Meditation and dealing with stress

Meditation PT is one of the latest businesses to come out and support us- Meditation and dealing with stress is something I wanted to talk about, not just because they have supported us (although I am very grateful for that) but also because I feel it is something that people can often need help with.

https://youtu.be/FG2Jc7NEYQk

Personal experience

My experience of this comes before I came across Meditation PT– I had heard of how meditation could help people cope with stress before but it wasn’t something I considered necessary in my life. However, sometimes things can hit you and hit you hard, and it can feel like nothing can work.

I can safely say that Peter’s meditation massively helped me out. Yes, you would expect me to say that in a blog like this. However, Peter is very experienced at this- Meditation PT not only involves one to one meditation sessions, he has also trained personal trainers so that they can help their clients learn to meditate and cope with stress themselves.

What I liked about Peter’s approach was that he talked to me first, guiding through the process and making sure I understood. It was direct but in a good way- making it simple and taking me through what I had to do, adjusting as we went.

I really would recommend giving meditation a go if you haven’t tried it before, and especially using a professional like Peter.

Other ways of coping with stress

Meditation is one technique of coping with stress. There are other ways that I have found through trial and error. For example, I have recently been lucky to interact more with writers via Twitter’s #WritingCommunity

One thing I notice is that the creative process can be stressful. One way I find is to either establish a routine, or if the routine isn’t working to break from it. A meditation break can be good as it is ten minutes from your day- not too long, but enough to give you a temporary move away from screens, creativity etc.

Indeed, I find physically getting away for a bit is good. I tend to go out for a coffee in the morning and sit with the paper. Other people may find they do this as a break in the afternoon or evening. It’s a bit like studying- find what works for you!

If this doesn’t work or if you have more specific problems then Youtuber Phantomstrider has an excellent playlist that can help.

Talk Yourself Better

If you want to know more about therapies and other ways of helping to cope with mental health issues, Ariane Sherine’s book Talk Yourself Better is worth checking out as well.

https://youtu.be/uZiqrDVPguI

Talk to the Samaritans

If stress gets too much for you (and you feel you can’t talk to friends or family) a great point of contact is The Samaritans. People there are trained to listen to you- you can do this via the phone or email. If you would like to know more their contact page is here

Come and join us

We’ve mentioned this in other blogs, but a quick reminder we will be at the Castle Mall from 6-7th July. We would love it if you could come and support us, we are hoping to have some special guests come and join us. You can find out more on this blog here and about getting merchandise here.

Also special thanks to Castle Mall for the opportunity and everyone who has supported us- we will be updating our crowdfund and sponsor thank you shoutouts soon!