Meditation can help manage anxiety – Here’s how it works
Living your life can be difficult when you suffer from anxiety. You wake up feeling all jittery and nervous and you feel that way throughout the entire day. In many cases, it’s a sign that you need to give yourself a break from work, studies, or anything that’s been making you feel anxious.
If you feel like you’re always feeling anxious and nervous, then you might be suffering from an anxiety disorder and while the best course of action is to see a therapist, many people can’t afford that.
There are other methods you can try to improve your mental health, but remember that these methods have to be done in conjunction with other healthy activities, otherwise your body is going to have a hard time becoming accustomed to the new changes.
Meditation for anxiety is something that might be able to help you cope with your feelings of anxiousness and nervousness. Let’s take a look at how you can use it to calm your anxious mind.
How you can use meditation for anxiety
1. Focusing on the present with the help of a body scan – The very first thing you need to do is find a quiet place where you can sit and relax. Focus on your bodily sensations. Start from your head and go all the way to your feet. The purpose of a body scan is to become one with the present so you can observe your thoughts and sensations.
Let go of any tension there might be in your shoulders, jaw, back, and other muscles. At this point, you should be able to feel the anxiety leaving your body. Silencing your thoughts can be a bit challenging and daunting for people with anxiety in the beginning, but don’t give up! With enough practice, you should be able to do it without any problem.
2. Concentrating on the way you breathe – You have to learn how to control your breathing when you’re meditating for anxiety. The way we breathe affects the way we feel. When we’re anxious, we tend to take rapid, shallow breaths which can worsen our symptoms. When you’re meditating, concentrate on your breathing. Are you breathing through your chest instead of the diaphragm?
When you’re feeling anxious, inhale slowly, hold your breath for four seconds and then exhale slowly and you’ll be able to relax. The 4-7-8 breathing technique is another popular method that you can use to feel calm.
Close your mouth and breathe in through your nose while counting to four. Hold your breath for seven seconds, and then breathe out through your mouth while counting to eight. Do this three more times and you’ll start feeling more relaxed.
3. Finding your relaxation place – When you spend enough time doing a specific activity in one specific place, your brain starts associating the place with the activity. People who suffer from insomnia have bedtime rituals that help them associate their bed with sleeping which helps them fall asleep immediately when they hop into their bed.
You can have your own meditation corner so your brain can associate a spot in your house with relaxation. This will not only help you calm your thoughts but also make it easier for you to meditate.
Whenever you feel like meditating, all you have to do is go and sit in your meditation corner and your brain will know what to do. Practice meditation and mindfulness in your special place every day so your brain can connect the place with the activity each time you’re there.
4. Learning to accept your thoughts – People with anxiety often have thoughts that they just can’t get rid of. They spend their nights overthinking things that other people would pay no attention to and spend an unhealthy amount of time dwelling on them. The goal of mindfulness and mediation is to accept your thoughts as they are so you don’t let them take control of your body.
When you’re meditating, don’t try to think about why you’re thinking the way you’re thinking. Don’t focus on why your thoughts make you angry or nervous.
Just observe them and let them pass. While meditation won’t make the anger go away, it will help you detach from your emotions which will allow you to understand your anxiety, which is the first step to getting rid of it.
5. Having a guided session – Many people tend to give up if meditation doesn’t help them. If you’ve been feeling disappointed because you can’t quiet your mind, consider having a guided session.
There are apps that have audio recordings which will teach you how to meditate properly. Many of these apps will also teach you to meditate with the help of visualization. Having someone tell you how to meditate is comforting and it’ll also help you feel less alone.
Objective and Benefits of Meditation for Anxiety
The objective of meditation for anxiety is to accept your anxious thoughts and observe them without any judgment. When you’re done meditating, you’ll feel lighter and less anxious. Since it can be difficult for beginners to meditate for too long, you should start by doing it for at least 10 minutes every day. Once you begin to get used to it, you can start increasing the time.
You’ll begin to notice the effects of this practice in other parts of your life as you’ll become more observant and less reactive when you’re feeling anxious. You’ll be able to have more control over your thoughts and they won’t feel like a burden anymore.
All in all, meditation for anxiety is a great technique that people who suffer from anxiety can use to feel more relaxed and calm. By focusing on your bodily sensations and letting your thoughts float in your mind without you judging them, you’re allowing yourself to become less reactive to anxious thoughts.
In case you find it hard to meditate on your own, you can use guided sessions on smartphone apps to help you walk through the process. With the help of visualization and audio recordings, you’ll be well on your way to mastering meditation for anxiety!
