Mindfulness
for Anxiety
by
Thomas Chant
For
those people who are really dedicated to getting over their anxiety,
meditation can be the key.
The
are literally thousands of types of meditation, and many books,
CDs and Videos out there which will tell you how to meditate.
I'm going to ask you to forget nearly all of those.
All
meditation will relax you, but that in itself is not a solution
to anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias. Most meditations seem
to take you away from the present moment and take your concentration
away from your body. Such escapism may bring temporary relief
from anxiety but will not free you from it, and meditating through
anxious moments is hard. Enter Mindfulness meditation.
So,
why is Mindfulness Meditation so good for getting over anxiety?
There are a few reasons: firstly, through practicingg mindfulness
meditation you learn to be in the present moment. That might sound
odd, after all we are all in the present moment all the time -
how else could it be? In fact, anxiety, panic, and phobias do
not really happen in the present moment. Think about it a second.
They happen when you concentrate on bad memories from the past
and catastrophic predictions about the future. Mindfulness meditation
recognises this and allows you to stay in the present, where everything
is just as it should be.
Secondly,
with mindfulness meditation you stay in your body and become aware
of your body. You become aware of all the tension and stress you
are holding in the moment throughout your body. This allows your
mind to accept, and not misinterpret tension as a signal to start
panicking or feeling anxious.
Thirdly,
and perhaps most importantly of all, mindfulness meditation teaches
you to be aware of your thoughts as passing entities which are
present in a given moment and then fade as all thoughts do. When
you learn to see anxious and catastrophic thoughts in this light
you are much better placed to chose how to react to them, or indeed
whether to react to them at all.
After
diligent practice, the mindfulness meditator can decide to let
his/her catastrophic thoughts be, to not react to tension, and
to focus on what is happening in the moment. The completely different
outlook on life which the meditator nurtures revolves around acceptance
and understanding, not reaction and fear. In terms of anxiety
and panic, the results can be spectacular.
Anxiety
2 Calm looks at various techniques to overcome anxiety, panic
attacks, phobia and stagnation. It includes sections on TFT/EFT,
EMDR, and much more. All information is free and there is also
a blog and a forum and many more interactive features. Feedback
on experiences with medication and those expensive programmes
and CD courses that are always advertised is useful to help others
who are in a similar predicament to yourself or your loved one.
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