Since March 2020, we have wished for life to return to Pre-Covid times. Now anticipated time is kind of back. Working, hugging, and in-person family thanksgiving dinners are back. Increased anxiety and stress associated with this re-entry are also back. Mindfulness meditation helps to manage re-entry stress and help build resilience.

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

While there are different kinds of meditations, mindfulness meditation focuses your mind on your experiences in the present moment. It helps you to pay attention to how you experience feelings, thoughts, and surroundings through a non-judgmental lens. You leave your judgment aside, not focusing on the sense of right or wrong, shame, guilt, and worries. You try to live in the present moment and be free of worries of tomorrow or disappointments of the past.

When practicing mindfulness meditation, it is important to be aware of and consciously observe what is happening in both body and mind without resisting or trying to change anything.

Benefits of mindfulness meditation

1. Enhanced Resilience
2. Positive attitude towards difficult situations
3. An overall feeling of wellbeing
4. Control over emotions, both positive and negative
5. Better coping mechanism
6. Increase in creativity
7. Optimism
8. Patience
9. Stress reliever
10. Better decision-making abilities
11. Your immune function can improve
12. It doesn’t require any special equipment of place. You can practice it in the comfort of your home and at a time that is suitable for you

Here are few examples of mindfulness meditation:

You can achieve mindfulness in just 3 minutes by creating mindful breathing space.

Jon Kabat Zinn, one of the leading figures in mindfulness, gives you some guidance on how to practice mindfulness.

As with the start of any other activity, it will not be easy to practice mindfulness meditation in the beginning. Our mind is very powerful, but it also has the tendency to wander. This is normal. You may find during your practice that in one second, you are feeling the present moment, and in the other moment, you are thinking about what to cook for dinner.

The brain has allowed us to perform extraordinary feats, from discovering general relativity to painting the Sistine Chapel, from building aeroplanes to composing symphonies. And yet, we still forget to pick up milk on the way home. How can this be?” ― Adam Gazzaley, The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World

The brain has allowed us to perform extraordinary feats from discovering general relativity to painting the Sistine Chapel, from building airplanes to composing symphonies. And yet, we still forget to pick up milk on the way home. How can this be?” ― Adam Gazzaley, The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World

Mindfulness can help us with this distracted mind.

Mindfulness Meditation: What you need to begin your practice.

• A comfortable and quiet place
• Patience
• Practice
• At least 5 minutes of time
• Discipline
• Commitment

Mindfulness Meditation Apps

There are some popular apps that you can use for practicing mindfulness meditation:

Calm

itunes  ||  Android

Headspace

itunes  ||  Android

The Mindfulness App

itunes  ||  Android

In addition to these apps, the article below summarizes what, in their opinion, are the top ten mindfulness apps.

Aware | Mindfulness Meditation | Fight Stress | Find Happiness

There are many forms of mindfulness meditation that you can choose from. If you find a lack of motivation or commitment issues, you can join a group.  Look out in our next post for a list of group practices.

Photo by Bradley Hook from Pexels