Meditation Techniques That Reduce Anxiety and Stress

It isn’t easy being a student. From the daily routine of homework assignments to the crunch of midterms and final exams, stress is common in your daily life. How can you center yourself amidst all those pressures?

Maybe you’ve heard friends or teachers tout the benefits of meditation. Adding mindfulness to your day is beneficial to your long-term mental health! If you’re looking for advice a little more specific than, “Have you tried meditating?” then you’ve come to the right place. Read on for a few meditation techniques to help you reduce stress and anxiety.

100 Breaths

Buddhists have practiced this breathing technique for thousands of years to encourage mindfulness and inner focus. The idea is simple: sit comfortably and count backward from 100 as you breathe in natural rhythm to the counting process. If any distracting thoughts float in, acknowledge them and return to your counting.

Chakra Meditation

Are your thoughts and feelings a disorganized jumble? Get those frazzled emotions back in alignment by balancing your chakras with meditation, another ancient technique designed to reconnect your mind with your body. Seven chakras make up your body, from the root all the way to the crown of your head. Meditating on the mind-body connection can help remove unhelpful or unhealthy thought patterns.

Body Scan

Occasionally, stress and anxiety manifest themselves as physical pain and excess tension. Enhance your awareness of your body by lying down and performing a complete scan. From the top of your head all the way to the tips of your toes, mentally scan your body and note how it feels. Where is the pain? Focusing on those areas while breathing deeply can help release tension and decrease anxiety.

Guided Meditation

If you’re a novice to this whole meditation experience, get some help from an expert. There are several apps on the market designed to guide anxious folks through mindfulness sessions and reduce those stressful thought patterns. Take 30 minutes out of your day to go through a guided meditation led by an expert in the field.

5-4-3-2-1

Do you deal with anxiety attacks from time to time? Keep this method in your pocket next time you feel those panicky thoughts setting in. Breathe deeply and look around you. Make a mental note of the following:

• Five things you can see
• Four things you can touch
• Three sounds you can hear
• Two things you can smell
• One thing you can taste

This technique helps to get you out of your head and reconnect you with the world around you. Savor a moment of calm before moving on to your next task.

Student life isn’t easy, and “try meditation!” isn’t a fix on its own. Familiarize yourself with these specific meditation techniques for reducing anxiety and stress, and give at least one of them a try next time you feel frazzled or lost.

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