In their 2005 psychological research, the National Science Foundation found that the average person has somewhere between 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. That same year, a follow-up study done by Cornell University showed that 85% of what we think about never happens. Furthermore, for the remaining 15% of what we think about, 79% of participants expressed that they could handle the difficulties they were thinking of better than expected, or that the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning.

Graduate school is tough, exhausting, and demanding, and for many current students it’s a lot of what they think about. By practicing skills based on the science of mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), you can help yourself mitigate the stress you’re feeling. These skills are free, easy to implement, and empirically proven, not to mention they are based on and developed from millennia-old practices within Buddhism and Hinduism. While these techniques are informed by Eastern theologies, these techniques are secular, nonsectarian, practical tools that can help one find more tranquility within oneself regardless of one’s own religious or spiritual identities; perhaps they might even help one develop a renewed sense of attentiveness and presence to one’s own respective religious affiliations and beliefs.

The effects of stress can cause health problems over time. University of Massachusetts Medical School professor and researcher, Jon Kabat-Zinn, created the MBSR training program to help his students and patients improve work performance, lower stress, and reduce anxiety. Here are some guidelines taken directly from the mindfulness expert himself: 
 

1. Stop and drop. “Dropping in” is a stress management technique that helps center you in the present moment. You can use an object like a tennis ball to focus your attention, then physically drop it from one hand into the other to signify your recognition of a stressful event. Using a small physical activity can help you ground yourself, drawing your focus outside of your mind. 
    
2. Focus on your breathing. Another relaxation technique to help de-stress involves paying attention to your breathing. Focusing on your breathing gives you another way to separate your brain from its addled or overwhelmed state. Here are some techniques to start with:
   1. Ujjayi. Referred to as “victorious breath,” this type of yogic breathing involves gently narrowing your throat while inhaling to create resistance as air passes through the body. Ujjayi breathing creates a snore-like sound that can be soothing for some. 
   2. Nadi Shodhana. Also known as “alternate nostril breathing,” this technique involves alternating inhalations and exhalations through the right nostril and left nostril, which correlates with the emotional and logical halves of our brain. The balancing aspect of this technique can be calming and aid in concentration. To better practice this, try placing one finger on the opposite nostril through which you are inhaling or exhaling. 
   3. Kapalabhati. Kapalabhati, or “skull shining breath,” involves gentle inhaling and forceful exhaling. This technique is used to purge the body of toxins. 
   4. Bhastrika. Also known as “bellow’s breathing” or “stimulating breath,” is a form of breathing that involves aggressive inhalation and exhalation patterns, which can have an energizing effect and help calm the mind. Be careful not to get too light-headed.
   5. Bhramari. Bhramari breathing, also referred to as “humming bee breath,” involves taking long deep inhales, coupled with a “humming exhalation.” The humming sound and gentle vibration can give you a calming sensation to focus on, helping to calm a busy, buzzing mind. 
       
3. Acknowledge your thoughts. Treat whatever thought arises in your mind with the same degree of importance as what you had for breakfast three days ago. This way, however much emotional valence it carries, you can view it as an impersonal event in the field of awareness, rather than getting sucked into the fear of anxiety of the thought. I had a high school religion teacher once provide the image of thoughts as clouds passing in a blue sky: notice them, and let them go. 
    
4. Take responsibility. Blaming everyone and everything else for your stressful state is unproductive and does not help combat your issue’s root cause. Understand that you are responsible for how you react and behave, regardless of the occurring stimuli. You cannot control the situations or events that happen to you, but you do have control over how you react. Acknowledge the agency you have within yourself.
5. Know you can make the change. You can make changes to end habitual stress reactivity. Be mindful of how many times during the day you “lose your mind” -- even a little bit. Take note of these moments, but try not to get deeply rooted in them or take yourself too seriously. Laughing about more stressful events in your life can help you let them go. 
    
6. Be aware of selfing. “Selfing” refers to the stories we tell ourselves about our experiences, how much we’re hurting, or how stressed or hopeless we feel. When you find yourself caught in the personal pronouns of your emotional pain and physical pain and the stories that generate out of that, remember that the narrative you create about yourself is a tiny part of who you are. In fact, only you have control over the narrative that you tell or believe about yourself. 

If you find yourself scoffing or laughing at these ideas or practices, notice that your immediate response is to deny an opportunity to be present with yourself, and open yourself to an alternative way of understanding your present narrative. In a published set of lectures to students and teachers in 1899, American psychologist William James noted that American society distinctly lacks a practice to moderate the “piercing voices in our minds, relax [our] unused muscles, and when sitting stay quite still as much as possible.” Perhaps he was onto something that has been missing from our curriculums, as mindfulness has now become the focus of a growing field of clinical research and healthcare practices, and has been increasingly instituted into our education systems from as early on as kindergarten. In our American go-getter society stillness can sometimes be viewed as a form of laziness or stagnation, but perhaps there is productivity in quieting ourselves and our minds for a few moments every day.