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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.
Today, I'm going to talk about the stress
on-stress off approach to living well.
So for most of us these days,
we experience quite a bit of
ongoing stress in daily life.
We're often, for starters, just very busy.
We have very full to-do do lists
as well as worries about the world
and personal challenges, such as
trouble in relationships, financial
difficulties, this kind of thing.
So whenever weyouget stressed or
upset in daily life, your body
goes into the fight or flight mode.
That's evolution's way of mobilizing your
body in times of stress so that you could
run, fight or freeze in times of danger.
That's what really kept our
hunter gatherer ancestors alive.
That fight or flight system was really
designed to be triggered when there
was immediate danger and then it would
switch off for the rest of the time.
But these days, we tend to have
ongoing tension in the mind and
body, which we pay a high price for.
It can lead to all kinds of health
problems, as well as mental illnesses
like anxiety and depression.
So what can we do about this?
Well, Dr.
Herbert Benson, the author of a book
called, The Relaxation Response,
says that regular elicitation of the
relaxation response can prevent and
compensate for the damage incurred by
frequent nervous system reactions that
pulse through our hearts and bodies.
In other words, we can go from stress
on to stress off, so we can switch
off the fight or flight system and
switch on the relaxation response
through regular deliberate relaxation.
Here's three ways you can do this.
One, when you're going about daily
life, ticking off tasks on your
to do list, replying to emails or
stuck in traffic, see if you can
deliberately relax your body at will,
especially the jaw and the shoulders.
See if you can pause every now
and then, and just let go of
some of the tension in the body.
Just doing that a few
times throughout the day.
And even if you just let go a
little bit, that's still great.
Second thing, take a few long, slow,
deep breaths with longer exhales.
This can switch off the stress response
and switch on the relaxation response.
And three, schedule regular
periods of relaxing activities.
You know, five minute rest under
a tree, hot bath, slow walk.
All of these kinds of activities
can be really beneficial in
regulating your nervous system.
So the invitation for practice today
and ongoing, if you care to, is to see
if you can find more balance with the
stress on-stress off way of living.
The more you practice regular
deliberate relaxation like this, the
more you train your mind and body
to naturally drop into a relaxed
state for the majority of the time.
So as always, thank you for your
practice and your presence here with us.
And let's settle in now
for today's meditation.
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