Meditation and stress relief are a great combination if you have an open enough mind to try to meditate properly. Most people who do try to relieve stress with meditation unfortunately never achieve the deep state of focus that is needed to really unshackle the mind and body from the stresses of daily life.
With this in mind here are a few steps I take to get a really deep meditation:
1. Choose the Perfect Place
Where you meditate can make a big difference to how well you meditate especially if you are just starting out. Choosing a location that is calm and relaxing to start with is very important and one that will guarantee you have no interruptions even better.
Make sure your meditation location is also free of clutter and anything that might be related to stress. Some people prefer somewhere sterile or bland, others prefer somewhere with sunlight and views and others like to surround themselves with non-stressful memorabilia that calms and relaxes them. This is up to you and your personal tastes but it is meant to reflect your detachment from emotion and from stress that you need when meditating.
Now it is not always possible to have a perfect place to meditate and as you become more advanced you may be able to meditate anywhere but for beginners this is an important step.
2. Good Posture
Having a good and comfortable posture is essential to freeing your mind of bodily concerns to get a really deep meditative stance to reduce stress. If you sit up straight with an straight spine and breath slowly and deeply you will have a good start but there are other things you should know.
If you are going to be sitting down for a decent period of time you must be comfortable in this position. If you sit in a way that will cut off blood flow to yoru feet for instance you will end up breaking out of meditation due to this. Also if you slouch or are bending in a certain way you may get a sore back or hip of knees. Your posture must be good and you must be able to maintain it for a decent length of time without it being uncomfortable of painful.
The addition of a few pillows can help a lot in this but also knowing your own body and what is comfortable for you.
3. Focus Object
Many people find it very helpful to have an object to focus on when they meditate. Others can just close their eyes or concentrate on a bit of wall but when I started i found using a lit candle was an excellent way to draw your attention to a single object which allows you to free your focus from everything else down to something so simple and unrelated to stress.
Good mediation and stress relief are highly interlinked and using these few steps you can get into a better state of mind to reduce the stress in your life.
To short cut to great stress relieving meditation however click here to find out more
