Meditation/ Affirmations
Meditation & Affirmations
There are lots of ways to boost self-love, confidence, and self-esteem. Affirmations have been helpful by increasing the patience, confidence, and coping skills of individuals who practice them. Meditation is linked to better heart conditions and less anxiety & stress. These actions of consciousness excercises allow many individuals to have more concrete skills of calming oneself, and lessened anxiety and stress. It's something you can start at any age, and get used to over time while building coping/calming skills.
Meditation:
Having time of peaceful meditation is often very helpful for people in consistent stressful environment or whom are in need of relaxation and contemplation. The nice thing about Meditation and Affirmations, is that time is not neccessary in meditation. Whether its a timed 60-second meditation with/without sound for mind-centering, or a 15-minute guided stretch and mind-centering excercize, meditation has a great imact on decreasing our cortizol levels which is a horomone produced during our fight or flight reactions and stress. Many people have a higher cortizol levels in our current day, due to their environment and social discrimination factors.
Affirmations:
Outloud recitation of affirmations, has been proven to have positive effects on mental health around anxiety, depression and stress. Affirmations don't combat clinical diagnoses, where other factors like medication and therapy can be a better fit for treatment. But Affirmations can still benefit anyone and everyone at any age; choosing to make ourselves aware of our worth will carry into the next phases of life as we get older. Our bodies to do so much for us everyday, and in a world where most people have to work 8-10 hours of the day, they can become tired in repetition. Our affirmations are simply a thank you for the work they do for us everyday, because the able and disabled bodies are doing so much to let us share time together on this Earth each day!
Stretches: (Mental/Physical)
Letting go of emtional/mental stress by stretching the physical body, has been a really good way for people to relieve stress. Many people use excercise to relieve stress, but not everyone has the time or physical ability to go for a run, bike ride, or swim (etc.), when they are stressed. Finding ways to have flowing movements that don't abide to personal space and rigidity allows us to release tension stress in our muscles. This tension is typically held by our posture; futhermore, being mindful of posture during long-term/repetitive activities is very helpful to the release of stress later on. Fluid movements allow joints to move in ways we don't typically use our joints. Of course there can always be physical limitations and thats why its important to listen to your body in what it needs.
Stress
Stress can occur from just about any source. It's key for us to be conscious about the things that stress us out, or cause us to dwell over it later. Sometimes stress can be good, tells our mind and body that we are not okay and need more attention.
Stress can be your body's way of letting you know that your cup of patience is running low, (or your social battery is running low).
Constant stress can lead to several severe health conditions, so learning how to deal with the stress we experience is vital to living a long life.
Coping is a hard skill and takes lots of time to understand, but its okay to need time and space to deal with stress & other feelings.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is all about know how you are feelings about different things. If you are worried or ruminating about something than being mindful of how much energy that is taking from you is a form of mindfulness. Many people practice mindfulness through meditation, silent alone time, prayer, or sometimes attempted during drug use. It's important to keep in mind the feelings and thoughts of those around you as well as your experience; but keep them seperate in thought.
Understanding your mindset in any given situation is a piece of crucial knowlegde to guide you through life.
Contemplation
Contemplation is not the same as rumination or mindfulness. Instead it is the action that leads you to mindfulness without too much negative rumination. Contemplation can be done in poetry, creative art, journaling, silent alone time, research, etc. Contemplation just means taking the strand of thinking of philosophy that you're interested in, and doing something to try and understand it better. Sometimes when we don't think we understand our feelings we do art or sing songs, all of these actions work by helping us contemplate further.
The reason we feature contemplate, is so that we can call out reoccuring negative feelings or tracks of thought.
History of Meditation and Yoga:
This section is Coming Soon!