Meditating to alleviate stress

You may not feel that you have time to relax or unwind, but it is important to make room for this time in your schedule.

Meditation is one way to unwind that doesn’t take long to do. Meditation can be guided (led by someone else) or unguided.

If you’re looking to try a guided mediation, Laurier’s wellness centres recommend headspace.com, a website with free, guided meditation sessions to help with stress, sleep, focus and anxiety. You can choose to subscribe for additional content.

Basic Steps for Meditation

If you’d like to meditate on your own, check out headspace.com’s preparations for unguided meditation or try the following steps. How long you choose to meditate is up to you.

1. Find a position where you can sit comfortably.

2. Put on your favourite relaxing tunes or listen to meditation music on YouTube.

3. Take a big deep breath in through the nose out through the mouth.

4. Continue to breathe in this manner, and notice how your body expands when you breathe in and how it softens when you breathe out.

5. Put your hands on your stomach to feel the rising and falling sensation of your breath.

6. Close your eyes and let your breath, not your mind, lead. Don’t think about anything in particular; just breathe in and out and allow your thoughts to come and go.

7. When you’re ready, open your eyes slowly.

Meditation Resources at Laurier

You can incorporate a Muse meditation headband into your practice. Sign one out from your campus’ wellness centre.

Visit the Health and Wellness section for more self-help and mental health resources. Special events are posted to the wellness centres’ Facebook pages throughout the year:

• Laurier Student Wellness: Brantford campus
• Laurier Student Wellness: Waterloo campus