Introduction
Among the numerous relaxation techniques, mindfulness meditation is applied when an individual is trying to achieve a mind that is calm and stable. Mindfulness meditation allows people to discover that harmony and calmness is actually a natural mind aspect. It is believed that, with the practice of mindfulness meditation, individuals strengthen and develop their mind, before they reach mind peace, and be able to stay in that peaceful state of mind without putting too much effort in it. Unlike what some people may thing, in mindful meditation the individual that applies it is perfectly aware of everything going on around them, meaning there is still intelligence and do not just blank out. Denying sense perceptions is distinguishing of other meditation techniques, but not mindfulness. To sum up, with mindfulness meditation, the person practicing it could achieve high levels of inner peace, leaving all stressful emotions out.
DAY 1
One of the most difficult things to do was to identify which relaxation technique would suit me best. I sometimes become angry and agitated while some other times I slow down externally when speeding up internally. There are moments in my daily routine that I feel a strong urge to “reboot” my system and just let my mind drift and relax, released from thoughts that make me feel stressed. Also, I have a tendency to think about the past, over and over again, and apply strong and strict criticism on the things I have done and said, as well as the decisions I have made. This is not only stressful and tiring, but also makes me feel as if I cannot let go of the past to move on to the present and plan the future. For all those reasons, I have decided to start practicing mindfulness for stress relief and inner peace and tranquility. That way, I could manage to control my emotions, be aware of how I feel now (in the present) and work on myself both externally and internally.
DAY 2
Mindfulness could be applied to a number of activities, such as walking, eating, exercising, or meditation. As I am always on the run, due to a very busy schedule, I wanted to use the peace and quiet of my home when everything settles down, which is why I chose to apply mindfulness to meditation, instead of anything else. Meditation that is used to cultivate mindfulness manages to make you focus to the present by channeling your attention to a repetitive action. I chose breathing, as anything else that should keep my eyes open would just distract me. I feel rather tense at the moment, for starting a new “experiment” that has the potential to open new horizons for me and face each day with less stress.
The first big step had been made yesterday, when I realized I had issues with overwhelming stress and decided on a relaxation technique. Today, I am practicing the technique and already feel excited about this unexplored area.
I closed phones, the TV, the radio, and anything that would turn my focus away from my meditation, and sat on the floor with my spine straight. I closed my eyes and tried to focus my mind on my breathing. That was my point of focus. It was harder to stay concentrated than I had imagined, probably because I was carrying too much of the day’s anxiety inside me and had to “unload” those feelings somehow. However, after a few moments that I had started practicing meditation I begun to feel more relaxed, and as if a burden was slowly lifting off my shoulders. When I sat down to start meditation, I was so tired, I wanted to just fall asleep, but the need to do something more than that (falling asleep) gave me a boost to give it a try. So, I was happy to realize I actually felt better after a few minutes of applying meditation. The overall time I managed to spend meditating was about 15-20 minutes.
Truth is there were times during meditation that I only wanted to open my eyes and let thoughts of the past bombard my mind for one more time today. “What if I had done this instead of that, in that occasion?” And thoughts kept popping up changing places with the relaxation I was feeling. This was my first day applying the relaxation technique, so, having achieved some moments of peace and tranquility was a great achievement that made me feel contented with myself for my decision. I believe there are definitely many things to accomplish.
DAY 3
Overwhelmed for my first step towards achieving inner nerve balance, I started my day a bit happier than the previous day. Although it was still early to say, I felt I could actually succeed in managing my anxiety.
For today, I will not deviate from my living-meditation room with the dim light of the only white candle, but as the days go by I think I will try other forms of meditation to satisfy my need for exploring something new before I settle down in a decision.
Meditation was easier today that yesterday. I could focus in my breathing more easily than yesterday, although I had annoying distractions of thoughts that I wanted to just let go. As I continued paying attention to my exhale and inhale, I felt my body lighter and my thoughts barging in with lower rates than before.
