Mindfulness Meditation with Shrey Vazir
Managing stress, worries and uncertainty with Mindfulness
Hi everyone, my name is Shrey. I’m a Physiotherapist and a meditation facilitator at UHN-Altum Health. Today, I wanted to talk about mindfulness and how it can apply to our current-day situation, especially with all the stress, worries, and the uncertainty that we are all facing in this pandemic. In this video, I’ve explained how we can use the powers of mindfulness meditation to help ground ourselves to the present moment. Mindfulness can also strengthen our mind’s ability to become calmer, stiller and more resilient. That is the essence of mindfulness meditation.
In Practice
How do you practice it? There are many ways but one way is to through formal mediation practice. The easiest way to do that is to focus on the breath. Attached here is a figure, a visualization of how to deeply inhale to the count of 4 and then exhale to count of 6. This is a breathing technique that can be used to calm the nervous system.
To make it into a mindfulness practice, you need to assume a comfortable position. You can keep your eyes open or closed. But each time your mind wanders while you are focussing on the breath. Your job is to slowly and gently return your attention back to the breath. Each time you do that, your mind is and your brain becoming stronger at becoming focussed and calm.
Attached here is another audio file that you can follow along with a guided 3-minute mediation that you can follow. These are techniques of mindfulness that you can use any time in your day, especially when you feel your mind is overwhelmed or your body is a little tense. This is when I would urge you and encourage you to practice these techniques because they can help calm your mind and relax your body. Thank you, everyone, and stay safe.
Shrey Vazir is a Physiotherapist and a meditation facilitator at UHN – Altum Health who specializes in chronic pain and chronic stress management.
