Meditation is often ridiculed or thought of as something that only ´alternative´ kind of people do. After all, how could you possibly benefit from just sitting there and breathing when there is no physical exertion involved? Either than, or is something done for spiritual enlightenment. However meditation is actually an incredibly useful tool for reducing stress and promotes a lot of health benefits.

How Does Meditation Relieve Stress?

• If you focus on just one thing like your breathing, you are teaching your mind to stop wandering and worrying about all the problems in your daily life that are causing you those high stress levels.

• If you do the meditation in a dark and quiet room you are also eliminating noise and light pollution that could have been adding to your stress.

• Chemicals in your body are changed when you meditate and this promotes a more peaceful and relaxed state - much more beneficial than a highly nervous and stressful state.

• Meditation helps you to unwind after a long and stressful day and leave behind the problems that wear you down.

• Long term effects of mediation will help your body balance hormone levels and other harmful chemicals related to stress if it is practiced on a daily basis. This effect will last throughout the day, not just when your are meditating.

How To Meditate

• Find the most comfortable position you can whether this is sitting or lying down - you don’t have to be cross-legged!

• Relax your whole body by focusing on one muscle at a time starting at the feet and working your way up your body. Imagine the stress leaving each muscle as you focus on it. It will be easier to do if you close your eyes.

• Using a mantra can help you focus more while you are breathing slowly. A mantra can be the traditional ´ohm´ or something more personal to you. A spiritual or religious person might chant something that is related to their personal beliefs for example.

• You will almost certainly find that your mind begins to wander, particularly at the beginning but this should not worry you. Just keep coming back to focus on your breathing and your mantra. Eventually your mind will wander less and less.

• After meditating for 15 or 20 minutes just sit quietly for a short while and then carry on with your daily activities.

Unlike many exercises which require a lot of physical exertion, trips to the gym, time or expensive equipment, meditation costs nothing and requires no special skills. It can be done anywhere at anytime and for those with little time to spare, it can be done just before you go to sleep.

Regular meditation will bring about a great improvement in your stress levels because your mind and body are being trained to relax. Rather than focusing on the problems causing you stress, you will be in a position to take a more rational approach to solving them. This will reduce your stress levels and help your overall physical and mental health.