People experience difficult and stressful times in their lives, especially now when they are being quarantined at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some people have trouble finding ways to reduce the stress they may be going through or finding ways to take their minds off of things, since they cannot go out too many public places or events, but there is a way to help manage their stress.
One thing that can help people get through these stressful times is practicing meditation, according to experts on the practice.
Meditation is a technique of helping focus the mind and consequently encouraging mind and body relaxation.
“Meditation is just focus,” local Warrior 1 Yoga Instructor Montrelle Henry said. “It’s just the focus on your brain or focuses on an object to where outside things lead your mind.”
Whenever a person is feeling stressed or overwhelmed by anything that is going on in their daily lives, they can use meditation techniques, such as focusing on an object or a thought to help relieve any tension going on in the mind.
How meditation is practiced is by sitting or lying down in a comfortable position, closing your eyes, and doing a breathing technique, while listening to a guided meditation with soothing music. Doing this practice can be a good thing to do when needing a break from working at home.
“Try to step away, have a moment to yourself, meditate a little bit, and focus on your breathing,” Henry said.
There are many different ways to learn how to do meditation, such as using meditation apps, taking classes, or learning from a professional in this field of work.
“I’ve developed an app called the Mindful Minute App, where it’s for somebody who doesn’t know how to meditate and for who wants to try,” Bakersfield marriage and family therapist Yessica Avancena said. “There are many resources online and even locally.”
By having a meditation app, people who want to try it can use it while being quarantined at home to learn and practice meditation anytime they want. When doing this practice, it can be helpful to find a quiet place to do it because you’re trying to focus on one thing, which is your breathing technique.
Avancena said, “Finding a quiet place is easier to not have as many things by for your intention because you’re trying to focus on one thing.”
She also explained how meditation can help people in many ways like helping reduce stress, anxiety, depression, body pain, and even sleep.
Meditation can be practiced by anyone who is feeling overwhelmed or stressed with working at home, and the inability to socialize, due to the restrictions of the pandemic because it can keep a person calm and relaxed at home. It can help people take their minds off of the overwhelming problems going on during this pandemic.
“This is a time to use this kind of self-soothing techniques,” Avancena said. “Instead of worrying about the future, which at this moment is very uncertain that we focus instead not on the past, not on the future, but in the present moment, and that brings a whole lot of comfort.”