Mental Health Awareness month is underway, and today is World Meditation Day. We thought it would be a great time to share some meditation tips that can have a domino effect on your wellness, anxiety, and sleep.

Environment

For easy continuation from meditation into sleep, set up your space as the ideal sleep environment. Make sure it’s quiet, temperate, and that the lighting is soothing.

As much as possible, eliminate distracting external stimuli. If you have to meditate in a noisy environment, try a guided meditation or white noise to help you center yourself.

For most people, the ideal sleep temperature lies somewhere between 60-67 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re meditating in bed, this should be a comfortable temperature. If you’re meditating elsewhere, have a blanket to drape over yourself toward the end of your meditation to stay cozy.

Light has a natural impact on your circadian rhythms, so be sure to eliminate blue light from your meditation and sleep environment so that you’re not kept awake. Natural light and low light will help your body to know it’s time to relax and eventually sleep, so make those adjustments where possible.

Styles

“Different types of meditation may include different features to help you meditate. These may vary depending on whose guidance you follow or who’s teaching a class. Some of the most common features in meditation include:

• Focused attention. Focusing your attention is generally one of the most important elements of meditation.

  • Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many distractions that cause stress and worry. You can focus your attention on such things as a specific object, an image, a mantra, or even your breathing.

• Relaxed breathing. This technique involves deep, even-paced breathing using the diaphragm muscle to expand your lungs. The purpose is to slow your breathing, take in more oxygen, and reduce the use of shoulder, neck and upper chest muscles while breathing so that you breathe more efficiently.

• Open attitude. Let thoughts pass through your mind without judgment.”

Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are leading factors in sleeplessness among adults. It’s practically impossible to remove stressors from our lives but mitigating stress and anxiety is important self-care. One highly effective way to alleviate anxiety is through meditation.

A guided meditation to address your stressors or distract from them entirely is optimal for stress. Check out some of Calm’s guided meditations here and their resources for Mental Health Awareness Month here.

Sleep

If you’re looking to fall asleep fast, try the military method—it uses a variety of meditative techniques and works for over 95% of people who try it consistently:

The military method

1. Relax your entire face, including the muscles inside your mouth.
2. Drop your shoulders to release the tension and let your hands drop to the side of your body.
3. Exhale, relaxing your chest.
4. Relax your legs, thighs, and calves.
5. Clear your mind for 10 seconds by imagining a relaxing scene.
6. If this doesn’t work, try saying the words “don’t think” over and over for 10 seconds.
7. Within 10 seconds, you should fall asleep!

For a more relaxed journey to sleep, try a meditation-esque bedtime story like the one we created with Calm and Mandy Moore.

Win a Calm Subscription & Meditation Cushion

When we launched our meditation cushion in partnership with Calm last fall, our goal was to promote wellness beyond the bedroom. We want to ensure that momentum continues, and especially during Mental Health Awareness Month. So from 5/21 to 5/23, we will be giving away 3 x Meditation Cushion + Calm subscription bundles. Head to our contest page to enter.

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