Feeling Hopeful

[valanx]

I understand there's no complete 'cure' to anxiety but what are ways that I can cope with anxiety. Any tips that really help people?

[Shelfie9]

I learned transcendental meditation and when I followed it, it really helped but like most things making time is hard. So I make excuses and deal with my anxiety. Thinking positive thoughts to replace the anxious ones can help too. I'm having a bad anxiety day today so I came on here for support myself.

[valanx in reply to Shelfie9]

i wish you the best in getting over your bad day!

[Shelfie9 in reply to valanx]

Thank you... sometimes I just tell myself today is day to cry and feel it and tomorrow may be better. Do you want to share anything about what anxiety you have? Mine is focused mostly on self worth, loneliness, worrying about having a significant other and best friend. Related to my codependence.

[Kyaonias in reply to Shelfie9]

I glad to hear , you do practice transcendental meditation, even if only sparingly, when time constraints permit; I too do "transcendental meditation myself, and can attest, between the prep time, then" going within to go out", does take a bit of time. that means some of what will follow shouldn't sound that outlandish to you. Before i begin, i would like to ask a few clarifying questions.

1). What "Grounding techniques" have you been taught (if any) & how effective is your skills putting them to use?

2). What is your skill level at "Astral projection?" Or "creative visualization " for that matter?

3). Have you been trained in sny capacity to examine the state of your own energy field (auric field) &/or (Chakra/nadi)energy Field?

I ask these questions as basis to comprehend your level of understanding & skill level at these feats. The more skilled you are, will make the following "grounding exercise" easier. The less skilled you are, the more difficult the exercise might seem at first, but will get easier over time and practice.

"BASIC GROUNDING EXERCISE"

Get comfortable.(wether that be sitting in a chair, or with your legs crossed in a typical " lotus meditation position", or lying down)

* Now close your eyes, and take 3 slow deep breaths. Slowly breathing in and then breathing out,

* In your minds eye, picture yourself as you are right now, with no reservation or judgements. Then, from that image of yourself, draw an outline of your body. Be sure to have the outline completely trace your entire body from beginning point to end point.

* now visualize a sphere of liquid silver floating about 1-2ft. Above your head., slowly have the silver pour down over, (like cool water being poured from a pitcher), and start to fill in the outline of your body you just drew. Have the liquid completely fill every last bit of your outline.

*When, it has filled your outline completely, have the silver sphere fade to black, and be replace now by a dphere of liquid gold. Again about 1-2 ft. Above the top of your head.

*now visualize a sphere of liquid hold floating about 1-2ft. Above your head., slowly have the Gold pour down over, (like cool water being poured from a pitcher), and start to fill in the outline of your body you just drew. Have the liquid completely fill every last bit of your outline.

*When, it has filled your outline completely, have the gold sphere fade to black, and be replace now by a sphere of liquid platinum. Again about 1-2 ft. Above the top of your head

*Now visualize a sphere of liquid platinum floating about 1-2ft. Above your head., slowly have the platinum pour down over, (like cool water being poured from a pitcher), and start to fill in the outline of your body you just drew. Have the liquid completely fill every last bit of your outline.

*When, it has filled your outline completely, have the Platinum sphere fade to black, and be replace now by a sphere of liquid white light. Again about 1-2 ft. Above the top of your head.

*Have the white light pour down onto you and fill -in your outline, just as the previous 2 spheres did.

*When it is completed, have the sphere above your head fade to black & disappear.

*Now take a moment to examine this outline, if you are ready, there should now be a bright distinct line, highlighting the seperation between the inside of your outline and outside of your outline.

*Take another slow deep breath, and iwant you to visualize and image of a peaceful, tranquil, enjoyable place you've been or have thought about going to. Have this image fill the entire interior of your outline. Stay here for a few moments and, just take delight in being in this tranquil place.

* Now, take yet another Slow deep breath, and visualize a completely different, but just as peaceful, tranquil & enjoyable place, memory or image, and have that scenery completely fill the entire area outside of the outline of your body.

* Have this place/scene/imageit fill every last bit of empty space, now now there's just this 2nd visual, the the bright outline of your body, then y he distinctly different place/image/scenery inside your body. Again, Stay here for a few moments and, just take delight in being in this new placetranquil place. Then, delight in seeing both places.

* You can now either, just stay here and bask in this warmth , and beauty or, try to transpose the images location, so that what is inside your outline, is now covering the outside area of your outline; and the images that were outside your outline, are now on the inside of your outline. If you seem to have any difficulties with this, then just pick one image to be on the outside and the 2nd image to be on the inside of your outline.

* Be here for a few moments. When you feel ready, take a slow deep breath, & have the image on the outside fade from view, then after a few moments, have the image inside your outline fade from view.

* when you are back to just seeing your bright outline, have the bright liquid light fade, like it is reversing the course it went when it was filling up your outline until it disappears, leaving now the Gold outline.

*Then have the liquid gold reverse the course it took while filling your outline until it disappears.

*Then have the liquid silver reverse the course it took while filling your outline until it disappears, leaving just the outline you started with. Now take 3 slow deep breaths, and slowly open your eyes and let them adjust to your surroundings, and take a bit to truly be in your body and in the moment. Then, slowly get up an have a cup of tea, or a glass of water. Nothing strong. While you are having your drink, try to make note of what you see, what you hear, what you taste, the different textures you feel, and what you can smell.

Then go about your day.

If this is a new technique for you, it may take upwards of 30 min. To complete. It dependson how much time it take you to go through each stage. If all of this "IS" familiar to you, then you should be able to completethis exercise in under 10 min.

Your skill level will determine what feels like tge right amount of time it will take.

I hope this helps both you and any other readers here, to calm yourself, and quiet your mind, so you can go about your say.

[MNS_04]

There are a lot of breathing techniques that are really helpful! Also, I just recently started using essential oils and they can help calm you or help you breathe better, so I would recommend maybe getting some for days when you know that you might be anxious, like test days or stuff like that. Distraction is another technique I use because not thinking about the anxiety can help prevent it from going out of control. You also have to do a lot of self talk and tell yourself that these are just feelings and that they will go away. This site is really helpful because it really shows that you're not alone in this I hope this was helpful

[Mic7679]

This was very helpful for my situation. I suffer from random panic attacks, I don't feel stressed but all of a sudden I get light headed and my heart starts to race and I get shaky. I want to incorporate breaking techniques and visualization. Do you feel that soothing meditation music would help?

[MNS_04 in reply to Mic7679]

Yes! Something calming/quiet in the background will be nice! You can look up breathing techniques and there are so many different ones to try, that way you can't be kind of "tolerant" to one. You can try many of them! Music can also be used as a distraction so using them together is a good idea! For panic attacks, I mostly just focus on breathing, but you have to convince yourself that you are fine and that these feelings will go away. Just don't let the anxiety beat you. Face your feelings head on so hopefully the panic lasts a shorter amount of time. It is very scary, but you can get past these, or make them a little more manageable anyways!!