Declutter your mind of an over abundance of anxiety to achieve a healthy, positive well-being.
Declutter your mind of an over abundance of anxiety to achieve a healthy, positive well-being.
There is no better time to take control and dig deeper into our emotional and mental well-being. From the comfort of our homes (or armchair), we can seek alternative ways and take this opportunity to try out new things to chill, destress, reconnect – and thrive.
Let the sound in, and calm your mind and body with yoga and qigong.
Chill With Crystal “Singing” Bowls
Reconnect with your body, relax and recharge with the soothing, vibrating sounds of the crystal “singing” bowls in this hour-long class by reiki teacher Jaslyn Kee Ng.
She begins her guided sound meditation while playing seven chakras crystal “singing” bowls throughout the session. Participants are to find a quiet comfortable space, bed or chair at home to rest on before the session begins. Put on earphones so that you can hear the tones and vibrations of the “singing” bowls clearly.
Each crystal bowl is different when it comes to the tones, chakra centres, and “healing” properties. Empty your mind and let the vibrating sounds travel throughout your body to renew energy levels.
Register for this evening session from 6pm to 7pm ($30 per person) at One Heart Singapore at bit.ly/2Rt2l85.
Inner calm with qigong
Improve your breathing, flexibility and blood circulation with qigong exercises with qigong teacher and Chinese physician, Dr Aihan Kuhn. Her 43-minute session ($29.99) at bit.ly/2y2h1ED covers the basic qigong exercises.
You can also head to her Youtube channel at bit.ly/3ccAaCz, where you can find different kinds of qiqong workouts, from 10-week Beginning Guide, Healing For Back Pain, Fan Training to Body and Mind, and Therapeutic Qigong.
Yoga with Adriene Mishler
She’s the popular Youtube yoga teacher from Austin, Texas, with six million followers – and she’s on a mission to get more people to do yoga at home and in schools. She now has online yoga courses (from $28) on her website (yogawithadriene.com). They include specific routines like Yoga Ritual, Morning Yoga, Transformative Yoga Flow, Home Yoga Practice, 7-Day Chakra Ride, and Prenatal Yoga.
You can also check out her extensive library of free, high quality yoga videos on Youtube at bit.ly/3b1w002.
The smartphone way to inner calm and peace.
Mindfulness apps to help you relax, deal with stress and tuck you in at night.
Calm
The moment you log on to the app, it tells you to take a deep breath, then asks you what’s your goal for the day before you begin. Whether it’s reducing coronavirus anxiety, developing gratitude, increasing happiness or reducing stress, the free-to-download app (with an annual subscription of $134.98) has a variety of voice-guided meditations to choose from. Each meditation session is between 10 and 15 minutes.
And Calm has an impressive catalogue of soothing music and ambient noises to keep you relaxed. It has even curated sounds by electronic music DJs – Above & Beyond, and Moby.
A favourite section is the Sleep Stories section that will set you in the mood. Drool: Dreamy bedtime stories read by famous voices like actor Matthew McConaughey.
Headspace
What’s unique about this free-to-download app (with in-app purchases) is the feature called Sleepcast – a sleep meditation-podcast hybrid to help you to relax. Here, a collection of 45 to 55-minute stories are told in soothing voices that begin with a wind-down meditation or breathing exercise, followed by a narrated tour of somewhere truly chill.
The voices and settings evoke feelings of reassurance and safety. You can toggle the ratio of ambience to voice, and pick from a range of scenarios, or more accurately “tour” through the settings like Midnight Laundrette, Night Swimming and Desert Campfire.
Each recording is changed up each night, which means the story is slightly different so you can’t memorise the narrative,and use it to track the passage of time, which Headspace says may cause anxiety for restless sleepers.
With a user-friendly interface, this mindfulness app offers four sections – Managing Anxiety and Stress, Sleeping Soundly, Being More Active, and Trying Something New. You can set your mornings with a positive message for a week.
To get started, the app will also lead you through a three to 10-minute course on the basics of practising mindfulness and meditation.
Thereafter, head to either Sleep, Move or Explore on the menu. More active users can find guided exercise sessions like Mindful Cardio in Move, or you can learn to let your body recover with Rest Day Meditation.
Headspace’s meditation sessions in Explore are structured according to specific needs under Stress Management, Personal Growth and Performance Mindset.
Breethe has created a free collection of meditations called Inner Wellness for Coronavirus. Not surprisingly, it has turned into the app’s second most popular meditation now, after its sleep meditation.
Breethe wants to address the common fears and concerns, and the curated collection includes meditations that cover topics like Overcoming Coronavirus Anxiety, Self Care During the Coronavirus, My Family Drives Me Nuts (yep, you read right!), Reboot Your Focus, and Financial Anxiety. Each session is between seven and 15 minutes.
The free-to-download app also guides you throughout the day, from waking up to going to sleep, providing supportive tools to help you stay on track with meditation.
It regularly uploads new content tailored to different needs, from work, sleep to relationship, and body image issues.
Activities that help you focus and unwind.
Spiroglyphics
At first, all you see are simple spirals, but when you take a closer look and start to colour between the lines, you’ll see the face of a music icon taking shape.
This is the latest mind-bending graphic puzzle by creative genius Thomas Pavitte, who’s also behind the best-selling 1000 Dot-to-Dot, and Querkles.
The spiroglyphics collection of 20 puzzles features music legends such as Elvis Presley, Madonna and David Bowie. Get it at www.amazon.sg for $17.24.
The Mindfulness Coloring Book (Volume Two)
Take a break from screen time and find a moment of peace with this pocket-sized colouring book with 100 beguiling patterns.
Relax and recentre by colouring the delightful, hand drawn scenes – intricate geometric patterns, flowers, squirrels, owls, butterflies, charming knick-knacks, and more.
The award-winning colouring series by French illustrator Emma Farrarons has other titles – Anti-Stress Art Therapy, and Moments of Mindfulness. Get each volume for $22.16 at www.amazon.sg.
Penguin Pandemonium
This is perhaps one of the most interesting jigsaw puzzles ever made: repetitive colours of the same subject – adorable penguins. The 231-piece jigsaw also comes with eight types of identical pieces in the shape of snowflakes. But don’t expect to fit any piece around the frame to use it as a guide – it has no straight edges. A picture of the puzzle is the only reference.
It can take up to five days to complete. That’s if you focus – and not see “doubles” by the time you complete the first penguin. Buy it for £35.00 ($62) at bit.ly/2UXtZMH.
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