If you struggle with anxiety, you’ve probably been recommended to try meditation at some point to help with it, right? However, how does meditation exactly do that, and what are some tips that can help if you do decide to give it a go? Luke McLeod, founder of Mindful Life App Soul Alive, shared his top tips to help overcome anxiety through meditation with the CF team.
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Managing Anxiety with Meditation
1. Meditation firstly ‘flattens out’ your thoughts
One of the most common side effects of anxiety is a feeling of overwhelm. A feeling like you just can’t ‘think straight’. One of the first things meditation does is iron out a lot of the chatter that the mind is often consumed in. It does by training the mind to focus on one focal point for an extended period of time. The most effective type of meditation for this is some type of mantra-based meditation.
Vedic and TM (Transcendental Meditation) is the most common type of mantra-based meditation. Where you repeat a phrase, word or sound to yourself over and over again for anywhere up to around twenty minutes. In doing so, it narrows your thinking to just one thing, the mantra. Therefore not giving any of your other thoughts (self-doubt, worry etc.) a chance to raise their head. You’re practically ‘flattening out’ all the other thoughts apart from one, which is the mantra.
2. Meditation allows you to observe feelings without getting overwhelmed by them
Learning the ability to observe, control and respond to your feelings is one of the greatest benefits of meditation. Anxiety, when left to run wild in the mind, can be deliberating and exhausting. Once you’ve learnt to calm the mind with meditation (see tip one) you can then begin to observe what and why you’re feeling certain emotions.
For example, when you finally feel calm and steady in your meditation, ask yourself the question, ‘what is making me feel anxious?’ Be patient with yourself, and sure enough, a reason or two will arise as to what is causing your anxiety. It could be your financial situation, a previous incident in your life, your parents etc. Now once this comes to mind, your body will want to react to it (that’s the anxiety trying to tell you something) but instead of reacting, lengthen your breath and just observe that feeling. You’ll begin to notice that you’re the one who has the power here and can choose what you want to do with this feeling. You can change the shape of it, the colour, form etc. and if you want to gain clarity on whether you need to address it or just let it go.
Meditation creates a safe space for you to tell your anxiety what to do.
3. Meditation gives you the ability to replace your anxious feelings
Now that you can quiet and observe the mind through meditation, you can now decide what you would rather have your mind focus on. Anxiety thrives in an environment of uncertainty and possibility. Always ruminating in ‘what if’ scenarios. During meditation, train yourself to focus on and practice gratitude.
Gratitude sits on the other end of the spectrum of anxiety. Gratitude is directly connected with what is real and present. Things, people and what you have in your life right now that you are thankful for. Anxiety can not live in the presence of gratitude and is, therefore, an obvious and highly effective state of mind to be in to deal with anxiety.
4. Meditation helps relieve anxiety not only from the mind but also the body
Our mind and body are intrinsically connected. When the mind is consumed with anxiety, the body will reflect it too. Tightness in your muscles, headaches, feeling lethargic, having the jitters and fidgeting all the time. These are all signs of anxiety trying to seep out through the body. Meditation engages our parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates the body, letting it know that it is safe and secure. Lowering your heart rate, which in turn, softens your muscle tension, settles your nerves and relaxes your body.
5. Meditation helps prevent anxiety from showing up again
All of the above tips can be used to help if you experience anxiety. Practised regularly, meditation can also prevent anxiety from even showing up in the first place. Particularly when practised in the morning. It does this by putting the mind into a clear, focused state. A state that embraces action. As mentioned before, anxiety thrives when the mind procrastinates. Start your day off with some meditation and set the tone for the mode you want your mind to be in for the day ahead. Not giving anxiety a chance to take control.
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