Using Meditation to Reduce Anxiety

With Mindfulness and Meditation we learn that we can reduce our emotional reactivity through observation.

When difficulties arise in our lives; when something arises that we don't want or something doesn't arise that we do want, we usually recognise that as something 'negative'. Usually we judge emotions or feelings such as anxiety, anger, jealousy, loneliness, restlessness, etc. as the enemy. It's bad, not what we want. We push it away.

In meditation we learn to observe what arises without judging it either good or bad. We learn to sit with it. Look at it. Through this neutral mind observation, we discover what arises, and more so, we learn to befriend what arises. By the action of pushing away, we automatically create something stubborn that will stay, perhaps even grow and cause us unhappiness. By befriending whatever arises, it becomes much easier to look clearly at something supposedly 'negative' and in time the impact of the 'negative' on our happiness quota is reduced.

However, mindfulness meditation doesn't necessarily mean the reason we sit is to get rid of something. We sit to stay present and observe, and through observing ourselves, our mind and our thoughts with compassion and kindness, we soon recognise what our fears are and what triggers those fears. We notice that even with those so-called negative aspects to ourselves, we can lighten up and embrace the day.

With a solid Mindfulness practice, we automatically change our thinking patterns, we reduce our emotional reactivity and respond with a much more open heart, a more positive energy. It takes some commitment, and there is no quick fix, but it's possible.

There are various coping strategies or methods everyone can begin to use immediately:

1.) Recognise our fearful minds usually enlarge and distort

Fearful minds and anxious minds tend to be very negative. A mind that is frightened, knowingly or unknowingly, cannot clearly see the truth. We can use mindfulness as an opportunity to practice the recognition of our fearful state of mind, without judging it good or bad.

2.) Challenge negative thoughts

How realistic are our fears and those negative thoughts we are having? Without beating ourselves up about who we are now, think about how realistic our current fearful thinking is.

3.) Practice positive thinking

Replace those negative thoughts with a positive equivalent – (you may need to write them down in the beginning) Although our lives are a constant process of coming together and falling apart, ups and downs, insecurity, happiness, comfort, pain, joy and love, we learn that our fearful thoughts are not always realistic. We may feel hopeless, but instead of holding onto that, practice replacing that potential negative outcome with a positive equivalent.

4.) The root of fear is time

When we sit in mindfulness meditation, it doesn't take long to recognise that our minds spend much of the time in the past and the future. And if we observe carefully, we recognise that our fears arise from something in our past or our future. Training the mind to stay in the present teaches us that the only real thing happening right here and right now is us, sitting and breathing.

Deep breath.

Happy sitting.