meditation

[vonnhelsing]

After 4 years of chronic anxiety, i've reached a level where i've finally started to understand anxiety and how it works. I'd like to share how i've learnt to cope with it. Anxiety puts enormous strain on our bodies and leaves us feeling powerless, weak and mentally exhausted. What i do is get regular spa and herbal therapy, lots of massages and about an hour of meditation every night. Anxiety robs us of all our energy and although we do regain some of that energy in deep sleep, it isn't sufficient to get us through the day especially if we're working and having anxiety on top of that. "Sleep is unconscious meditation. Meditation is conscious sleep". Give your mind a well-deserved rest. Meditation blanks your mind and lets you remove those negative thoughts. It takes a few times to reach that proper level of complete relaxation. It took me a while but when i reached it wow i had never felt so relaxed. It felt like i was floating and i felt so fresh and energized afterwards. So now, whenever i start feeling anxious i go somewhere quiet and do quick meditation. Sometimes it just simply stopping all functions of our body and mind, closing your eyes, and observing your breath. Don't analyze it. just observe it. It really worked for me, i think everyone should give it a shot. there's tons of vids on youtube teaching you how to do it. :)

[alankay]

Von, yep. Just as your system "learned" the full Anxiety Response it can learn the Relaxation Response which is what you've accomplished. The more you do it, the better your system will get at it. Great thing to learn! Alankay.

[jessed03]

I felt pretty much the exact same way when I begun mediation. I managed to cut severe addictions, and managed to allow my nervous system to recover, and become even stronger after a severe nervous breakdown which lead to hospitalization.

It was just really profound for me. It works well for some people, it seems I was one of them. 70% of my life was simply me in my head, reliving events, working out my prejudices, creating stories, predicting outcomes and deciding whether what was happening was good or bad. I just took on this new calmness when I stopped taking part in it all. It felt like getting off the treadmill, and realizing I was running to nowhere.

I think people get put off by it, as it sounds very confusing, or spiritual. It can be very easy, easier in fact than trying to mull everything over in our minds.

[scared&worried]

I agree. I have recently started meditation/progressive muscle relaxation and found that it has worked wonders for me. It's helped me to get better sleep lately too!!

[chilliconcarnage]

Ive been thinking about doing meditation. Hearing people say that its good just spurs me on to try it even more.

[jessed03]

I agree. I have recently started meditation/progressive muscle relaxation and found that it has worked wonders for me. It's helped me to get better sleep lately too!!

I think it was this combination that really set me on my way to over coming anxiety. After doing it for around 6 months, I noticed massive improvements. I hope you stick at it :)

[plumb]

I think it was this combination that really set me on my way to over coming anxiety. After doing it for around 6 months, I noticed massive improvements. I hope you stick at it :)

for yous that feel that meditation has helped is there any particular type you would recommend?

[jessed03]

for yous that feel that meditation has helped is there any particular type you would recommend?

I think it depends which part of anxiety, or life is bothering you.

In my case, my mind would race, not just about anxiety, but in general. I would constantly be thinking about something, analyzing something. Most of it repetitive and 90% of it useless. In my case, by focusing my meditation on my breath, or on an object, and simply allowing my mind to focus on something, really silenced it. I removed that 90% that was irrelevant junk, and was left with the 10% that was positive and creative.

I mean if you're the same, it's a good place to start. Place your attention at your nostrils, feel the air coming in, then going out. Don't make any comment, like big breath, deep breath, breathing in/breathing out. Simply watch and feel as air flows in through your nostril. You can notice how when you breathe out, there is that slight anxiety present in your body, then you breathe in and there is momentary relief, as oxygen is present. This alone is so symbolic of life. We have a desire, we satisfy it, we get relief, the desire is replaced, we have tension, we satisfy it, it is replaced... After a while your breath will calm. Simply let it happen. Become an observer.

Everything in life is flowing. Everything is impermanent. Changing. Like breath.

[vonnhelsing]

meditation is just meditation. you sit in a comfortable position, put on some relaxing music and really blank your mind completely. it's really hard at first cause we start thinking about things but keep trying and you will eventually feel your mind getting blank and when you reach that point is ultimate relaxation. it feels like you're sleeping but you're awake. if you're trying it for the first time i suggest you go on youtube, search "how to meditate" and click on the second video. it's by "TrungEdm". watch all part 1 to 5. i've downloaded the mp3 and i listen to it whenever i feel anxious and usually after part 2 or 3 my minds already completely relaxed...

really focus on it dont let your mind wander.

:) xxx

[vonnhelsing]

jessed03,

so true what you said about feeling the anxiety as you're breathing out. when im anxious and i breathe out deeply i can feel the anxiety inside..

[jessed03]

Or if you like Vonn Helsing's idea, the object instead of being breath, or a candle, can simply be music :)

It gave me a really alive kind of feeling. Really peaceful and totally refreshed, when I stopped labelling sounds as "Loud" Quiet" "Cowbell" "Violin" "Fast" "Slow" etc, and just sat and witnessed them. It was like hearing for the first time. As V.H. pointed out, gently re-focus your mind when it wanders and you feel yourself drifting off into thought or something.

I read something really nice in a book, that I'll copy, as your post reminded me of it.

“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”