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Anxiety Relieving Meditation Thu Aug 27, 2020 10:36 pm
Here is an meditation I use sometimes when my anxiety acts up.
Find a quiet place, if your visualization or concentration is good, you might be able to do it anywhere whether it is peaceful or not. However, for great scenes or nice, relaxing feeling, perhaps go outside with the temperature is cool and not really hot or really cold. Sit somewhere in a chair, or on a swing, as long as you are relaxed. Just get comfortable. Once you are there, focus on how your breathing moves your belly as you inhale and exhale, in and out through your nose or through your mouth. If it helps, close your eyes so you are more focused on your thoughts, and your breathing.
Keep doing this for a few moments. If it is windy outside, if you are out, feel how the wind hits your skin and how good it feels. Feel the sun shining down on your. Maybe feel the grass beneath you if you are sitting in the yard. Notice how it smells, the nice fresh air. Hearing the wind blow, the birds chirp, perhaps even the cars driving by. Notice every sound you can hear outside and try to name each one if you can recognize it. For more of a challenge, try to recognize the smell in the air. Is it the wind? The pollen? You can do the same thing with touch as well and the other senses. Maybe not as much with taste but you can try to recognize everything else around you. Try to be one with nature or with everything you hear and feel.
If it helps, try to imagine yourself going through your favorite place, or your preferred place to be. Maybe a forest or the beach. Try to image the all the sounds at that place. If you are in a forest, which is my preferred place, or safe place. I would imagine myself walking through the forest, with maybe leaved filled trees around me. I can hear birds chirping and can feel a light breeze against my skin. I could probably hear the waterfall if I am near one, or the water flowing the the river or stream.
If you can do that long enough and concentrate enough, you can actually hear all the sounds and feel everything around you.
If you are calmed down by now, or more at peace, those sounds and the way you feel is possibly because of the scene you imagined and overtime you feel like your anxiety is getting out of control, you can just go back to your peaceful scene for a while.
It doesn't matter what you are panicking about, school work, cleaning, bills. If you are stressed out, take at least 5 or 10 minutes to get in a comfortable position, breathe, and think of something that makes you happy, imagine a peaceful scene for you, pick out all the details of it, sound, texture, taste, touch, everything. Imagine yourself exploring that world.
When you are done, you can go back to whatever it is that you were doing before, hopefully with a more clear and open mind and at a more relaxed state.
Find a quiet place, if your visualization or concentration is good, you might be able to do it anywhere whether it is peaceful or not. However, for great scenes or nice, relaxing feeling, perhaps go outside with the temperature is cool and not really hot or really cold. Sit somewhere in a chair, or on a swing, as long as you are relaxed. Just get comfortable. Once you are there, focus on how your breathing moves your belly as you inhale and exhale, in and out through your nose or through your mouth. If it helps, close your eyes so you are more focused on your thoughts, and your breathing.
Keep doing this for a few moments. If it is windy outside, if you are out, feel how the wind hits your skin and how good it feels. Feel the sun shining down on your. Maybe feel the grass beneath you if you are sitting in the yard. Notice how it smells, the nice fresh air. Hearing the wind blow, the birds chirp, perhaps even the cars driving by. Notice every sound you can hear outside and try to name each one if you can recognize it. For more of a challenge, try to recognize the smell in the air. Is it the wind? The pollen? You can do the same thing with touch as well and the other senses. Maybe not as much with taste but you can try to recognize everything else around you. Try to be one with nature or with everything you hear and feel.
If it helps, try to imagine yourself going through your favorite place, or your preferred place to be. Maybe a forest or the beach. Try to image the all the sounds at that place. If you are in a forest, which is my preferred place, or safe place. I would imagine myself walking through the forest, with maybe leaved filled trees around me. I can hear birds chirping and can feel a light breeze against my skin. I could probably hear the waterfall if I am near one, or the water flowing the the river or stream.
If you can do that long enough and concentrate enough, you can actually hear all the sounds and feel everything around you.
If you are calmed down by now, or more at peace, those sounds and the way you feel is possibly because of the scene you imagined and overtime you feel like your anxiety is getting out of control, you can just go back to your peaceful scene for a while.
It doesn't matter what you are panicking about, school work, cleaning, bills. If you are stressed out, take at least 5 or 10 minutes to get in a comfortable position, breathe, and think of something that makes you happy, imagine a peaceful scene for you, pick out all the details of it, sound, texture, taste, touch, everything. Imagine yourself exploring that world.
When you are done, you can go back to whatever it is that you were doing before, hopefully with a more clear and open mind and at a more relaxed state.
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Re: Anxiety Relieving Meditation Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:17 pm
I deleted my previous post because it was more about the problem (anxiety) rather than a solution (meditation).
It is good that you have learned (or taught yourself) how to deal with stress, and that you share it with others. But I think it is sad that you get so "anxious" that you have to calm yourself.
