When we talk about meditation, a lot of things come to mind, for mostly everyone. Will it work? Is it worth my time? How I can fit it into my busy schedule?
To attempt to answer some of these questions for any curious individuals, I’m going to share my own personal experience with meditation.
Meditation is something I’ve always wondered about but never really had the motivation or drive to pursue trying. I would read tutorials and follow along with videos and it just never seemed to work or peak that much interest in me. Time went by and throughout this past school semester I had been experiencing a great amount of stress, and some of the highest levels of anxiety I have ever had to handle in my lifetime. During a weekly visit to my primary therapist, I encountered a flyer for mindfulness/meditation therapy group that was planning to meet once a week for a month at the same location where I was always seeing my therapist. I figured it would be smart of me to take advantage of this opportunity!
Throughout the four weeks of this mindfulness group, I can honestly say that I learned a lot of myself, as well as meditation itself. The small group of only 6 people were friendly and open, making the experience of meditation that much more comfortable for me.
During the sessions, we focused on three types of meditation: Simple mediation, Loving and Kindness meditation & Body scan meditation. The first, Simple meditation, is the regular kind of meditation that everyone thinks of when discussing it. It doesn’t take a lot of time and is truly up to the individual when it comes to how long you chose to focus on it. Loving and Kindness meditation is slightly different. This type of meditation works to improve our thoughts of ourselves and helps us to spread positive feelings of love and kindness to both ourselves and the people around us. This type of meditation was very pleasing to me, I really enjoyed the message within it and it was very soothing as well. The third type of meditation that our group focused on, Body Scan meditation, is meant to help us recognize various sensations in our minds and bodies that we might tend to ignore because of our busy, everyday lives.
When a month had gone by and the meditation group has concluded, I can honestly say that taking that brief hour and a half out of my day to simply attempt to ease my mind and relax my thoughts made a significant difference for me when it came to dealing with stress. Now I realize meditation may not be for everyone, but it might be something to consider if you truly need to relax and put your mind at ease. I do believe that it can truly be rewarding for a number of things, including stress, anxiety, depression, and even various physical illnesses. So, why not give it a try sometime?
Resources/guided meditations *original credit to original owner(s)*:
-Andrea 🙂
