Centering, Meditation & Music
May is Meditation Month!
Another cause of stress is the inability to free our minds from either the things that cause us stress, our worries or all of the things that we need to accomplish on a daily basis. Continually playing and replaying these things through our minds, not only causes us more stress, it also can have negative effects on our health, by raising our blood pressure for example.
Centering and meditation are very similar. Centering is simply focusing your attention on something. Meditation requires you to focus on meditating, or centering, and blocking out outside and distracting thoughts. If you find it difficult to clear your mind, or become centered at first, don’t be discouraged! This is another behavior change that you need to work at in order to be able to employ it effectively.
Here are some tips to learn how to meditate and relax:
- Sit quietly in a comfortable position and close your eyes.
- Relax your muscles, beginning with your feet and moving up
to your face.
- Breathe in and out through your nose. As you
breathe out, say the word one to yourself, breathe in, breathe out, and
say one and so on and so forth. Continue this for 20 minutes.
- Do not get upset if you don’t experience total relaxation the first couple of times you try this. Also, do not become upset if your mind wanders. When you find you are distracted, ignore your thoughts, and go back to saying one. (You can substitute other single words for one, if you choose).
Music:
The best music for calming stress is music without words. Music can lower your breathing and heart rate. It can also help you to feel more positive, and can counteract and prevent the damaging effects of stress by promoting relaxation. However, the music needs to be appealing and soothing to you in order for it to relieve stress. Windham Hill has a lot of instrumental music that is very relaxing. If you subscribe to an online music service, you can listen to music before you download it.
Here is an example of calming instrumental music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gkb_Kek3lg&feature=response_watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kudI7o630ZQ&NR=1