Finding peace through 10 minutes of nothing
What is stress and how can I manage it through mindfulness? Even trying to define stress and the human identity of the word can be stressful. Both psychologists and physiologists have trouble defining the word stress, however both communities agree that it can have a negative impact on the body. Over the past week, I have been over stressed, over taxed, and over worked and needed some help. This same stress level skyrocketed over the past few years, in part because of the increase in rank and title, as well as every day life. Doctor Breuning work in Psychology Today "people feel hopeless and defeated (2011)." While this revelation is not mind blowing and humans have suffered from this since the dawn of man. As Breuning explains it is how we deal with stress that can literally protect our heart.
In an effort to find peace, I have tried everything from eating vegetables, to walking on coals (did not work!), to floating in a therapeutic pods (creeped me out). None of these things truly helped on a continuous basis. I have sought mental health professionals even tried homeopathic remedies; while these worked on a temporary basis, my therapist is not always available and sudo science is expensive to try to buy the latest thing. How can I relive my stress?
One thing that has worked well for me is mindfulness. This 2,000 year old practice is a difficult thing to master, it requires patience and practice. There are two different styles of mindfulness focused and choiceless closed (Bauer-Wu, 2010). The focused style accepts that objects, stress, or actions happen. The style calls for the person to accept that it happens or the object exist, but not doing anything with it; accept it and move one. Choiceless on the other hand, is difficult to master, this is where the body and mind do not notice anything.
For three days in a row I used guided-focused mindfulness for ten minutes a day with the "Calm" app. This guided mediation helped me focus on my breathing and finding its center of gravity in my process. What a wonderful result! By spending 10 minutes a day doing nothing but focusing on my breathing helped me feel grounded, providing the clarity I needed that day. While the practice of mindfulness is difficult for a working Airman while going through another graduate degree program, the ten minutes a day is one of the best practices I have found in many years.
References
- Bauer-Wu, S. (2010). Mindfulness meditation. Oncology (Williston Park, N.Y.), 24(10 Suppl), 36.
- Persson, P. B., & Zakrisson, A. (2016). stress. Acta Physiologica, 216(2), 149-152. doi:10.1111/apha.12641
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