"Anything can be perceived as stressful, and therefore our whole daily lives are filled with stress,” said Anne McDevitt-Cummins, a wellness coach at Park City Medical Center.
Believe it or not, our bodies need a certain amount of stress to survive. It can be motivating and empowering and provide us with the push we need.
No matter what gets our blood pressure to rise, we respond to stress differently and have adapted different coping skills. Stress management can include exercise, sleep, journaling, hiking and seeking social support. But there’s one thing we can practice every day that has been proven to change your entire perception, including how your brain functions. We’re talking about meditation.
“There are some studies that show that people’s brains actually change in the way they respond to stress and in the way their brains are made up," McDevitt-Cummins said. "The elasticity of their brains, the amount of grey matter in their brain changes after just a few weeks of meditation.”
Now, I’m not saying pull out your yoga pants, find a quiet spot for an hour or start signing up for classes. You can actually meditate anywhere and the best part is it only takes a minute. “There’s all different forms of meditation out there. Some of the most basic are things like focusing on your breath; and people can do that while they’re stuck in traffic, while they’re standing in line, you can do it before you go into work in your car. You can take two minutes and sit and focus on your breath.”
Take a moment to ground yourself using your five senses. Ask yourself: What is my body feeling right now? What am I looking at? What do I hear? What are the sounds around me? What do I smell? What kind of taste is in my mouth? That in itself is a meditation.
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