Meditation for Calming Stress

Meditation for Calming Stress

Meditation is a great tool for any time, but during times of stress having a practice to tap into can be especially helpful. For many people, the significant challenges happening on all scales, from personal to global, creates anxiety and makes it hard to function, much less feel good.

The basic practice of meditation can be as simple as sitting and paying attention to the breath, while you observe thoughts and sensations as they come and go. Sometimes it's helpful to be led in a guided meditation. An experienced meditation teacher can help you start or deepen a practice and can lead you through the experience. 

Here, we share a meditation and talk given by one of our favorite teachers, Tara Brach. Tara is a Buddhist teacher and psychologist. She has a heart-centered focus and guides us to move through stress, pain and discomfort, including practices for working with difficult emotions. As I listen to her talks, I often find myself laughing as she sprinkles in jokes I'll still be chuckling at later. Following is a recent talk and meditation for calming stress and anxiety. We hope you enjoy these gems, and share them with anyone else you think might benefit. 

Guided Meditation: Remembering Your Spiritual Heart

Tara's description: "During times of great collective stress, it’s common to get gripped by waves of anxiety and fear. This guided meditation, an adaptation of the Tibetan tonglen practice, helps us reconnect with our spiritual heart, the sea of love and light that can hold even the most painful waves in our lives."

Talk: Becoming Bodhisattvas in a Troubled World

Tara's description: "Thich Nhat Hanh said 'no mud, no lotus.' How might anger, hatred and delusion—the mud of these times– give rise to a growing compassion and wisdom in our world? In this talk, we look directly at the angst surrounding the US elections and explore several powerful teachings and practices that can serve as the catalyst for profound transformation and an evolving of wisdom and love in our collective consciousness."