Simply put, I’m happy to be able to test out the ideas put forth by meditation and mindfulness when I get into a stressful situation. Not to say I don’t feel stressed anymore. Far from it. The stress is still very real and incredibly demotivating. However, I do notice and observe a distinct difference now compared to just a few months ago prior to my initial foray into meditation.

Whereas before, stress felt like I was drowning and waves just kept on crashing down. Now, stress still feels like drowning with waves crashing down. But these days, there’s a strong tether present which gives me a bit of hope rather than leaving myself spiraling deeper into misery. I also feel that if I can just find a way to pull on that tether even harder (and get better at it i.e. meditation and mindfulness), then I’ll be able to get myself out of the water for good.

For my future reference, I’d like to highlight a few things that have really helped me out so far:

• Noting — or the mindfulness practice of calling out your current state e.g., I feel frustrated and letting the emotions ebb and flow. I now know emotions can calm down without me having to act on it.
• Kindness — especially kindness to oneself. Dreadfully cheesy, but hey let’s embrace the cheese.
• Impermanence — just as how good things won’t last, bad things won’t either. So stress will always be there, but at the same time it’ll also disappear after some time if you don’t cling to it. So don’t.