Consistent daily practice of meditation (guided, silent and mantra) can help to alleviate symptoms of depression, anxiety and mental distress during COVID-19 and improve overall mental well-being and quality of life.

My goal is to teach meditation tools to my client to improve symptoms of depression, anxiety and mental distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and to help her improve her quality of life. The plan will be to meet with my client 2x/week for 30 minutes/session. The metric used will be a simple 0-6 pre- and post- questionnaire.

Description: 49y female Medical History: History of HTN, hypoactive thyroid and anxiety Medications: Amlodipine, Benazepril, Synthroid, Lexapro, Vit D, Vit B12, Omega-3 Symptoms: Bouts of intermittent depression and anxiety due to changes implemented post-pandemic (business shut down, working from home, child at home w/ virtual school for 1 1/2 years) Current Treatment and Plan of Care: Lexapro and inconsistent yoga, meditation and exercise; also sees MD regularly for hypertension and thyro

I envisioned working with this client 2x/week for 30 min each over the course of 4 weeks to meditate, teach meditation techniques and types and to make weekly stress management plans for her to follow through with during the week on her own. Types of meditation included guided Metta meditation, guided meditation using imagery and positive affirmation, silent meditation and mantra. We discussed different ways to meditate in a conversational way in order to educate her on options. We discussed the use of apps like Insight Timer and Calm as options for her to use on her own as well.

I used a simple pre- and post- questionnaire to define efficacy of our work together to see if adding in meditation on a regular basis would help reduce the stress, depression and anxiety she is experiencing as a result of the pandemic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8144767/

I used the Hatha yoga branch to support my goals of reducing COVID specific stress my client is experiencing. The use of meditation has been shown to be efficacious in reducing stress, and some new research is showing that yoga and meditation in particular are good tools in order to reduce the mental distress people are facing as a result of COVID-19.
J Family Med Prim Care. 2021 Apr; 10(4): 1576–1581.

My client was fun to work with and eager to work together. She was able to feel the benefits of the meditation immediately which was great as the practitioner and I'm confident that these are tools she'll continue to work with as she continues to navigate through the mental distress of the pandemic.

I advised my client to continue with a daily meditation practice 2x/day (15-20 min in the AM and PM) and to use the tools I taught her in our sessions. I also suggested the use of the apps (Insight Timer and Calm) as well, if needed.

Yes, I applied my intended plan with this client. I feel that we made some progress but I believe that with the level of stress she's experiencing, it will take more time. I strongly encouraged her to maintain a daily Sādhanā and to maintain consistency.

I did not have to adapt anything in my plan. I learned that I prefer having a client go through some asana before slowing down into meditation. I think it helps to move the body first and then ease into the meditation and seems a more natural progression (gross to subtle transition).

If I was faced with the same situation again I might start my sessions with a bit of movement first and then move into the meditation portion of the sessions. In this particular case, I was only doing 30 min sessions so that wasn't possible but I prefer the heating aspect of movement to then ease into the meditation. However, the sessions did go well and I feel that my client benefited a lot from them.