“Meditation can reintroduce you to the part that’s been missing.”
– Russel Simmons
America’s culture has become so fast-paced and “noisy”; moving from one task to another and at times hindering you from enjoying the joys of the small things in life.
If you are reading this article, I am confident you have experienced or felt “stress” at some point in your life (and most likely you are experiencing some degree of stress right now).
Chronic stress has negative impacts on your health including hypertension (or high blood pressure), anxiety/depression, fatigue, brain fog, heart disease, insomnia, irritability, blood sugar instability, weight gain or weight loss, and more.
A few quick statistics from The American Institute of Stress:
- Women are more stressed than men (sounds about right!)
- 83% of US workers report work related stress
- US businesses lose up to $300 billion yearly as a result of workplace stress (DANG!)
- Americans aged 30-49 are the most stressed age group
- 52% of Generation Z in the US have been diagnosed with mental health issues
- 57% of stressed out respondents are paralyzed by stress (yikes!)
- Both men and women handle stress by consuming more caffeine (31%), smoking (27%), and exercising more frequently (25%)
It is true that not all stress is negative. You need eustress or beneficial stress to have optimal performance at your job or day to day operations. However, chronic, poorly managed stress will disrupt your hormones, mental health, and overall well-being.
A quick (and easy) question to see if you are in a state of healthy stress or not:
Do you feel like you are surviving or thriving? If you feel like you are just surviving, the rest of this article is for you!
At STAT Wellness, we put emphasis on mindfulness and meditation as a tool to help you cope and manage stress. Understanding that stress is a perception, we strive to help our patients find calmness in the storm. Since unfortunately not all stress can be eliminated.
In addition, meditation can help with heart health, anxiety, depression, mental clarity, sleep, stress management and productivity; when paired with sound therapy it can also help with pain (as this study found with patients with fibromyalgia).
Since meditation is our go-to recommendation to help you find inner peace and stillness in this crazy and noisy world (and reduce your risk of chronic disease). We decided to partner with Intown Salt Room to do our first unofficial pilot study with nine women to determine the effects of meditation with sound therapy. Each participant did two 30 minute meditation sessions with sound therapy per week for 6 weeks.
The participants wore headphones and laid on one of their zero gravity Wave Loungers with built in Acoustic Resonance Technology™ for a whole body sensory experience (as shown in the picture above).
Here is what some of the participants said:
- “I found it very relaxing. The combination of the sounds, smells, vibration, and ambiance really promoted this”
- “I really enjoyed the entire experience. It took me about two sessions to be able to relax fully during the sessions, but after that I felt great during and when I left.”
- “I noticed how a few concentrated minutes of deep breath could really take an edge off current stress or anxiety.”
Through an anonymous survey we found:
- 100% of our participants reported feeling relaxed when they left
- 100% of our participants said they would recommend this to their friends
- 100% of the participants felt improvements in peace and overall calmness.
- 80% of our participants actually fell asleep during the sessions
- 80% were able to fully clear their mind during the sessions
- 80% noticed improvements in their breathing
- 20% noticed improvements in their overall sleep, anxiety, and muscle tension
The participants reported it taking anywhere from 5-10 minutes to fully be able to disconnect and relax. They found it was easier to get into a “relaxed” state the more times they went (maybe meditation is a trained skill?).
The biggest challenge for the participants was keeping the peace and calmness throughout the day after the meditation session ended. Some participants downloaded apps like HeadSpace, Calm, or Meditation Studio App to encourage and motivate them to continue their meditation practice outside of Intown Salt Room.
All participants felt that the sound therapy portion was crucial to their overall experience. If you have never tried meditation with sound therapy for yourself, we highly recommend Intown Salt Room. They offer 30 minute meditation with sound therapy for $30 or take advantage of the intro deal which is 3-session intro package for $65.
We love it so much we are going to do a STAT Wellness team retreat there soon!
Have you tried it? Share your experience below.
