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How can we stay mentally healthy in quarantine?
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Meditation helps relax people's minds to stay mentally healthy during quarantine.

Sometimes we all need a break. Cut off from reality by adopting simple meditation principles that require nothing more than five minutes of silence. Meditation can help a person stay relaxed. Thus, people should practice meditation in order to maintain a mentally healthy condition during quarantine at home.

The Argument

While certain areas are starting to re-open businesses and public spaces, there are many of us who are still stuck in our homes for the most part. The uncertain and frightening nature of the current pandemic has many people feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and generally more anxious than ever. Meditation allows some space into a day to focus all of one's energy inwards on oneself rather than outwards upon the scary outside world. Spending time every day to focus on the current moment can be remarkably centering on one's mind. Meditation can help to eliminate that “lost” feeling that one might be experiencing since it focuses the brain on the moment. Many people report that this adds a tangibility to their day’s experience, which can be comforting during times of uncertainty. Being present with one's immediate surroundings is often much more comforting than focusing on the stressful outside world. “Many people who try meditation for the first time erroneously believe that the point is to clear the mind of thoughts," said Michael Haederle, a lay Zen monk who leads a sitting group in Albuquerque and, as a journalist, has written about the neuroscience of meditation. “When attempting a simple practice, like following the breath, they realize their minds are very busy. That isn’t a sign of failure, though; recognizing that our minds are unruly is the starting point for a meditation practice.”

Counter arguments

There are different types of meditation and not every type would be suitable for everyone. For example, Budhhist Vipassana meditation is very difficult to practice for extrovert types, a type of personality or hyperactive people. But "Yoga Nidra" meditation, which follows a quick pace moving the focus through different body parts, would work very well in such cases. Many clients have failed experience with meditation. Most of the time it is due to applying one specific meditation technique in a group set-up and as a result, some people would enjoy it and do well while others may experience frustration and feeling of failure. Also, in meditation one connect to one's internal space, and depending on what one stored in one's internal space, meditation may release emotional and mental blockages, from abuse and traumatic images to unprocessed anxiety, grief, or anger. In conclusion, not every type of meditation would be suitable for everyone. It would be great to practice appropriate types of meditation under the guidance of professionals.[1]

Proponents

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_meditation_have_negative_side_effects
This page was last edited on Friday, 17 Jul 2020 at 16:35 UTC

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