reduce depression effects; improve self-esteem; break habits; stop addictions; lose weight.
KINDNESS MEDITATION
Purpose: to privately express kindness and to overcome anger and stress caused by resentment. Do the following with your eyes closed a. Feel a warm, golden light come down from above that surrounds and calms your body. Within it develop feelings of unconditional kindness like a mother’s love for her only child.
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See Chan, Li, “Meditating for Health”
Mayo Clinic website (2006), “Stress symptoms and signs: Prompt recognition is crucial” and National Cancer Institute, (1998), “Psychological Stress and Cancer” 6 National Institutes for Health (2002), “Stress System Malfunction Could Lead to Serious, Life Threatening Disease;” and Mayo Clinic website (2006), “Stress: Unhealthy response to the pressures of life.” 7 Mayo Clinic website (2006), “Chronic Stress: Can it cause depression?”
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