Stress Relief Isn’t Always About Stress Reduction

Susan Brumbaugh
6 min readApr 27, 2021

Stress is a fact of life, so let’s learn to work with it and drop the struggle.

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

When I lead group meditations, a frequent request is for something to help with stress. None of us want to have stress or be stressed, but it does come with being human, doesn’t it? We all want to be relieved from stress but, of course, it is a reality and everyone experiences it.

By exploring stress in meditation, we can allow ourselves to explore the kinds of things that make us feel stressed, notice the impact that that has on our bodies, and allow things to be the way they are, because we usually can’t change them. But in that space that we create, perhaps we can find ways to behave and act that will bring some benefit to us.

I’m a licensed mental health counselor who enjoys sharing mindful meditations and information about mindfulness. Below is a transcript of a meditation I led on this topic, and at the end of the article, you’ll find a link to the meditation video. In this meditation, instead of struggling with stress, we actually explore the types of things that tend to bring stress, notice what happens in the body, and find ways to function better even when we feel stressed.

Transcript

Let’s take a few moments to acknowledge that we are in the midst of busy times…

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Susan Brumbaugh
Susan Brumbaugh

Written by Susan Brumbaugh

Susan Brumbaugh is a criminal justice researcher who telecommutes, a licensed counselor, a mindfulness meditation practitioner, and a perpetual learner.

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