Helpful Ways to Deal with Stress

Every student in Work Forest has probably dealt with stress in some way. In the long run, stress can be very harmful to your health. Luckily, there are some great strategies in reducing it:

1. Meditation

There are multiple ways one can meditate: it can be sitting on a chair or in the lotus position and it can take either ten minutes or an hour. Here is one simple type of meditation that can be done almost anywhere:

Practicing breath meditation:

• Select a quiet place to meditate
• Despite the posture you choose, you have to sit uptight with your head well-supported, and place your hand in your lap
• Relax: focus on your breathing and gradually close your eyes
• Count your breaths: Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale…. up to 10
• Once you are entirely focused on your breathing, stop counting
• Slowly fix your attention to any mental image that may occur

2. Yoga

Practicing yoga has many benefits such as: an increase in flexibility and blood flow, improved respiration, perfecting your posture… and so forth. Even if you do not have time to go to a yoga class, here is one sequence that you can do anywhere, even in your college dorm:

Sun Salutation:

3.  Listen to soothing songs

If you are anything like me, you cannot do any task without music. During a stressful time like midterms or finals week, I always listen to classical or instrumental music, so I can concentrate more on my work and avoid any distractions. Here is one of my recommendations:

Ludovico Einaudi is an Italian pianist and composer, and is famous for making the soundtrack for The Intouchables movie in 2011. My favorite songs on this album are “Fly,” “Primavera,” “Divenire” and “Andare.”

Sources and photos via:

http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Breath-Meditation-(Anapanasati)

http://www.yogajournal.com/article/health/count-yoga-38-ways-yoga-keeps-fit/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Ludovico_Divenire.jpg

http://yogabycandace.com/blog/2013/9/4/sun-salutation-a-explained

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/Ludovico_Divenire.jpg

http://theconsciousresistance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/meditation_sun.jpg

• meditation
• stress
• wellness