Ultimately it is our own thoughts that cause stress. We might blame circumstances, other people, etc., but it is our "reaction" that is the problem. I have said that I can't talk about something unless I know what I am talking about, and believe me, I learned to control stress to save my life. I'm talking about blood pressure readings of "210 over 100". If you don't know, that is "on the edge of a stroke".
The most important thing I learned is to just not "re-act" to things. Even if something is "outrageous", what good is it to become outraged?
If someone "wrongs" you, let it be "their" wrong. If life takes a wrong turn, don't turn with it.
Maybe this should be in the "Words of Wisdom" section. I learned it last Sunday morning when I thought I would go explore some "country roads" on my motorcycle. You know, just get away from traffic and see some fields, trees, get some fresh air, etc.
This is it-
"When the road starts getting rough, it might be better to turn around."
Especially if you are not sure where the road leads. The chances are that it will only get rougher.
^(I wrote that because you agreed about my interpretation of your troubling dreams, and I wonder if it is affecting your waking hours.)
Edit PS: In my previous post I told you not to use the phrase "my anxiety". It is because of the power of your own words. I understand that you wrote it like that because you have heard other people use that phrase, like "my asthma", "my arthritis", etc. Even a "trained professional" might say "Here, take these pills, they will help with 'your' anxiety." The pills might mask the symtoms, but they would do nothing to get to the cause of the symptoms.
Meditation is more than mental and physical relaxation and focusing on the "now", though as you have discovered and shared, it is effective for calming the mind.
Anxiety is both a physical and an emotional response. There is a "feedback loop" that is generated by relaxation. Calming the mind calms the body. Calming the body calms the mind. That is known as the mind/body connection. And so the mind and body work together to calm each other more and more.
Meditation can also involve meditating "on" something. At the first sign of anxiety, stop and meditate on the cause. Ask yourself "What did I see, hear, experience, etc. that caused me to have a reaction? What thoughts did I have about it? Can I replace those thoughts with more positive and understanding thoughts.
For instance, I was trying to sleep one night. Some neighbors a few houses down were having an outside party and the "noise" (to me) was keeping me awake. I could say it was "causing" anxiety. But when I pondered it, I realized that my own "thought-words" were the problem. I realized that what I thought of as "noise" was really music and laughter and happiness.
I went to sleep feeling much better.
It is good that you have learned (or taught yourself) how to deal with stress, and that you share it with others. But I think it is sad that you get so "anxious" that you have to calm yourself.
Ultimately it is our own thoughts that cause stress. We might blame circumstances, other people, etc., but it is our "reaction" that is the problem. I have said that I can't talk about something unless I know what I am talking about, and believe me, I learned to control stress to save my life. I'm talking about blood pressure readings of "210 over 100". If you don't know, that is "on the edge of a stroke".
The most important thing I learned is to just not "re-act" to things. Even if something is "outrageous", what good is it to become outraged?
If someone "wrongs" you, let it be "their" wrong. If life takes a wrong turn, don't turn with it.
Maybe this should be in the "Words of Wisdom" section. I learned it last Sunday morning when I thought I would go explore some "country roads" on my motorcycle. You know, just get away from traffic and see some fields, trees, get some fresh air, etc.
This is it-
"When the road starts getting rough, it might be better to turn around."
Especially if you are not sure where the road leads. The chances are that it will only get rougher.
^(I wrote that because you agreed about my interpretation of your troubling dreams, and I wonder if it is affecting your waking hours.)
Edit PS: In my previous post I told you not to use the phrase "my anxiety". It is because of the power of your own words. I understand that you wrote it like that because you have heard other people use that phrase, like "my asthma", "my arthritis", etc. Even a "trained professional" might say "Here, take these pills, they will help with 'your' anxiety." The pills might mask the symtoms, but they would do nothing to get to the cause of the symptoms.
Meditation is more than mental and physical relaxation and focusing on the "now", though as you have discovered and shared, it is effective for calming the mind.
Anxiety is both a physical and an emotional response. There is a "feedback loop" that is generated by relaxation. Calming the mind calms the body. Calming the body calms the mind. That is known as the mind/body connection. And so the mind and body work together to calm each other more and more.
Meditation can also involve meditating "on" something. At the first sign of anxiety, stop and meditate on the cause. Ask yourself "What did I see, hear, experience, etc. that caused me to have a reaction? What thoughts did I have about it? Can I replace those thoughts with more positive and understanding thoughts.
For instance, I was trying to sleep one night. Some neighbors a few houses down were having an outside party and the "noise" (to me) was keeping me awake. I could say it was "causing" anxiety. But when I pondered it, I realized that my own "thought-words" were the problem. I realized that what I thought of as "noise" was really music and laughter and happiness.
I went to sleep feeling much better.
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