Stress-Relief Resources
Breathe+ breathing app: easy to use breathing / pranayama timer to start your daily breath meditation experience. Not sure where to start? Ask Dr. Robertson to teach you how to use on your next visit.
Coherence / Coherent Breathing: a scientifically studied breathing style that aids in normalizing heart-rate variability, one of the newest heart health metrics. 2Bells is the track that I’ve been using for over 10 years in my own meditation practice. You can also find it on Spotify and a visual wave combined with 2Bells on Duck Player (free YouTube-style player on DuckDuckGo that skips the ads).
Meditation for the Real World by Ann Swanson, M.S., C-IAYT: a simple to understand, yet comprehensive guide to many styles of meditation with many in-book options for starting meditation today! (also for sale in the office)
Pause tactile meditation app: A simple on-the-go tai-chi style meditation app from ustwo that uses touch and sound to help you focus on what is happening right now rather than worrying about the future (anxiety) or being stressed about the past (stress/depression). UsTwo also has another interesting movement based meditation/tai chi app called Sway.
Plum Village Meditation app: A free app with guided meditations, deep relaxations and other practices offered by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community. Zen Buddhist concepts for secular people. Buddhism is a philosophy on how to live rather than a religion, so this style of meditation would not contradict one’s preexisting religious beliefs.
Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (tVNS) links: we have been recommending this website for many years for affordable programmable TENS units and ear clips for tVNS, a stress-reducing technique.
Find TENS unit here; and find ear clips here. NOTE: pacemakers and other electromagnetic devices may not be compatable with TENS/tVNS; check with your surgeon for most clarity before purchasing. Here is a paper on PubMed.gov that goes into great depth about tVNS.
Tricycle Daily Dharma app: Everything from simple free daily Buddhist insights and quotes to deeper dharma talks and meditation practices in the Buddhist tradition to help you on reducing your daily stresses.