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If you meditate for your anxiety ... maybe you should stop.

Discussion in 'General Discussion Subforum' started by livelife2bepainfree, Sep 4, 2020.

  1. livelife2bepainfree

    livelife2bepainfree Peer Supporter

    If you meditate to overcome your anxiety, maybe you should stop.

    Do you often say to yourself: "If you meditated consistently, you wouldn't be feeling so stressed out right now"?

    Meditation is great and may help you get grounded but is NOT the antidote to anxiety.

    Even if you get to meditate 10 times a day, it doesn't mean one day you will be 100% protected from anxiety.

    Meditation does NOT immunise you against anxiety.

    If this is the reason you meditate, you're doing more harm than good.

    Because ...

    1 - You beat yourself up for not being able to stick to meditation.

    2 - You get angry because no matter how much you meditate, anxiety doesn't disappear.

    3- The worst is that if you meditate or do something consistently "for your anxiety", you send a subliminal message to your unconscious mind that you're afraid of anxiety.

    Fear of anxiety means ... more anxiety.

    With love, Angelos
     
    Baseball65, Tennis Tom and sam908 like this.
  2. TG957

    TG957 Beloved Grand Eagle

    Angelos, you are making a very interesting point: if anxiety is bad, trying to get rid of it will only exacerbate it, so don't try to get rid of it.

    Well, yes and no. If you look at anxiety as a strictly negative experience, then even thinking of it generates more anxiety. The story is more nuanced.

    Anxiety is there for a reason. It is an evolutionary mechanism which ensures survival of the species. It is a rush of hormones that makes a deer turn around when it's ear catches the sound of a broken tree branch, or makes a monkey run when a shadow crosses the trail in front of it. This is why anxiety feels like a subconscious worry, because it was designed exactly like that: to make you act before you can think.

    If that's the case, what can we do about it? We cannot eliminate anxiety, as it is a biological reaction of the body. But we can learn how manage our anxiety. Meditation, if done properly, teaches us how to deal with our emotions, how to handle them so they would not overtake us.
     
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2020
    Neil likes this.
  3. Baseball65

    Baseball65 Beloved Grand Eagle

    ...or even meditate at all.

    I wouldn't be a detractor to anybody who is meditating and getting a positive result, BUT I have been pain free a long time and absolutely positively have never meditated. I use writing and prayer as a tool and it has led me to a really high quality of life I didn't know existed. Can't sit still for more than a couple of minutes with nothing to chew on (like a list of resentments or fears)

    I am sort of a Sarno purist and he discussed relaxation...."to what end?" I believe was his reply. Since our pain comes from repressed rage to which we have no access, any relaxation technique that doesn't focus on repressed rage might be a placebo OR ineffective. i have always seen anxiety as a symptom, not the problem.

    good post
     
    HattieNC likes this.
  4. jamejamesjames1

    jamejamesjames1 Peer Supporter

    Like most things it is how you approach it.

    I usually feel great meditating, so I do it. It took awhile to get to the point where I genuinely enjoy it. It's a nice way of disconnecting from it all and getti g in touch with yourself... Or occasionally having a nap!

    Now if I go Into it saying I have to meditate or else andor an I doing it right andor I'm only doing this to get rid of anxiety... Then yeah, it wont work.

    And now that I'm experienced, if I am anxious and meditate I usually get some relief... But when starting out it was so uncomfortable it would make it much worse.

    So my advice would be if starting out, practice when you aren't knee deep in a panic attack!!
     
    Baseball65 likes this.

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