The year 2020 has become one of the most challenging years for most of us because of COVID – 19. The constant lockdowns, minimum social connection, and interaction, lost jobs, sickness, working from home and many more examples to count. With the arrival of 2021 many countries remain in lockdown though hopefully soon enough they will be lifted.
The challenges we experienced the past year persist, which certainly affected and affecting us one or another way – stress, anxiety, depression, and even suicides in certain cases.
Emotional stability is key to one’s well-being and health. However, how to fight stress, diluted focus, and other emotional problems when the possibility to get proper professional help is close to zero?
There are many techniques that can help to reduce mental distress. In this article, we will be focusing on meditation.
Meditation is a practice of focusing the mind on a specific object, activity, or thought. This exercise trains the attention and awareness to achieve an emotionally calm state and peace of mind.
It has been found that meditation is beneficial in:
- Acquiring the skills to manage the stress;
- Finding new perspectives is challenging and thus, stressful situations;
- Reducing negative emotions.
- Improving creativity and imagination
- Becoming more patient and tolerant
- Focusing on the present
- Improving self-awareness
It is important to keep in mind that meditation should be practiced routinely, preferably twice a day to achieve the desired state of mind. It is certainly not easy and certainly requires persistence and determination to keep going with practicing mindfulness. As you probably know “Winners never quit, and quitters never win”. It is therefore critical to keep yourself motivated and focused on your objective.
Here is what the founder of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, wrote in his book Principles: “I came to meditation in my own life during a very stressful work period that then turned into a very stressful personal period. But it freed me from so much pain. It completely inverted my entire point of view on life. I’ve been meditating consistently….and I’ve seen an exponential impact. In terms of scale, the more you do the greater the reward. More than linear.”
In February we are going to have in our store a new collection of beautiful meditation gear, namely meditation cushions, bolsters, and meditation mats. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the update when they arrive.
So don’t postpone activities that can be done today. Start meditating now and it will certainly help you with becoming mentally stronger, more focused, and healthier altogether.
Good luck!
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/content/cf665648-ea7d-11e9-85f4-d00e5018f061
