If I had to pick one word to describe the year 2020 it wouldn't be "unprecedented" or "challenging" it would be "stressful". I think the emotion of stress sums up just about everyone's experience during this year regardless of socio economic status, party identification, race, or employment. Those who are employed stress about getting exposed to coronavirus at work while those who are unemployed stress about not having enough money to feed their families. People everywhere were stressed about the presidential election and about how to safely operate during the approaching holiday season. I haven't even mentioned the stress parents endured in trying to breach the topic of police brutality and racism with their young children as protests broke out across our nation and the world. Regardless of who you are I am willing to bet that you experienced stress this year maybe even more than in years past.

With so much stress building up and so few outlets to channel it into, mental health across the country has been on the decline recently. And this isn't just an American problem either; the number of deaths by suicide in Japan in the year 2020 has outpaced the number of deaths due to coronavirus. Our usual means of dealing with negative emotions have been largely cut off as well, with limited social interactions and an increased inability to connect intimately with others who can relate to our personal experiences. That's why I think it's so important that everyone learn about this one simple way to channel your stress and negative energy into something that is positive.

Meditation is something that always seemed out of reach to me. When I heard the word "meditation" I thought "that's something some people do, but it's not something for me to do". This mindset came largely from the fact that I had next to no knowledge about what meditation was or the many forms it could take. Upon taking classes on Buddhism in college though, I learned that meditation is actually very accessible and easy to do. Below, I've outlined one of my favorite quick and easy meditations from a book on mindfulness you can find at this link here. Doing this meditation just once or twice every week has helped me to remain grounded in the present moment and encouraged me to remain focused on the now rather than on what might happen in a hypothetical future. For me, meditation is a way to tell my brain to settle and be quiet. I hope that you can find a similar experience with your own meditation and mindfulness practice and that this easy meditation will help the relentless stress of 2020 melt away.

If you were practicing while reading this article, congrats! You just meditated! While it's unlikely that anyone will experience some immediate lifting of all stress and negativity after only practicing once, doing this meditation and others with some frequency will definitely help you to reframe your mindset and engage with the world in a more positive way. I hope that this article has helped to demystify meditation for some of you, and that you find the practice to be useful in your lives as I have found it in my own. Let me know if you are interested in reading more about other types of meditation and mindfulness in the future!