Stress Reduction - Meditation Is Great For Stress Relief And Better Focus

Why is that when we are trying to deal with stress reduction, meditation is not the first option to think about in most cases? People spend thousands of dollars every day in visiting psychologists, psychiatrists and other mind-care pratitioners, but they do little to actually help themselves on their own.

We are living in an extremely complicated environment that creates a stimulus overload. It is a known (yet easily forgotten) fact that we've never been bombarded by so many stimuli as we've been these last few years. This environment is rapidly and constantly moving towards becoming more and more crowded and full.

Every day we have to deal with more and more issues, people, situations and aspects of ourselves and this means that we need to learn to recognize and analyze everything that is thrown at us every single day. And sometimes this is darn hard. While they say that we only use 5 or 10 percent of our brain power and we could use much more than that, in most cases we are ill equipped to handle the information overload that we come across every day without taking some needed shortcuts.

These shortcuts are usually stereotypes, labelings and compartmentalizations that we have to do just to be able to function in the overcrowded society. And sadly, while in most cases this is the solution, in some cases this is the problem as well. Sometimes we end up passing wrong quick judgements on people and situations, and at times these can be quite costly (and even life threatening) to us. By using all these shortcuts, we are losing our ability to gauge some situations for what they really are. And this is because our mind is overloaded with information, stimuli and things to wade through, and it will take years to enhance the power of our brain to really encompass everything that it needs to deal with every single day (and night).

Alfred North Whitehead, the British philosopher once said that our civilization advances "by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them." This basically means that our brains are learning more and more shortcuts to deal with all these new and demanding situations. This is when we don't really think about them, as we have already internalized, labeled and compartmentalized. But as I mentioned before, this can lead to some very unfortunate and even tragic situations.

How many times we overpaid for something just because it was labeled 'half price', without actually looking into it? Just by seeing the lower price, we assumed that indeed we were paying less, when in fact in many cases the price has been brought up just the week before the sales, to be 'slashed' to the regular price, making customers rush to get those 'great deals'.

How many times have people been deceived by their impulses and emotions and entered into some very nasty fights, just because they were not thinking clearly and were taking shortcuts in thinking instead?

Since I have started meditating a few years ago, I have slowly begun noticing more things around me. Just before going into a situation, my mind would give me warning signals which I would have earlier conveniently overlooked. I now see things easier for what they really are. My brain gives me the right signals because by being less overloaded with impulses and stress, it can handle everything more efficiently.

Sometimes when I'm sitting in a restaurant, I inherently know who is sitting behind me and the way the people next to me are dressed, simply because I paid attention when entering the restaurant.

Once I even came out of a situation that would have turned bad if I had my mind 'in clouds' busy with the daily worries as everyone else. I was in a bank, waiting patiently for my turn. There were 3 people ahead of me so instead of thinking of the many things I still had to do that day, I started looking around me, really looking at the people ahead of me and behind me. It was something I've learned through regular meditation whereby I gained an increased sense of perception and observation. I simply loved learning more about the people around me.

One guy two persons behind me was kind of fidgety and nervous looking. While on the surface there was nothing wrong with him, I sensed a bad vibe coming from him. In an act of impulse, I decided to return to the bank at a later time to deposit my check.

That evening on the news on TV I learned that there had been a bank robbery at the very same bank that day, and while nobody was hurt, people did go through a short hold-up and some really nervous times during the 10 minutes that it took for the bank robber to leave the premises.

Eventually he was found and the money returned, but I will never ignore my 6th sense, my gut feeling and my sharper instincts that I have developed since beginning meditation a few years ago. While this was only one incident that I clearly remember, who knows on how many occasions I was saved by my mind giving me warning signals to proceed in one way instead of another.

By simply relaxing my mind during the meditation sessions, I learned to easier deal with the daily stress and spot and avoid several problems that other people might not be so lucky of doing, simply because I've trained my mind to be relaxed yet sharp and focused most of the times.

Stress reduction meditation works and by practicing regularly it will clear your mind and sharpen your focus as well.