After the meditation, I had a strange sense of calmness. As if meditation had opened a new channel inside me for stress to escape. I also noticed that during meditation some happy thoughts occurred that created a beautiful and warm sense of serenity. Of course, there were also some stressful thoughts and emotions that kept coming in and out of my mind, but less than yesterday and hopefully tomorrow they will come by even lesser.
Generally, I have a feeling that meditation evolves with me and although, when I started applying it, it was difficult to stay focused and relax, I find it easier the more I practice. This entire process has the potential to help me achieve high levels of stress relief and relaxation, and I feel it deep inside.
DAY 4
This is the day I thought maybe I could practice meditation in my back yard. It was Sunday morning when everybody was asleep, and there was so much quietness together with a bright sun and blue skies that it was hard to resist meditating outside.
It went so well I was amazed. I found it easier to practice meditation out in the open because I did not have to keep my eyes closed to focus. I came to a happy realization that I could focus on my breathing while looking at the leaves as the wind blew them or the clouds in the sky. It felt so liberating I could not believe. Undoubtedly, it was so much easier to release my stress when I was surrounded by a natural environment. After my practice ended, I set my new goal: to stay focused in something else than my breathing (like a thing) for as long as I wished. Until now, I have made progress and have managed to turn my attention to my point of focus with a gentle way, every time unwanted and stressful thoughts intruded my mind. This was a great accomplishment for me and made me feel much more relaxed and more confident about managing my stress. Most importantly, I stopped worrying about things that kept “bugging’ me in the past. I have always believed that it is great to feel detached from the things that keep you down emotionally and do not let you live a nice life.
If I had to evaluate my process so far, I could certainly say that my overall mood has enhanced and have started feeling less stress running up and down my system.
DAY 5
Meditation seems to have benefited me in more ways than one. I noticed my interactions with other people, and I saw that I was not that much negatively motivated by that undesired overwhelming stress that was holding my own potentials restrained. Meditation to me has been relieving, so far, and I think it will go better in time. For example, when I found myself in a stressful situation that would normally make me feel edgy, I was calmer and more ready to deal with it.
I want to try to apply mindfulness meditation in more parts of my daily routine and not necessarily when the day ends, and I need a stress-unloading technique to regain my powers and positive thinking. For that reason, today, I thought I could meditate while I was walking my dog, late in the evening. I took him out for his evening walk in the quiet side of the park near my home, where other dog owners also take their dogs. It was after sunset, and I chose my breathing again as my focal point, because I would not have any other point that was repeating, since I was walking.
DAY 6
Just five days after I started practicing mindfulness meditation, I already feel more relaxed and stress free. I notice a change in the way I react to stressful environments and situations that would normally make me more aggressive in the past. Now, I am more in control of my anxiety and sometimes in the middle of the day or during a pressuring time of the day, I find a few minutes to withdraw from my duties and things I have to do, and isolate myself to concentrate and try to bring my anxiety levels down so I can continue with my day and daily chores. I try to find a peaceful place, sit on a chair, close my eyes and focus on my breathing. After a few minutes, I was really rejuvenated to a certain degree and more positive to deal with stress. That is a great accomplishment I have made in such a short time frame, which makes me feel proud and happy.
Hopefully, with regular practice, I could manage to keep calm and stress-free even in noisy and stressful environments. That is my goal, given the results I have already seen on me after applying mindfulness meditation. Being able to stay calm in the middle of noise, many people, and many responsibilities that elevate stress levels would be something great to achieve, for which I will try hard since I have seen the benefits of the selected relaxation technique in the short time I am applying it.
