A great way to shut off your brain and relax your body to prepare for sleep is to do a progressive muscle relaxation exercise. Here are the directions:
Lie on your back and bring all your attention to your body. Begin a process of gently tightening and releasing each muscle group, starting with your feet and working your way upwards to the top of your head. Hold each muscle as tightly as you can for about 5 seconds, then release it completely and see if you can notice the difference between the muscle tightened and the muscle relaxed. Move onto the next muscle until you’ve relaxed your entire body.
Anytime your mind wanders, gently bring your attention back to the tightening and releasing of each muscle group.
This technique was developed by American physician Dr. Edmund Jacobson in the early 1920’s
Thinking negatively is often due to a narrow perspective. Just by widening your perspective and focusing on positive aspects of a situation, you can change negative thoughts to positive thoughts!
Consider Suzie. She hates putting utensils away once the dishwasher finishes its clean cycle. Every day she is annoyed  as she sorts the knives, forks, and spoons into their slots in the silverware drawer. One day she decides she doesn’t like feeling annoyed. She widens her perspective to one of gratitude for the hands that enable her to complete this task. Unlike her aunt who is debilitated with arthritis, Suzie recognizes she has dexterity in her fingers. Now, when she sorts the silverware she does so with a spirit of gratitude for the flexibility in her hands.
Whether you don’t like doing household chores, writing that monthly report, or doing any other number of tasks, thinking positively can simply be a matter of shifting where you place your attention.
As the old saying goes, you have to take time out from chopping the tree to sharpen the axe. Since your mind is one of your main tools, it’s vital to keep it sharp. By pausing to take 2 minute mini-meditation breaks throughout the day, you are doing the axe-sharpening work. Yet, often the most difficult part is remembering to pause for your break.
Hang a reminder in your office space: Hang a picture of nature, or a beautiful sunset, or anything that reminds you to take a moment and pause. You could even schedule your breaks into your calendar.
Take a break. Here are three short practices to do at work:
1-Walk mindfully. Bring all your attention to the soles of your feet as they touch the ground. Anytime your mind wanders, gently bring it back to your feet. You can do this while walking in the hallway, walking to the elevator, or anywhere else you have space to walk.
2-Breathe mindfully. Bring all your attention to your breath as it moves in and out of your body. You may want to notice the coolness of the air as you breathe in, and its warmth as you breath out – or you may want to notice your chest rising and falling. Anytime your mind wanders, gently bring it back to your breath. Count with each breath until you reach 40. (Or 50, or 60 …)
3-Listen to a short guided meditation. You can find a 2:11 audiio meditation on https://joyrains.com/meditation/guided-meditations/
By doing this axe-sharpening work, you are clearing your mind, and improving your focus for the tasks that lie ahead. Walking and breathing meditations are available to you anywhere and anytime. It just takes intention – and remembering!
Many people find that managing stress at work can be helped with regular meditation. One effective tool to use in the workplace is a walking meditation. Here’s a situation where a busy executive uses walking meditation to deal with a challenging situation:
While this executive is getting ready for a big presentation in her workplace, her top client calls and says he’s taking his business to another company. The executive is overcome with a whirlwind of emotion. Yet, knowing that she needs to focus for her upcoming presentation, she decides to practice a walking meditation. She knows that walking from one point to the next offers her an opportunity to take a meditation break.
She begins a process of walking mindfully down the corridor of her office building, noticing where her feet connect with the ground. She becomes aware of feelings each time they arise, then shifts her awareness back to her feet. She still has many mixed emotions, but the practice of shifting her awareness to her feet helps her feel more balanced and centered.
She uses a process of walking while silently repeating the words lifting, moving, placing, shifting to help keep her focused in the present moment. As she lifts her right leg, she silently says to herself, “lifting.” As she moves her right leg forward, she silently says, “moving,” as she places her foot on the ground she silently says, “placing,” and as she shifts all her weight to her right foot, she silently says, “shifting.” Then she begins the process again with her left leg: lifting, moving, placing, shifting. She continues silently repeating these words to herself as she continues to walk.
A walking meditation can be done most anywhere, anytime, even for just a couple of minutes. By using simple techniques to help manage stress at work, employee well-being and productivity can dramatically increase.
Here are three simple tips for the beginning meditator:
1-Just as it’s the nature of the heart to beat, it’s the nature of the mind to think. Meditation isn’t about stopping thoughts; rather, it’s about becoming aware of thoughts so you can choose to respond to life’s events consciously instead of reacting unconsciously.
2-Start small. Rather than trying to meditate for 20 minutes a day, start with 5 minutes, or even a couple of minutes. You can find a free two minute audio mediation here: https://joyrains.com/meditation/guided-meditations/
3-Regularity is key. Try to meditate every day so it becomes a habit. If you can, meditate in the same place in your home or office, such as a favorite chair, or favorite room. You may want to include inspirational items in that space, such as candles, smooth stones, or books with readings for before or after your meditation time. Once you get used to meditating there, simply by entering that space your mind may begin to settle.
Meditation is a wonderful way to build mental strength!
Consider this: Just as it’s the nature of the heart to beat, it’s the nature of the mind to generate thoughts. Meditation is not a practice of suppressing these thoughts, but it’s a process of coming into awareness of them–by shifting attention to a neutral object of awareness (such as the breath) each time you notice another thought arise. Essentially, it’s like you’re taking your mind out of drive and shifting it to neutral–again and again and again, sometimes as often as every second or two. Just as the repetitive motion of doing abdominal crunches builds core strength, this continual shift of awareness helps build your mind’s muscle.
