I used to hate meditating. I hated the whole concept of just sitting in one place, not really moving, not really thinking about anything going on in my life.

However, time and time again, I have been put into situations where I am forced to try it out, and Im told, you were probably doing it wrong last time this time will be better!

Lies.

Every time, I tried my best to be loose, calm and relaxed, and every time I failed miserably to gain anything out of it besides frustration with myself for not being able to clear my mind.

I told myself I hated meditation because of how restrictive it was the fact that you arent really supposed to be thinking about your plans for the next couple of hours or what homework assignment is due soon stressed me out.

Every time I was put into a situation to try meditating, I resisted it because I thought it was causing me more stress.

Then, about a week ago, I heard something in my social psychology class that made me realize another reason I could be failing at meditation a reason that wasnt my fault.

We were talking about group influence and how the mere presence of others causes us to become aroused. As humans, we have varying levels of evaluation apprehension, meaning we naturally feel at least a little uneasy in the presence of others because we are concerned we are being evaluated by them.

This is when I realized that every single time that Ive been encouraged to try meditation, it has been in a group setting.

There was always at least one other person present every single time Ive tried to meditate.

Then I thought, what if I tried meditating alone? But then I realized I needed someone to guide me through the meditation (I wasnt just going to sit in silence with my eyes closed sitting crisscross applesauce) and gave up on the idea.

That is, until a Facebook advertisement popped up on my feed only hours later, advertising this app called Headspace a meditation app.

So I started using the app, and the 10-minute a day meditation sessions have actually been helping me de-stress to some extent.

The calm it brings me lasts for a few hours, but then I start getting back into my routine of overthinking everything and getting myself stressed out again, whether I consciously realize it or not.

I was on the phone with my brother the other night, telling him about how stressed Ive been lately. He believes that I am overextending myself, and so he challenged me to cut something out of my life in the next couple of weeks.

However, the thing is, theres nothing that Im spending time doing that I could ever cut out.

Everything Im doing Im doing with a purpose and a passion cutting any of it out of my life will surely make me feel less fulfilled, and so it wouldnt be worth it.

Then I got to thinking: what if my stress isnt coming from the number of activities Im doing, but just how Im going about my daily life? What if, instead of cutting things out of my life, I need to be adding in more stress-relieving activities, like meditating?

But meditating alone clearly isnt enough.

I was almost as busy as I am now when I was in high school, and I was stressed, but not to the point where it was affecting me as much as it is now. What was I doing differently?

-I read more paper books

-My time between classes was spent socializing, not staring at my phone screen

-I had study halls

- I took art classes

Ive always been good at adding new things to my plate and finding room in my schedule for new clubs, new classes and new friends.

I believe if I actively try to mix some of my old activities into my life, such as reading before bed instead of scrolling through Facebook, my stress levels will decrease.

According to a Telegraph article, a research study was conducted at Mindlab International at University of Sussex to see what activities generally believed to relieve stress actually worked.

The study, found that, out of reading, listening to music, drinking a cup of tea, taking a walk, or playing video games, reading relieves the most stress.

David Lewis, who conducted the test, said in the Telegraph article losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation.

So, I could think about meditation and reading as more time-consuming activities to add to my schedule, eat up my time and stress me out.

But, I could also see them as necessary breaks that allow me to take a step back from my hectic everyday life.

Read the rest here:

How I went from medihater to meditator - The Daily Collegian Online