Stop. Breathe. Relax
Stop. Breathe. Relax
The world can feel like a pretty crazy place right now,
It’s quite surreal we almost feel like we are in a movie, except it’s our own lives. Many of us are worrying about the uncertainty of what will happen in these coming weeks. Our concerns and fears are from the good health of our family to the jobs we have, to how the economy will be affected running endlessly through our minds.
A lot of us are overthinking, scrolling on our mobiles reading news article after news article, and it can feel pretty overwhelming. The media is fuelling fear in everybody. Over 1.1 billion articles have been published on COVID-19 so far.
One of the most important things you can do in times of uncertainty is to focus on your mental and physical health. A lot of that stress and the fearful emotions in our minds then transfers into our bodies, tight muscles, elevated heart rate, the inability to relax – this all puts additional pressure on our bodies at a time we need them to be at our best. We often find ourselves unable to switch off and being driven a little crazy by our thoughts!
At The Hungry Mind, we wanted to highlight not only one of our favourite regular Hungry Mind corporate catering customers. But also a fantastic company who through their Insight Timer app has a bunch of FREE meditations that can help you ease your mind and find comfort and relaxation in these times of stress.
Insight Timer has everything from meditations that focus on coping with Anxiety, Managing Stress, Meditation for Kids, improving your sleep or helping you unwind with relaxing music.
So if you are in self-isolation to flatten the curve, download the Insight Timer app and give your mind ten minutes to reset itself and relax reconnecting to your breath and calm your thoughts.
Meditation has been consistently proven to help support a positive mindset and help people deal with difficulties in life – for those of you who are unsure here are 7 science-backed benefits of mediation.
- Reduces stress – you need some time to allow your brain to rest from the current stresses we face in life. Meditation reduces the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in your system, reducing inflammation caused by stress
- Controls Anxiety – paranoid thoughts, irrational fears and now some very rational fears about health, mediation can help get that monkey mind of yours off the anxiety wheel and back into a state of calm
- Promotes Emotional Health – the media is really spiking our cytokines, which are little chemicals that related to stress they affect our moods which can lead to negative thoughts and depression. Meditation is proven to reduce these little chemicals in our systems
- Enhance Self-Awareness – going inward is just as essential and looking at whats going on in the world right now, meditation helps you work to build constructive patterns like reducing feelings of loneliness of isolation.
- Can Generate Kindness – in a world where people are stupidly hoarding and not thinking of others, increasing your loving-kindness not only towards yourself but towards others and cultivating compassion towards humanity.
- Improves sleep – restless nights worrying about older family members, the future of the economy and the safety of the people you love, sleep deprivation can add additional stress. People who practice meditation fall asleep quicker and for longer.
- You Can Meditate Anywhere! – with Insight Timer, it’s a quick download onto your phone!
At the Hungry Mind, we really value the mental health of our employees and our customers that why we recommend a twice-daily meditation practice.
Take time to allow your busy brain to “switch off” for a few moments each day!
One way is just to wake up fifteen minutes early sit up in bed and open the app and begin! Take one day at a time and remember busy thoughts never totally go away, but focusing on the breath reduces there intensity and after a while, the thoughts drift easily from your mind as you train your mind to be calmer!
Download here: https://insighttimer.com/
We know we are living in unprecedented times right now, and all of us are worrying about what the next few weeks will bring - but we hope that by sharing this we can help others create some calm.
The Hungry Mind Team
REF SOURCE: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation
