THE STRESS FACTOR
MEDITATION
I actually started meditating about two years ago. I was never very consistent with my practice, but it always helped me to feel more grounded. Over the summer, I started meditating regularly in the morning which really helped me to feel more calm throughout my day. Additionally, I love meditating at night right before I go to sleep when I’m feeling very stressed out about something coming up soon. I think that meditation is a great tool to use to help keep things in perspective when life seems to be getting out of control. Below I have a list of some of my favorite forms of meditation and how I implement them into my own life!
Headspace
Headspace is a great app for guided meditation! If you’ve never meditated before, I highly recommend starting here as the guided meditations are quick and easy to follow. I like to use headspace right before I go to bed when I’m feeling really overwhelmed. Meditating before bed helps me to clear my head and sleep better throughout the night. I have also noticed I feel more rejuvenated when I wake up if I meditate the night before.
Spotify Meditation Playlist
Something I love to do in the morning is listen to my meditation playlist while sitting on my floor, with my eyes closed, or doing some light stretching. It helps me to start my day with a clean slate, and keep my racing thoughts in check. Usually when I wake up, the first thing I do is make a mental list of everything I have to do that day and I tend to get stressed out as soon as I wake up by doing this. When I force myself to listen to my meditation playlist, all of that stress melts away and I literally feel myself calming down. I made a playlist of my favorite meditation songs to share with you all. It is linked here.
Journaling
Now I know that journaling isn’t exactly a form of meditation, but I like to use journaling as a way to bring more mindfulness into my life. Whenever I am feeling stressed out, I like to get all my thoughts and feelings out onto the page as a way to release those stressors. I find this is especially helpful when something is bothering me but I’m not quite aren’t ready to talk about it with someone yet. I highly recommended trying journaling for those who tend to keep things bottled up, or tend to not talk about their stressors with others.
Youtube Guided Meditation
If you’re not feeling headspace or you want a longer meditation, try youtube! There are hundreds of free, guided meditations on youtube to choose from. It may take some time to find your favorite, but it will be well worth it once you do. I think that incorporating guided meditation into your life in some way is important so that you can take a quiet moment to yourself whenever you may need it. Here is a link to my favorite guided youtube meditation!
