Many of us, even though we’re spending so much time at home don’t make space in our schedule for self-care. Whether that’s because we’re taking care of families, working, or doing chores. But making that time for ourselves is important, to help us ground ourselves and find inner peace as well as balance, especially during mentally straining times like these. By being mindful and giving your mental health a little love, you can build a strong foundation to tackle all of life’s stressors. So, you can be strong for both your loved ones and for yourself.
Meditating can help us deal with anxiety and stress with ease, while also helping us do a little check-in with ourselves. It can help us navigate through the current situation and remind us that we can overcome anything if we just take care of ourselves.
Whatever it might be that’s weighing on your mind, meditating can help you accept those emotions and minimize their intensity. We all face moments where we feel like we don’t have control over things and as a result feel super frustrated. However, we do have control over our emotions and how we react to certain things. Our founder, Amy Lin started her meditation journey after a bad break up and meditating really helped her find inner peace. So she wanted to share her own meditation routine to help you and our sundays community find that inner balance. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or a pro to meditation, you can follow Amy’s tips.
Tip 1: Take a few deep breaths
You don’t need to be at a meditation studio to meditate. Do it anywhere that feels comfortable to you. Whether that’s in your favorite space in your home or in your garden. It’s about you spending time to reconnect with yourself and checking in with your emotions.
Take 3 deep breaths and focus on your breathing for the next minute or two. By doing that we can look within ourselves and shift the focus from external stressors that are weighing on us towards our emotional wellbeing.
We can use this same technique when we have a bad day. Just remember to reconnect with yourself and take a minute to calm down. That way you create the necessary space between yourself and your negative thoughts. It only takes a minute, but it creates a world of difference.
Tip 2: Body Scan
Close your eyes when you do this practice. Check-in with your emotions. Think about your body, what position you’re in, how you’re sitting. Do you feel tension in any part of your body?
First, let’s bring awareness to the top of the head. Bring it down to your eyebrows, nose, lips, neck, and shoulders. Do you feel any tension or stiffness in your neck? Then bring awareness to your chest (really feel your heartbeat, take a moment to listen to it). Then bring your attention down to your arms, then down to your hands and fingers.
Then bring attention from the hip, down to your leg, to your feet, and to your toes. It’s almost like you’re traveling through your whole body with your mind.
Tip 3: Be gentle with yourself
When you meditate, you might notice your mind wandering and thinking about other things, but it’s important to just be gentle with yourself. It’s completely normal and we all tend to do this. Even meditation pros! We don’t meditate to eliminate our thoughts but simply to check in with ourselves and accept those thoughts. It’s like going to the gym, you practice mental wellness and over time you find it easier and easier, while your mind is in tip-top shape. It’s not about how good you are with meditation, but engaging with the process. You might get frustrated when your mind wanders, but be kind to yourself and gently bring those thoughts back. By doing that, you’re able to practice self-compassion and really be patient with yourself while also more loving towards yourself.
Amy also wanted to share an Eckhart Tolle saying that really resonated with her:
“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
We urge you to use this time to reconnect with yourself and to become your own best friend, because after all, only you are blessed with your mind and body and only you can better your mental wellbeing.
We hope that Amy’s tips were helpful to you and helped you navigate through meditation. sundays also recently launched a free guided meditation available online, for everyone! Listen to it here. And please dm us if you have any questions at @sundays_studio or email us at [email protected].
Wishing you good luck on your meditation journey and sending positive energy your way.
-Amy and Sundays family
