You better start meditating before itβs too late
Could meditation be the cure for your post-pandemic distress?
If you're currently living in the year 2021, it's safe to say you need to cut yourself a huge break. Living through the infamous global pandemic of 2020 wasn't a close ideal scenario to start the new decade.
Learning a new" norm" of waiting in a wrap-around line at Costco and disinfecting your packaged grapes from the supermarket can be daunting and cause emotional and mental stress. However, it's now 2021, and that rainy cloud hasn't left even with most restrictions lifted in the United States. Finally, however, I think we all may need to come to terms with the obvious.
How do we learn to deal with all this new stress?
According to a study performed by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, in a group of 1,013 participants, 27.2 - 32.2 percent of participants were positive for moderate to severe depression, and 29.8 - 45.8 percent of participants were positive for generalized anxiety disorder, during the peeks and lows of the outbreak of COVID. These numbers suggest we as a country need to get back on the right track to mend our mental status and find healthy coping techniques.
And this is where meditation comes in, a technique used to teach mindfulness. And I can hear your thoughts already, "I'm trying to get back on my feet after this pandemic; how in the world is meditation going to help me pay my bills?" Subjectively, the impactful yet straightforward advice I have ever received is that if you're OK, everything will be OK. Furthermore, fixing your mental state before you start that new job would only do more good than bad, versus having to be on a constant merry-go-round of constant worries and woes.
There are many forms of meditation. However, meditation involving breathing techniques is the most popular. That goes without saying, any breathing technique you would like to incorporate in your life, it's recommended you see your regular practitioner first to see if this is right for you.
Itβs time to breathe
In most meditation scenarios, it is helpful for you to find yourself in a quiet room and even turn off the lights for added measure. Doing so will allow you not to be distracted by your physical environment and begin the process of mindfulness. You would then close your eyes and attempt to block out the adverse hue following you for however long. This is not to say that your worries would magically emancipate themselves when you do this, but it'll help you be in the moment right now and perhaps find at least one thing to be grateful for in life. Because despite all negative feelings we may have, there's always a gleam of hope for thankfulness.
Make it stand out
Importantly, you would breathe in for a count of 4 seconds and breathe out for a count of 4 seconds for a total of 5 minutes. You can modify the timing to your comfort level whether you want to decrease the time or increase the time. This experience should be focused on your own level, and not all methods are a one size fit all.
Your mental status is the only thing to help you stay sane. By practicing this meditation technique, it could be the first step of gaining a clearer mind.
The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.