The Importance of Meditation in These Trying Times

It’s a scary time to be alive right now, as the coronavirus continues to spread across the globe. With bad news coming in almost on a regular basis (and with no way to release that frustration due to social distancing), it’s easy to let the stress and anxiety compound. This makes meditation all the more crucial in these trying times, particularly as a way to take care of your mental health and help you survive what is shaping up to be the new normal for the foreseeable future. 

Helping yourself to help others

While it’s important to be kind to one another and look out for our neighbors as much as possible, it’s equally important to extend that kindness to ourselves.

Meditation may seem like a small act in the face of everything else that’s going on, but taking care of yourself in this way can also provide you with a community of people who are also trying their best to keep calm amidst the chaos. This is why pop star Lizzo streamed a live meditation on Instagram a few days ago in lieu of her cancelled show. Her meditation session focused on helping people clear their minds in order to see the ways that they can help — “the one thing we will always have is togetherness,” she reminded her viewers. 

Indeed, clearing your mind through meditation is crucial to help you sift through all the noise and see how you can incite positive change into your community. At the very least, it’s a lot better than refreshing your phone every other minute or so out of fear. 

Making your practice sustainable

Since the madness won’t come to an end any time soon, it’s important to really make an effort to incorporate meditation as part of your daily routine. Our post entitled ‘4 Misconceptions About Meditation’ emphasizes that you can move around, sit comfortably, and even grab a drink of water while you meditate — what’s important is that you really focus on taking that time out for yourself. 

 If you’re someone who prefers to sweat it out when you’re stressed, meditation should be a very important part of recovery. While many people will turn to exercise as a way to de-stress, Parsley Health suggests that to beat brain fog exercise should also be accompanied with active tune-ins to provide your body that much-needed balance. Overworking your body may end up making you even more frazzled and exhausted in the long run. It’s especially important to listen to your body and give it the TLC it needs.

It’s also good to know that your body can benefit from a meditation break faster than you realize. As more and more people are looking to adopt remote work, business coach Shannon Houde highlights that sometimes having a three-minute reset is all you need to power through the rest of your day. 

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, stressing yourself out and panicking won’t do you and your community any favors. The chaos all around us is something we have to take as a given; the question is, how will we deal with it? While we’re all figuring out how to adjust to what might be the new normal (at least for now), meditation can help give you that clear headspace that you sorely need.