How to Use Mindfulness to Reduce Stress

Due to recent studies conducted by researchers, it has been revealed that mindfulness has been and still is a useful anti-depressant medication that relieves loads of anxiousness and depression within an individual. As a standard test, adults were put through a mindful-based cognitive form of therapy:

• Half of the adults were guided through mediation and mindfulness methods,
• while the other half of adults were placed on medication for approximately two years.

Due to this longitudinal study, the researchers decided to compare the progression that these two groups demonstrated over the last two years. After that, the researchers decided to ultimately study the progress of the groups in clusters to assess them and gain more accurate insights into how the adults responded to this meditative approach towards their daily tasks.

In this study, it was founded that among each group, there was a common relapse among all of them. Experts later explained that because of the opportunity to enhance one's life through mindful skills rather than antidepressants - where an individual is dependent on a drug to fix mood disorders, perspectives, etc. - the chance to control your own life is taboo to many. The technique of using mindfulness is to allow a person's cognitive ability to notice the little and big occurrences happening around them. From mood changes, feelings being elated or hurt is a practice that must be approached without any kind of judgment from the individual. This also builds up a form of emotional resilience or better responses towards stressful or undesirable situations.

Mindfulness techniques are beneficial for anyone, as they help develop your wellbeing and increase your own positive attitude towards different situations both inside and outside of your home. Your concentration can increase as you work in the classroom with your classmate or even at work as your fellow colleagues discuss their newest plans for the company. Whatever the case may be, the benefits of these mindfulness techniques are backed by the medical field as many of these practices relieve high amounts of anxiety and stress together. These practices are easy to implement in your daily routine as you follow the steps day by day. There is no equipment needed as all you need is your mind, a few minutes of your day, and quietness.

Below are a few key ways how to practice mindfulness to reduce the growing stress in your life and increase your concentration for everyday tasks.

Mindful Yoga: Relaxing Yoga

For at least fifteen minutes each day, spend some time in a place without work, noise, or many objects. Simply find an area that has an open setting and begin meditating with beginner yoga exercises. It has been proven that meditation can bring your body lots of awareness towards your mention and physical wellbeing. Slowly, you'll begin to understand not only the connection that you have between your own mind and body, but you'll also become more aware of how to be one with your thoughts as well as learn how to calm them down.

Body Scan Meditation: Meditation Through Body Scanning

Similar to yoga's simplistic practices, this form of mediation pushed you to spend time with yourself during the day. To begin, find a place that is both comfortable and isolated. No one can bother you nor disturb your own peace. As you begin this exercise, slowly, your eyes will close, your lunches will expand, your legs will remain flat under you, your feet will remain steady on the floor, and soon feel the air grace every part of your part.

And as you do this, pay attention to each part of your body. How do your toes feel? Do you notice the weight of your legs as you sit there and allow the oxygen to flow throughout your body? Pay attention to these feelings happening inside of you and continue to do so as you inhale and exhale throughout the entire process. Start from your toes, then go to your feet, ankles, the thickness of your calves, your thighs, your stomach, and so on, and so forth.

Mindful Eating: Eating Without Distraction

To really be mindful about your eating, find a place that has no distractions and no noise. By this, it is suggested that you eat in a place where you are not easily distracted. In addition to that, as you eat your meals, you can try to eat slowly in order to engage yourself fully in the food in front of you. Immerse yourself in the senses that begin to fill your mind as you take each bite of your meal.

How does the food taste? What are the smells? What does each part of your meal look like? What are the textures of the food? Is there a satisfying crunch or a soft sound to the food you have begun to chew? As the food enters your body from start to finish, slowly chew your meal and envision each part of the food in your mouth before you swallow it and begin the process of digesting it. This allows you to truly enjoy your food in peace and appreciate what is present in front of you.

Mindful Breathing: Controlling Your Breaths

We now come to the final and most essential part of embracing the body and its connection as a whole: mindful breathing.

This can also be called conscious breathing as it also offers an alternative to relieving you of stress and potential tension within the body from your everyday life.

During the day or sometimes later on where no one is present and can bother you, take about five to ten minutes to sit and breathe. Realistically, you can try this technique in many places but to start off, it is best to do it in places that are quiet in order to teach yourself how to calm your nerves down at a steady pace so that in the future, where there is noise or you're in a busy setting, you can quickly refocus yourself and have a clear head.

To begin this practice, simply focus on breathing in and then slowly out. As you do this, find something to concentrate on. Many say imagine yourself on the beach, but other things can be a place, person, or thing that brings you peace, a homey feeling, or serenity. As you focus on this particular aspect of your life, breathe in deeply and slowly breathe out.

As you continue to do this, your relaxation will grow and your mind will begin to clear from the everyday fog that fills your head from everyday stress.

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Calm.Peaceful.Inspired