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Meditations to heal anxiety?
Keyouse
Explorer
Hello! Thank you for checking out this thread. I have general anxiety. I have anxiety related to health, the unknown, the dark, lack of control. I also have anxiety when I do not understand why. Because of my general anxiety, cigarettes and caffeine easily make me anxious.
I am wondering what kind of meditations/visualizations I should undertake in order to cure my anxiety. I also want to understand the causes for the anxiety that I feel, of which I do no understand the origin. Perhaps there are subconscious things bothering me that I do not realize. What meditations will also help me to become fearless in general and fearless of death?
Thank you!
I am wondering what kind of meditations/visualizations I should undertake in order to cure my anxiety. I also want to understand the causes for the anxiety that I feel, of which I do no understand the origin. Perhaps there are subconscious things bothering me that I do not realize. What meditations will also help me to become fearless in general and fearless of death?
Thank you!
0
Comments
You might also want to investigate psychological therapies for managing anxiety.
Where we normally guard our identity, a complete surrender to anything that challenges our identity is repeatedly embraced. It is just the meditative equivalent of a full bow.
Anxiety gives way to equanimity after the supposed sacrifices offered in such a meditative practise illuminate nothing more than the deeper truth that there never was, is, or will be, a separate self to protect.
The best way to lower your anxiety is to stop pushing it away, give into it and allow yourself to be really anxious.
It just works.
1. That Simon and Garfunkel song, "Hello darkness, my old friend...".
2. A top ultra runner says that when she's ran for miles and starts to feel tired, she embraces the fatigue, she looks forward to it, she gets to know it, and the better she knows it, the less power it has over her.
I would recommend to you the teachings of Pema Chodron (a Western Tibetan nun, who has teachings you can purchase in book, cd, mp3 download forms).
She deals a lot with how you approach your daily living, and particular in how we handle our fear (which is what anxiety stems from). We all fear, you know, in one way or another. You can purchase teachings here:
http://www.pemachodrontapes.com/store/
However, I would first recommend that you look for her on YouTube .. listen to her and see if she "speaks to you".
One of my main triggers is being late. I hate being late, ever, and any time I'm in a situation with a time frame, I will run through it as a practice session first. Like, if I have a job interview in an area I don't know, I will drive there to make sure I know how to get there, where to park, etc. It eases my anxiety, I sleep at night and all goes smoothly. Drives people nuts sometimes that I need to do that, but it doesn't affect them so why should they care?
Some situations I have to deal with that I utterly hate, but I just sometimes have to suck it up and do them, often things involving my kids fundraising activities. I'd rather get my wisdom teeth pulled than do fundraising, but I have to do it, so I do, and I just remind myself that no matter what happens, I'm not going to die, that in X hours it'll be over, I'll survive, nothing is going to happen I can't deal with. It always goes just fine.
Meditation does help, because my mind is clearer, overall, and so I better deal with situations and I've learned that it's ok to take a deep breath or 2 before responding to a situation.
Use this mantra.
"Come hungry ghosts, death and demons, feed on my fear and anxiety. Free for the taking."
They will take all you can kindly provide and bring their imaginary friends.
If you are a real woos, do it by candlelight offering prostrations to the Buddha for protection.
Good luck :thumbsup:
Use this mantra.
"Come hungry ghosts, death and demons, feed on my fear and anxiety. Free for the taking."
They will take all you can kindly provide and bring their imaginary friends.
If you are a real woos, do it by candlelight offering prostrations to the Buddha for protection.
Good luck :thumbsup:
Interesting! Can you elaborate more on what that mantra will do and how it will help? Thanks a lot for your help!
That will help.
Basically, there are times when I'm freaking out about something and I KNOW my brain is being ridiculous. So, I've begun following the advice of the article to recognize and call out my anxiety loops for what they are: just a brain glitch. I hope that in time, it will decrease my anxiety, but oddly enough, it always seems to come in waves. Sometimes I will be fine for months, then I'll have a particularly bad few weeks where I freak out about everything, then life settles down for a while... I think it's quite obvious that it's my environment/life that influences my anxiety levels.
My biggest anxiety is always health concerns. I've been this way since I was 5 years old and my grandfather had a heart attack. I've long ago learned not to trust my judgement on what a normal person might consider a health issue. It seems that the only thing that makes me feel better is to discuss my health concerns with someone else so I can judge the severity based on what they tell me. It's ridiculous, I know, but I just can't seem to figure out what is serious and what is not. Everything is a brain tumor or cancer to me. I wish I was joking... My brain just goes off the deep end to the worst possible scenario.
I don't trust my own judgement in health issues, either, but for some reason when my husband feels sick or something I'm really good with him which I find quite confusing.
Thanks for the article.
I think the root of it for me is a fear of death, or more specifically, sickness. I don't like anything outside of my control in general and health issues definitely fall under that category. I've lost a whole bunch of family members to cancer and it terrifies me because they always say, "Well, if we would have caught it sooner..." So now I just worry about everything. Sigh.
That will help.
Alrighty! Great idea.. I just need to try it.
I have serious medical issues which can, outside of themselves, cause anxiety and panic attacks.
One of the things that has helped me, is talking and listening to others who are facing serious illness and obstacles (there are many lonely people dealing with life threatening illness). I have found that compassion is not only a great healing method but also teaches us so much about fear (death). Many times when we talk to others and comfort others we might take notice that we too are hearing our own message and healing as well.
I have listened to Pema Chodron (also recommended by FoibleFull) and love her message... Here's a practice that might interest you:
http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/pema/tonglen1.php
Namaste :om:
Relay
“The clouds above us join and separate,
The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns.
Life is like that, so why not relax?
Who can stop us from celebrating?”
— Lu Yu
A friend used to always tell me that when you experience fear and anxiety, to open up your front door, invite all the monsters of the world to come visit and eat you, and then sit on the sofa and wait for the scary monsters show up.
I always wondered where this friend got this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chöd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aghori
What a kind thing to do. Some years ago I used to ask people to send me their bad karma for hell realm 'soup runs'.
My mothers partner did something similar to the above practice, being brought up a Catholic and now a spiritualist and amateur medium, he had a hard time of it and believes there are evil and benevolent forces all around. What vehicle do they manifest through - the mind. We had a family party at the weekend and my humorous 'confession' that I had sold my 'soul' to the devil - and got a refund, was laughed at . . .
If such talk scares you then you are possesed with fear, a nice snack . . .
My main advise would be to stop looking at your anxiety as some thing to heal.
Instead, approach anxiety as your perfect teacher who helpfully points out whatever attachments are in need of being addressed.
It's really your own customized identity alarm system.
When anxiety rings, something needs to be faced and let go of.
Developing the habit of sourcing out anxiety's cause and meditatively surrendering to it can be your fast track to all what you are asking for.
Just choose what ever meditation you're most familiar with, to meet this new teacher with. The style and form of the meditation will be less important than the diligence by which you employ it.