Meditation for Stress Management

One stress management technique I saw mentioned in many of my sources throughout my research into stress management is meditation. One source that goes deeper into this specific method I found through the UB Library Database was called “Meditation and Teacher Stress”. While this source mainly focuses on specifically teachers there is still a lot of relevant information within it relating to stress management as a whole. One thing in the piece that is very relevant to this topic is the definition the author gave for Stress. It says “Stress is the relationship between the person and environment”(Csaszar, 2015). I really liked this definition because it is basically saying that stress is how we react to the things that happen around us. I like this because it emphasizes that stress is inside of us and is caused by us.

One specific form of meditation is talked about in the source that is specifically designed to reduce stress. It is called mindfulness and the main goals of it are talked about when the author says “The main goals of practicing mindfulness are 1) to be in and accept the present moment as well as 2) to engage in nonjudgmental observation of self and others”( Csaszar, 2015). In other words, mindfulness allows you to step back and clear your mind allowing you to get a clear picture of what is going around in your life. This will help to make you realize that these things aren’t so important and allow you to destress.

Since I made the first blog post where I mentioned meditation I have tried the app on the iPhone Headspace in order to manage my stress. While at first it is hard to sit there and keep a clear mind after some practice it becomes simpler and easier to tell how it calms me down and helps to relieve my stress.

Csaszar, Imre Emeric. (2015). Meditation and Teacher Stress. Dimensions of Early Childhood, 43(1), 4–5. Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://library.buffalo.edu/