This is part one of a two part article on how to relieve stress at work and at home. We all have lousy days from time to time. Days where nothing seems to go our way. How is it that some people manage to come out unharmed, while others fall prey to anger, frustration, and anxiety? In this article, we'll explore a stereotypical awful day and see how one might deal with it in the normal way, as well as, the "meditation way."
7:48 AM
You wake up later than you were supposed to because your alarm didn't turn on for some reason.
Normal way – Your heart rate suddenly jumps up as you realize you're late and panic sets in. You leap out of bed, feeling a great deal of anxiety.
Meditation way – You realize that what's done is done and there is no reason to panic, because that will not get you to work any faster. Instead, you take a deep breath and get out of bed. You calmly plan what things you'll need to do to get yourself to work as quickly as possible. Incidentally, you could have woken up on time without the need for an alarm if you had told yourself you wanted to wake up at a certain time during meditation the night before. In this way, you can program your mind to wake you up automatically.
7:52 AM
As you rush to get ready, you bump into the bed post, hurting your big toe.
Normal way – You yell out a few obscenities and hobble along feeling your anger levels rising.
Meditation way – You place your hands around your toes and feet, close your eyes, take three deep breaths, and imagine your toe feeling wonderful. You visualize your toe feeling better and within a few seconds, the pain is no longer noticeable. You then continue with your day.
8:45 AM
Because you left the house late, you find yourself in bumper to bumper traffic on the freeway.
Normal way – You begin to get angrier with each passing minute as you stop and go in traffic. Your heart rate is higher than normal and you notice that you're tightly clenching the steering wheel.
Meditation way – You realize that there is nothing you can do about the traffic, so you decide to put your mind to good use. You take a few deep breaths with your eyes wide open and you become keenly aware of everything around you. You focus your attention on the road and the cars ahead of you. In this heightened state of awareness, you focus all of your attention on the act of driving, thus, forgetting about the fact that you're late. You heart rate is normal and you feel good.
9:30 AM
You arrive to work only to find out that the meeting you were rushing to get to was cancelled.
Normal way – Your anger levels continue to increase as you recall the trouble you went through to get to work and how bad this day has already been. You spend the next few minutes talking to coworkers about how upset you are about this cancellation and end up getting yourself even more worked up.
Meditation way – You are happy because this means you did not miss the meeting and you now have more time to prepare for it. You excuse yourself and go to your office, where you take a minute to collect yourself. You simply close your eyes, take three deep breaths and focus on your breathing for the next 30-60 seconds. You feel great and are ready to tackle the rest of your day.
1:50 PM
The stress builds up during the day as you have one meeting after another and interact with coworkers you don't get along with. You have about 10 minutes before your next meeting.
Normal way – You spend that time having a cup of coffee and staring blankly at your computer, lost in thought. The more you think about your day, the more stressed you feel and you begin to feel a slight pain in your stomach and chest.
Meditation way – You find a quiet place where you won't be interrupted and you spend the next 10 minutes meditating. You decide to use a simple Counting Meditation where you focus all of your attention on counting from one to five (Link to a meditation you can use is at the end of the article). You find that this helps you lower your heart rate and reduce your stress effectively. After your meditation, you have a refreshing glass of water and feel energized to continue with your meetings.
The day is only half over. In Part 2, I'll uncover what happens the rest of the day, also showing you how you can prepare for a restful sleep to start your next day the right way.
Please visit my Blog to listen to the audio guided meditation mentioned above.
Ali Sharifi has been teaching practical stress relief, relaxation, and meditation techniques for well over a decade. You can check out his blog where he has free articles, videos, exercises, meditations and more, at http://www.relaxation2go.com. Also, you may be interested in our free video report on how to relieve stress.