Resources:
Stress reduction and meditation
Learn to mediate or
use some stress reduction techniques or stress control techniques. "Meditation" means to think, but
a good meditation technique will aim to take you beyond thinking.
OK, I am not talking about joining a cult, spending all day in
a weird position, or running away from yourself. All I am suggesting
is that you learn how to relax, and notice how you are breathing.
Most people do not know how to properly breathe – in a way
that is really helpful. For example, if you breathe shallowly,
you may even hyperventilate if you try to breathe deeply. So
you
can actually make yourself more panicked inside, when you are
nervous and wanting to clam down.
We recommend that you begin by monitoring how much you meditate
or use stress reduction techniques now. Download and print Keeping
a log of your life. It contains a simple chart on which to
record when you use these techniques.
Meditation, or stress reduction, is an essential tool to learn
to control your mind, so that you are no longer influenced by
anxiety, depression, or a host of other conditions that are making
your life more difficult. But there are so many options to consider
that it can be difficult to choose what to start with. It is all
a matter of the personal work you need to do. There are many people
who get lost in meditation, so be careful to avoid anything that
seems fishy to you or has an all or nothing or you're in or you're
out attitude. And avoid those that make you feel at all that you
are good or bad, right or wrong.
If you are interested in a religious type of meditation, there
are ones for every religious focus. There are great Christian
Mystics and prayerful meditations, Jewish kabalistic, many Buddhist,
Hindu, Sufi, and Moslem meditations.
I really like Transcendental
Meditation because, there have been more high level scientific
studies validating the effectiveness
of this type of meditation. Their website www.tm.org has a free
book, video, and you can have a free lecture. This is a safe
technique,
but it costs a few dollars (worth it, but you have to make sure
you are ready to commit to properly trying it). But at least
by
learning about a "real" technique that works, you will
know what to look for, if you chose a different technique or
tool
to use.
There are many great body scan and breathing techniques that
are used by the medical establishment and hospitals across the
country. Yoga Nidra is another example of a useful stress reduction
tool.
There are so many
great podcasts, websites, books, and tapes about meditation
and stress reduction. Be careful to select ones
that are worthwhile, but explore and see what works for you.
One simple book that I like is "The Stress Reduction and Relaxation
Workbook."
Dr. Laura Berman, who regularly appears on Oprah, interviewed Carla Brown, Ed.D. (Harvard), who teaches the Transcendental Meditation program in Chicago. In the interview, Dr. Scott Terry speaks about the value of Transcendental Meditation for reducing anxiety and about his own experiences with meditation.
To listen to this podcast in MP3 format, visit the link below:
http://www.researchuse.org/Laura-Berman-and-Carla.mp3
What
should I do next?
