It happens to everyone. You're at work, and suddenly seized by anxiety or just totally overwrought from stress. While it's normal in the sense that it's common, it's not a great thing for your overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, taking breaks and prioritizing how you are feeling during the day plays second — or fourteenth — fiddle in work culture. So giving yourself a few minutes to do some meditations for stress at work can make a real difference.
"Meditation helps with stress and anxiety in a number of different ways, including that it encourages us to engage with our thoughts and feelings in a different way rather than to react reflexively to them," Amanda Seavey, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist and founder of Clarity Psychological Wellness in Raleigh, North Carolina, tells Bustle. "Over time we also relate to stress differently and are better able to remain steady and resilient in the face of it."
A meditation practice helps us stay in the present moment rather than be pulled into ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. It allows you some time to just be.
Seavey says that it is important to note that the more regularly we meditate, the more we experience the benefits. Waiting until we feel highly stressed may not be the best strategy, Seavey says — although it is certainly better and more fruitful that battling forth through a stressful moment.
Below, try some of these breathing techniques and meditations to help through those tense times in the work-a-day world.