Anxiety

I have read that anxiety can be greatly impacted with meditation. I would like to try so any tips?

[johnsmith]

Join a Buddhist group who engage in Meditation. Meditation can make your anxiety worse or it can reduce your anxiety. It all depends on .... Meditation is a skill that takes time to learn. It involves body posture. It involves breathing. All of which will change as you get deeper into meditation practice. Hence the need to practice in a group where there are practitioners who have been practicing for a number of years.

[nanda29]

I recently tried Vipassana meditation and it was great for that. There is charity that offers free courses worldwide teaching this technique of meditation.

[Iam22]

Hi Mapsavvy, I know it’s been a while but I just popped in and noticed your post. The main goal of meditation is to quiet the mind. So finding a comfortable place to rest your body for an uninterrupted period of time and then just zero your focus on your breathing, breathing deep into the lowest part of your belly. Listening to the breath work. That’s a great place to start. Every time you catch yourself thinking about mundane stuff acknowledge it without judgement and then bring your thoughts back to your breath work. For the purposes of reducing anxiety this next bit is most important. Don’t get focused on all the technical stuff Until you have started to get really comfortable with the practice. My teacher called that monkey brain and suggested it was one of the biggest distractions from the goal....breathing deep and being quiet. Knowing upfront that your mind will wonder and to not judge yourself when it does is the basics. Tibetan monks who have practiced all their lives report having difficulty in holding the focus for longer than a few minutes. Let me know if you read this I’d love to hear how things are going.