I'm new here and saying hello.

[Withattitude]

Hi, I 'm Jacqui and found this group through another member. I've been practicing mindfulness for over a year, but I'm interested in all meditation and other people's experience. I can get really anxious and although mindfulness has helped enormously, I've been quite ill over the last year and got habitually into feeling fearful and I want to move away from that, as Feeling frightened all the time is horrible.

[Gambit62]

Hope that you can get the health issues treated - living with constant sense of fear - can be really difficult. I came to the conclusion that part of it was to do with the way my brain was interpretting some hormonal changes as it always got worse just before my periods - it didn't stop me from feeling the fear but it did at least stop me driving myself mad trying to figure out why I was feeling afraid.

Keep practicing the meditation - it does take time and there will always be times when other thoughts distract you. I 'play' the cello and practice every morning but find that I'm often getting lost in thoughts about what I want to do in the day - have a few standard orders in which I play through pieces and frequently find that I've strayed into another order as a result. Meditation is as much about being able to forgive yourself and go back to it as it is about actually getting it right first time!

I find meditative practices that actually focus outside myself are really helpful - identifying sounds around me without actually naming - helps me to remake the connection with the world when I've got really wrapped up in myself.

[Withattitude in reply to Gambit62]

Thanks. I've found your comments helpful and supportive. I also think I need to accept where I am, rather than wishing I wasn't!