Stress Relief By Meditation

Meditation is vital in relieving stress

          Everyday, people overlook the importance of meditation in our lives. To some extent, we all meditate in some form when we receive stress. Stress is defined as emotional or mental tension brought by adversity. Since adversity exists in all of our lives, we all need an escape to rid ourselves of the stress that comes along with it. In my life, my relationships tend to give me stress, as does my school work. I've used meditation methods to rid myself of some of the stress that everyday life gives me. Meditation has two aspects, shamatha and vipashyana. Shamatha means "stopping". Vipashyana means "looking deeply". According to Hanh, "We are at war within ourselves, and we can easily start a war with others" (Hanh 24). This is referring to stress, because stress is a mental and emotional civil war within your own mind. We all have this, and to avoid taking it out on others, we must all follow the two steps of meditation.

            The first step of meditation is shamatha, or stopping. This step is often overlooked by people, as most want to just jump to deeply thinking and analyzing. But this is a vital step in meditation. Strong emotions can destroy us, and skew our thought process. "We have to learn the art of stopping- stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us" (Hanh 24). Our habits and emotions rule us when we let our guard down, which is why we must just stop. We can stop by mindful breathing and smiling. A smile can do a lot for someone who has been bombarded by the burdens of stress. The desire for understanding of our emotions helps a lot in the process. Accepting and loving ourselves is a product of understanding ourselves. By stopping, one produces calming. By calming, one produces resting. By resting, one can finally heal. Being mindful is the key to stopping, and I learned that from my personal experiences in trying meditation. One of my biggest stress contributors in my life is relationships with various people. The stress that comes with lack of communication and arguments can take their toll on me. I stopped, and relaxed myself before anything bad happened-before my emotions got the best of me. The calmness that pursued helped me open up my mind for the second step of meditation. The second biggest stress contributor is school work. Being a pre-pharmacy student in college is not easy, and sometimes the workload can produce a lot of stress. By stopping myself, before having a panic attack when I find out how much work I have to do, I was able to relax and calm myself before the second step of meditation, which is vipashyana, or deep thinking.

School work can take its toll on the mind

             The second step of meditation after shamatha is vipashyana, or deep thinking. This step is usually focused on by most people. Both steps of meditation are both equally important in the process of stress relief. After the emotions are set aside, and the relaxation of the mind is complete, one must deeply focus. By thinking deep, one can calmly analyze everything that takes its toll on the mind. The root of stress can be pinpointed, without being clouded by emotions like anger or sadness. Only then can one finally heal where the stress is affecting. After deep thinking, one achieves insight. Insight is what we are actually after in meditation. "The fruit of looking deeply is understanding the many causes and conditions, primary and secondary, that have brought about our anger" (Hanh 26). The fruit that Hanh is referring to is insight. Having an insight of our own mind and our own stressors gives us an advantage over adversity. This step was revolutionary in my meditation to rid myself of relationship and school work stress. With my relationships, by looking deep inside my mind, I was able to pinpoint what was bothering me. I was able to find out what ties needed to be cut with certain people. I realized that some people were giving me nothing but stress. I asked myself why I needed these kind of people in my life. By looking deep and deeply thinking, I was able to find these ties and cut them without anger clouding my judgement. With my school work, looking deep produced a different effect. Thinking deep organized all of my priorities, and I was able to be more efficient in getting my school work done than I ever have. By stopping emotion, I was able to prioritize my tasks in a timely manner. After performing a form of meditation on both of the aforementioned situations, my body, mind, thoughts and actions were all in a steady equilibrium. Meditation produced peace in all of those aspects of my being.

            Meditation is vital in its stress relieving abilities. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that there are indeed two steps in meditation. By skipping to deep thinking, most people have the issue of having anger or sadness cloud their mind while they are looking deep into their mind. The first step, shamatha, is the stopping of everything. By stopping before looking deep, emotions fall aside. Now, without emotions, one can look deep into their mind, which is the second step of meditation, vipashyana. While looking deep, one can find the root of what is bothering them. The origin of the stress is what we are after. We want insight into our calmed minds, so we can achieve understanding of our mind and body. From personal experience in my meditations, mindful peace will be achieved by following the steps of meditation- shamatha and vipashyana.

Works Cited

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching. New York City: First Broadway, 1999. Print.