Tips and benefits of meditation - Meditating during the coronavirus

Meditating during the coronavirus

We are living through unprecedented times and finding a sense of normalcy has become the least of the challenges. The COVID-19 outbreak has completely changed what we can expect from each week when it comes to our work, relationships, finances, and even trips to the grocery store.

With so many factors out of our control, there's no better time than now to learn how to take stock and improve your mental well-being through meditation.

The many proven benefits of the meditation will help everyone during this pandemic. And they are:

• Improved sleep

• Reduced anxiety

• Minimized stress

• Greater focus; less distraction

• A healthier work-life balance

• Anger control

• Positive body image

• Stronger relationships

• Enhanced immune system

How to meditate at home?

As with any good recipe or how-to guide, let's start with the supplies you need: consistency, comfort, quiet, and maybe your smartphone. Start with the collection of guided meditations by Milena Goleva.

For meditation to be most effective, many experts advocate making it part of your routine. Incorporating the practice into your morning is highly recommended. Meditating as soon as you wake up allows you to connect the practice with other habits needed to start your day, such as brushing your teeth or drinking coffee. Meditating in the morning gives you time to yourself before you start checking your email. However, taking your environment into account is especially important when deciding when to schedule meditation into your day. If you know you'll be more consistent right before bed or at lunchtime, do whatever works for you.

You'll notice that we didn't have a "healthy" or "calm" mind in our list to start meditating, but as mentioned above, that will ideally come once you start practicing regularly. Finding a way to reduce distractions and unwanted background noise when you choose to practice can help focus your attention inward. There's no need to buy special meditation gear, but try to wear comfortable clothes and ideally find a quiet space to create a consistent and peaceful place to practice.

The last tool that can help with your meditation is your smartphone. It's not a requirement, but it can help, with calendar reminders or alarms, setting a time to practice, or even walking you through a guided meditation.

Now that your supplies are in order, you can start with meditation.

One of the most widely used forms of meditation is breathing. You can start with anywhere from one to ten to twenty minutes by identifying what you're logging in and logging out when you start or end the day.

From there, you can also explore mind-body meditation practices. Taking it a step further, it helps to correlate your emotional feeling with your physical response, and can even work to identify the type of movement and exercise that is most important for fueling your mental fitness.

Meditation can even encompass mindful eating to really focus on how food makes you feel, the energy it gives you, and understanding your connection between food and emotions.

The list is really endless as to what meditation means to you, and it can even become an activity done with other people or your children to improve your awareness of how to communicate most effectively.

The biggest benefit of starting meditation today is that it can give us strength, confidence and hope that we will successfully get through the Covid-19 pandemic