Are you a worrier/over-thinker? Oh good so it's not just me!
Hello there my lovelies today I wanted to talk about life stresses, last week I attended a relaxation course and I wanted to share this with you. I had been wanting to do this for a long time and I'm glad I finally decided to go.
Life can be very stressful at times as we all know, we can be overwhelmed with various issues and burdens, which can sometimes get the better of us. I fall in the category of making something a big deal when it doesn't necessarily have to be or can be solved easily and being told to let it go or relax only gets me more worked up. Struggling with stress can lead to mental and physical problems, these over time can become very serious.
"The total number of cases of work related stress, depression or anxiety in 2015/16 was 488,000 cases." (Here is a little statistic for you from the health and safety website in the UK)
Everyone can be affected by this at some stage in their lives and this all dependent on how you deal with it. There are many courses, online articles and videos about this, I have personally found it can be difficult to get started as for me this is something, which is out of my comfort zone. I am trying to break down barriers and so I went online and booked on for a session.
The Class
Going in for the session I arrived 10 minutes early, not knowing what to expect I was told to go up a flight of stairs to the relaxation room. We were asked to take our shoes off and proceed into the room, where there were precisely placed number of meditation chairs for everyone attending the sessions. I met the rest of the group and these were mainly people who were also fairly new, which instantly made me feel a bit less anxious (familiarity is a wonderful thing).
We started off with a little introduction of who we are and then went on to the meditation, which we got into straight away with our teacher pressing the play button on the CD she had prepared with relaxing music. I must admit I was not prepared to just begin straight away I almost expected a sort of ceremony, but because of this I found I concentrated more on the words she spoke and became less anxious as she spoke about letting go and seeing the world in the eyes of a guest host. She had a soft spoken voice and was very engaging, the atmosphere was very peaceful and as the time went on we started a discussion about what is a stressful experience to each one of us. As we listened to one another and performed one more meditation I felt a lot more concentrated and being in that environment I started to realise that in fact my issues or at least what I had let become an issue I had let go of and was not in my way anymore.
Exiting the class we said our goodbyes and a short while after when I came out and started to walk I felt lighter and my mind was clearer, the heavy knot that I had felt in my chest had untied, I went about with the rest of my day confident and sure. Because of this feeling it meant I had utilised the rest of the day and had made it productive, I felt I could achieve anything I wanted, not to mention getting a good night's sleep.
Reflecting on this
I am very pleased I went and will go again and try to do this at home after a while. The power of releasing your worries, whatever they may be is truly freeing. It seems just a small action like this really can improve your well-being. Reading up about brain activity and neurotransmitters, positive thinking and meditation has an effect on the release and regulation of the necessary neurotransmitters that regulate anxiety and mood such as GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid), Serotonin and Dopamine. If you'd like to know more below is a link to an interesting article worth a read! I hope you all have a wonderful day and remember to focus on the good things in life.
Thanks for reading and catch you soon!
Link to paper
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4769029/
Margo xoxo