DAY 7
Today something really negative happened when I was at school. I was in the middle of a very stressful event that made me feel very edgy and angry. I tried to practice mindfulness meditation, but it seemed not to be doing much good at that point. It was just too difficult to keep my mind off of the things that made feel overwhelming stress. No matter how hard I tried to get free from all negative thoughts and calm down, releasing stress, it was just impossible. I could only manage stress-relief in a small degree, which made me even more stressed than before. In seemed to me that, stress created more stress for not being able to release stress! And, unfortunately I, could not do anything about it because I was in the middle of stressful events and my emotions and feelings, as well as my inner emotional state had already “taken a stand” and had overwhelm me with anxiety.
It is obvious I have a long way to go meditating, because I realized today something important to my stress-relief process. It was quite easy for me to avoid stress if it was not already a condition I was feeling. I mean I could act preventively with mindfulness meditation and choose not to enter a stressful situation. However, when I did not see anything coming and suddenly found myself having to deal with something anxiety-inducing, it was impossible for me to manage all that intensity and calm down. For that reason, I had to keep on practicing my relaxation technique and perhaps work on it for longer than the 15-20-minute sessions I have been doing until that moment. I think I need more time to meditate so I can cope with stress more efficiently.
DAY 8
Today I practiced mindfulness meditation a different way. I thought I could maybe meditate for a few minutes in the morning, when I get up and before I start my daily routine. I sensed that it could be a nice way to start the day if the mind was pre-set somehow to a state of peace. Maybe, I could fortify my mind’s strength by supplying positive thinking and energy from the beginning of the day. Then, I could meditate at the closure of the day, as a means to release all the stress gathered from the entire day. Maybe that could add up the positive results of mindfulness meditation and keep me calmer all day long.
The problems I had when applying the technique was that I could not stay focused in a particular thing for long, which made me start all over mindfulness meditation again. So, I have also decided I will focus on the light of the candle that was placed a few inches off the floor. That way, I will not get distracted from the environment or be tempted to look around.
After I applied everything I had in mind, I felt more complete than ever before, calmer, and more ready to handle my stress and any negative feelings, like guilt about the things I did not manage to pull through within the day, or about the chores I simply did not have enough time to perform. Unlike the past, I would now leave a task for the next day, instead of pushing myself to fit a thousand things within a day. I came to realize that I was only a human being and not a machine that could be programmed to perform tasks and made friends with the idea that unexpected things could happen in a day that could turn things around and delay some programmed tasks.
Evaluation Day
Before I started applying mindfulness meditation as a relaxation technique, I was characterized by overwhelming stress that blocked my daily routine and created unwanted feelings of anxiety to me. I was experiencing enormous inner pressure to manage all tasks I had planned to for each day and when something went wrong and I could not complete all tasks I would feel guilty and distressed. This was a situation I tried to change with mindfulness meditation.At first, it was difficult to focus for long at a repeated action, meaning my breathing, and I got easily distracted. However, I managed to concentrate on my breathing in a short amount of time. I immediately felt calmer from the very beginning of the application of the technique, although I still had difficulties managing my stress and aggressiveness that was the outcome of a stressful situation I was putting myself through every day. The technique has helped me find some time within the day when I could just relax not just my body, but also my mind and “reboot”. However, that was not enough, because when the day would start, and I was challenged with a stressful event, I would still be tense. So, I had to find a way to incorporate the method in my day in a different way than I did. So, instead of applying mindfulness meditation at home every late evening, I have tried to meditate while I was walking my dog, before I found the most effective way, to meditate for a few minutes at the beginning of the day, so to charge my spiritual batteries with positive energy, and at the end of the day, to release all gathered stress. Ever since I started the latter method, I felt positive results that impressed. I was definitely calmer, had a sense of inner peace and tranquility, and whenever I needed to cope with something uneasy I had more powers to first find inner balance and then deal with it. Another important outcome from applying mindfulness meditation was the fact that I could actually take more pleasure from the little things in life, as I had more time to observe and enjoy them. Undeniably, with less stress in my life and no feelings of guilt for the things I did not manage to perform in a day, as planned, I have time to relax and enjoy the finest things in life, with much less stress and much more positive energy.
