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PARK CITY — We all experience stress in our lives. It can be anything from parenting to paying your bills.
"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.
In the “real world,” finding the perfect quiet spot for an extended period of time, on a regular basis seems to exist only in dreams. Sure it’s ideal, but who really has that much free time? So, before you start overwhelming your already busy schedule, stop. All you really need is two minutes. Just enough time to quickly ground yourself.
McDevitt-Cummins said, “It’s not about the place that you meditate, it’s not about how long you meditate or what you look like when you’re meditating. It’s really about the practice of doing it and remembering it’s a practice. You’re not supposed to be perfect. You’re not supposed to have a clear mind.”
Do you have trouble staying focused? Well congratulations, you’re a normal human being. The goal of meditation is to notice when your mind wanders and then bring it back. Whatever task is nagging at you, put it out of your mind and use your five senses to be your grounding force to help keep you in the present moment.
“When we start to meditate on a regular basis, be it two minutes a day or 20 minutes a day, you can start to see your focus and your attention increase. You start to see an improvement in your sleep. You start to see an improvement in your happiness, a decrease in depression, a decrease in anxiety. Really, it kind of affects your overall body,” McDevitt-Cummins said.
When you’re more grounded you tend to handle stress better. Make meditation a regular practice and soon you’ll see the ripple effect on those around you.
“It affects everybody; your family, your colleagues, your friends," she said. "It changes your entire energy, and therefore the people around you benefit as well.” Jenniffer is a Special Projects Producer who heads up the Your Life Your Health, Zero Fatalities and High 5 initiatives. For questions, feedback or possible story ideas, please email jmichaelson@ksl.com.
