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Meditation and relaxation

You may sometimes feel like you're living so fast that you can't settle down for a few minutes and really live in the moment. Between commuting, attending classes, spending time with your friends, remembering to book your tickets to go back home, dealing with college paperwork, etc, you might feel overwhelmed by negative thoughts ("I'm a failure", "I'm not going to make it") which can make you feel like you are not able to be fully present. This can make you feel sad, anxious or mentally tired.

Mindfulness is a natural state in which we feel that we are truly in the present moment, fully aware of what we are experiencing, of our environment, of our body, of what we are feeling. It is about taking a break and observing what you are experiencing instead of experiencing it automatically.

This natural state of mindfulness usually comes when you are focused on your senses and body sensations: for example, when you eat a good meal, when you are in front of a beautiful landscape, when you listen to the rain fall etc. When you experience a moment of mindfulness, you are not thinking about your upcoming exams or issues with your loved ones: it makes you feel good, rested and refreshed.

Some meditation techniques can allow you to reach this natural state. Nightline is partnering up with Petit BamBou, a meditation app that allows you to learn how to meditate in an educational and gradual way. You can access a free discovery course with 8 sessions that you can do as often as you like.

Practicing meditation regularly allows you to live more in the present moment and in full awareness of yourself and others, to be really connected to yourself and your breathing for a few minutes a day, to take a very pleasant break from your daily hustle. It also has many long-term benefits, on your mental health, anxiety, mood, sleep, motivation, etc.

This practice can calm you down for a particular moment or accompany you every day, it's up to you.

If you feel that you are not getting the full meditation experience, you can try the quiet crisis, which lasts only 3 minutes and is freely available on the app. It might be better for you!

Another technique used in mindfulness meditation is the bodyscan.

The body scan involves focusing your attention on your whole body and the sensory information it sends to you, concentrating on each part of your body one after the other. Being aware of your body is essential for a calm mind. Practised regularly, body scanning has positive effects on our mental health and awareness of our body sensations.

Petit BamBou offers a free breathing exercice in which you can find different techniques including the body scan: you can watch the video below to try it out.

Cardiac coherence is a simple exercise in breath control that allows us to act on our stress and anxiety in the short and long term. Practised regularly or occasionally, this exercise has many benefits for our mental and physical health.

Tip: before an exam, an interview or an important moment, you can take a short moment to experience cardiac coherence in order to reduce your stress.

Our heart is an organ that functions autonomously and its activity adapts to the situations we encounter and the emotions we experience: if we have to flee, fight, or be mobilised, its rhythm accelerates; conversely, if we are relaxed, at rest, and at ease, its rhythm decreases.

Although our heart functions autonomously, we can control our heartbeat by controlling our breathing. This influences the activity of our nervous system and allows us to relax.

The exercise to reach the state of equilibrium of cardiac coherence is quite simple to set up.

All you have to do is breathe in a certain way: breathe in for five seconds, then breathe out for five seconds (which corresponds to six breaths per minute), and breathe in this way for five minutes.

For a long-term state of well-being, it is advisable to do 5 minutes of cardiac coherence 3 times a day (when you wake up, before lunch, at the end of the day). This exercise can also be used occasionally when you feel stressed (for example before an exam) or when you have trouble falling asleep.

If you want to try cardiac coherence, you can use this content. Pay attention to how you feel after this exercise: do you feel more relaxed, more rested?

Deep breathing is another breathing technique that helps to relax and reduce stress levels.

It is slow, deep, abdominal breathing that mobilises our diaphragm. This breathing is also natural (it can be observed, for example, when we are sleeping).

To do this, you need to breathe "with your belly", i.e. by inflating your belly with air when you breathe in (and not your rib cage, which is the way we usually breathe).

Place your hand on your belly and take a deep breath (for 5 seconds), paying attention to the movement of your hand on your belly. Hold your breath for two seconds and then breathe out slowly in 5 seconds and repeat. Stop after a few minutes and ask yourself how you feel.

This exercise is a great way to reduce your stress level and can be helpful in stressful situations.