Morning meditation can help us learn to start the day with positivity and fend off worry, says Julia Rucklidge, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury. Photo: University of Canterbury
Until a couple of years ago, Julia Rucklidge assumed her own 'mile-a-minute' brain would never be capable of meditation.
But tasked with teaching about the science of wellbeing, the University of Canterbury psychology professor - and director of the university's Te Puna Toiora/ Mental Health and Nutrition Research Lab - realised she had to give it a go.
Now, every morning before her cold-water shower, Rucklidge starts up her Insight Timer app for a 10-minute session.
She highly recommends everyone try out morning meditation with a free app.
"You're going to have a more calm day, you're going to start on a good note and that's going to influence your experience and the interactions that you have with other people."
Meditation in the morning not only helps put a positive spin on your day, it's been shown to regulate stress and blood pressure levels, Rucklidge tells RNZ's On The Air.
It is also a way to "reclaim the real estate" of our own minds.
"We can spend so much time ruminating about how we've messed up in our past or worrying about how things are going to go in the future."
While learning how to meditate, Rucklidge discovered that part of the process is accepting that your mind will inevitably keep wandering off to produce thoughts.
To bring it back to the present, some people internally repeat a mantra, she says, but many simply focus on observing and slowing down the flow of their breath.
Professor Rucklidge recommends influential medical-celebrity Dr Andrew Weil's 4-7-8 breathing technique.
And with the health benefits of cold water treatments now backed up by science, students in Rucklidge's 200-level Science and Practice of Wellbeing course endured sitting in 8C ice baths.
While many were very scared in advance, she says, they all reported benefits from pushing through the initial panic.
Learn more:
- Dr Michael Mosley on cold showers: "Stay in long enough to control your breathing"
- Black Fern Sarah Hirini on cold showers: "There's constant questions in your mind, but then you do it and get out and you're like - oh yeah, that was amazing"
- Dr Harriet Gross on wellbeing benefits from gardening: "It's an opportunity to kind of just let things wash over you"
It's really hard for your mind to be chaotic when the strong sensations of cold water have you focused on the present moment, Rucklidge says.
"It gives you a little space so that you can then better reflect on what's really bugging you, and become able to work through that more easily."
Starting the day calm and with space to think can help make the rest of the day better, Julia Rucklidge says. Photo: Public domain
As we now know, being around nature is good for our health, Rucklidge says, so her PSYC214 students also learned to tend the soil in community gardens.
While bush bathing - the Japanese-inspired practice of sitting or lying on the forest floor - is a great idea when available, just getting in your own garden will boost wellbeing, Rucklidge says.
And because simply being in the presence of "greenery" has mood benefits, she says we're wise to seek it out as often as possible.
"If you can even look after a plant then I'd recommend you start there," Rucklidge says.
