Dear readers, through our article on meditation we want to emphasise the importance of your emotional well-being and overall health. So, we present this write-up explaining the art of meditation, the basic techniques like STOP, body scan, and other activities without meditation. Practising it will lead you to a state of greater calmness, physical relaxation, and psychological balance.

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Usually, as doctors and healthcare professionals, prioritising patient care and providing the best medical facilities and services to our patients becomes the utmost goal. The field of medicine is a challenging one and comes with a lot of demands that can absolutely put an individual on the edge, both physically and mentally. Long working hours, hectic schedules, irregular sleeping patterns and sometimes irregular or even unhealthy eating patterns are common issues doctors face and these can have some serious health complications too in the future.

As you sit down and read this article, just try to wind down and ask yourself these questions. Tick a 'Yes' or 'No' for every question in your mind and let this self-assessment help you understand how much you need to just relax.

Are you:

1. Struggling with stressful situations quite often and unable to manage them well?
2. Overwhelmed most of the time?
3. Having mood swings and low phases all the time?
4. Not able to focus and concentrate well?
5. Developing an unhealthy and irregular sleeping pattern?
6. Having more episodes of interrupted and disturbed sleep?
7. Neglecting physical and mental self-care?
8. Experiencing episodes of anxiety or having any depressive phases?
9. Not able to achieve a peaceful work-life balance?

Now if you have a majority of the questions ticked as 'Yes'. The answer to this is clearly in front of you. The answer is simple.

• You need to relax
• You need to wind down
• You need to prioritise your own mind and mental health

And the answer to this is meditation, now a lot of us have already tried and tested multiple meditation techniques and have failed as it seems a very difficult goal to achieve. Just the thought of sitting in one place and meditating can make a few restless.

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Meditation is the art of doing nothing!

It is a state of simply allowing your body to come to state zero and understand the absolute depth of it. It can be right from sitting quietly and observing your breath to practising a professionally taught technique. The benefits of meditation are not hidden from the world and it can act as a miraculous remedy to a lot of stress-induced disorders.

Meditation through mindfulness

The term mindfulness defines the state of nothingness yet a different sense of wholeness.

In the practice of mindfulness, there is no need to forget or erase the rush of thoughts or judge any thought coming across. It is simply a process to embrace a thought either positive or negative completely.

By practising mindfulness, an individual can easily notice a drift in their thinking pattern and find a shift more towards a positive side. This is the ultimate key to developing the balance between the external and the internal state of the mind and body.

Guided meditation can be an easy way to start the sound of those calming words can actually motivate you to sit in one place, mindfully and focus on your inner self.

STOP technique

It is an easy technique to practise mindfulness.

S- Stop what you are doing; drop everything down for a minute.
T- Take a breath. Observe your breath with all your focus. Do not try to control it. Simply observe the natural flow of your breath, try and say "in" as you breathe in and "out" as you breathe out.
O- Observe every thought in your mind. There might be a rush of thoughts both positive and negative. Tell yourself that the negative thoughts are not permanent and they shall vanish soon. Try and embrace every thought with an open mind.
P- Proceed with something that will support you at the moment. That can be simply talking to someone or just rubbing your shoulders, making yourself a cup of tea or just sitting down at ease.

Body scan technique

Another very doable meditation technique is the body scan technique. This technique is a very easy one and can be done in a short frame of time. It is a very good way to get some relief in stressful conditions which are very often faced by doctors.

1. Start by sitting in a quiet and comfortable space. Lying down is a better way to practise this technique.
2. Take a few deep breaths. Breathe using your belly instead of expanding the chest letting the abdomen contract and expand every time you breathe in and out.
3. Bring your attention to your feet. Start observing the sensations of your feet and slowly start moving your attention upwards and observe the sensation of every body part turn by turn at ease.
4. A lot of negative thoughts might rush in during this process. Try and imagine that as you scan your body, all these thoughts are moving out of the body thus leaving your body and escaping leaving only the positivity inside.

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Meditate without meditating

Meditation is an activity to relax your mind and that can be done through a lot of activities we can actually do pretty easily but often tend to ignore. These include:

• Have a mindful meal with all the focus on every morsel of food without the interference of devices
• Paint on a clean white sheet or canvas
• Clean the house on a lazy Sunday
• Go for a walk
• Start journaling

The art of meditation is not tough. It is all about the dedication one puts into it and the willingness with which you can accept the process. So sit back, grab your pair of earphones and relax! It's time to wind down.

Here are a few links to quick, easy and small guided meditation practices which can be practised by doctors by simply spending just 10-15 minutes a day.

• https://gailgazelle.com/meditation-on-letting-go/
• https://gailgazelle.com/befriending-the-body-2/
• https://psychcentral.com/blog/for-thanksgiving-week-4-quick-mindfulness-techniques#1
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bs0qUB3BHQ.

Click here to see references

Disclaimer- The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of M3 India.

About the author of this article: Dr Ridima Surve is a practising dentist from Mumbai.