Stress management & meditation

Learn about the importance of managing stress and how mindfulness and meditation can help

Stress management is a key element of the Overcoming MS Program. It can have significant benefits for your mental health and daily life by relieving stress, improving sleep, concentration and focus. It can even improve fatigue and reduce the risk of depression. When we are stressed, our body triggers the release of certain hormones that cause inflammation. This can even trigger MS relapses and make MS symptoms worse. The World Health Organization recognises stress as a risk to our physical and mental health.

Our 6 months to Overcoming MS Program in the Live Well Hub helps you develop a stress management routine step-by-step, so it becomes part of your life. Ready to manage your stress? Then why not try it!

We also provide free guided meditations and other resources to help you. Find what works best for managing your stress and make sure to incorporate it into your daily schedule.

Overcoming MS Facilitator Heather O’Neil talks about the interaction between stress and MS, and shares her suggestions for how this can be managed:

Getting started with stress management

The importance of reducing stress

November 4th marks National Stress Awareness Day, so we would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the importance of stress reduction, especially for those who have MS.

Sleep and MS: What you can do

For people living with MS, sleep plays a critical role in managing symptoms, stress and overall wellbeing – Overcoming MS Facilitator Heather O’Neil shares how our sleep is impacted by MS, and what we can do about it.

MS and mindfulness

Scientific research into MS and mindfulness proves the benefits of introducing mindful meditation into your daily routine to help manage stress and pain which is why it is a vital part of our Overcoming MS plan. Find out how it can help you.

Managing stress with breathwork

Véronique Gauthier-Simmons, the founder of Taming the Walrus, is an Advanced Breathwork facilitator. She explains how Breathwork can help you manage stress and anxiety.

30 day stress management guide

Our 30 Day Stress Management Guide gives you 30 suggestions for activities from the Overcoming MS community that can help you manage your stress levels. It’s designed to cater to people of all activity levels and interests, including a mix of grounding, social and individual activities that you can try.

Download now

30 day mindfulness guide

Our 30 Day Mindfulness Guide gives you 30 guided mindfulness exercises from the Overcoming MS community that can help you get started, and all of them are available for free online. Each day of the plan offers you a new guided meditation to listen to with all the guided meditations written by fellow OMSers.

Download now

Get started with meditation

Focusing your attention away from thoughts and towards the present moment, meditation encourages you to appreciate what is important without distraction.

If you’d like to try or improve meditation, we have picked out some useful pages to help you. This includes free guided meditations, recommended meditation apps and ‘Building a daily meditation practice’ podcast episode.

Guided Meditations Meditation apps Building a daily meditation practice - podcast

The Importance Of Stress Management

Stress and Multiple Sclerosis: Everything you need to know

Stress is an inevitable part of modern life. It has been shown to contribute to a long list of health problems such as chest pain, headaches, insomnia, stomach problems and a lowered immune system with more frequent infections.

The Mind-Body Connection

In today’s highly medicalized world, many of us – doctors included – sometimes forget that the mind has a tremendous ability to heal the body.

Meditation for MS

People with multiple sclerosis often ask: why is meditation important? There are many reasons for this, but one of the most important is its clinically proven effectiveness in reducing stress.

Learning to Meditate

Charlotte follows the Overcoming MS Program but initially struggled with the stress-reduction aspect of it. Here she writes about learning to meditate.

Ready to learn about the other Program pillars to support your wellbeing?

Learn about other Program pillars

Celebrate the stars in your life - take part in our festive fundraising appeal.