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Have you been struggling with anxiety symptoms such as excessive worry, nervousness, and tension? Do these interfere with daily activities? It turns out that mindfulness meditation can be helpful for relieving anxiety symptoms.
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness is a meditation practice that originated from Buddhist traditions. The objective is to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. Mindfulness involves sitting still and following your breath. As you notice thoughts and feelings you’ll probably get caught up in them. With practice, you’ll learn to bring yourself back to the breath. This creates a space between yourself and your thoughts that allow you to recognize them without feeling taken over by them.
Which Anxiety Symptoms Do You Notice Most Often?
Anxiety is a persistent worry that things won’t go well. It can be accompanied by physical symptoms such as edginess, sleeplessness, or difficulty concentrating.Sometimes anxiety takes a specific form, such as social anxiety or some kind of phobia. Often, it takes the form of a kind of free-floating worry that attaches itself to a variety of different life situations.
How Do You See People Coping with Anxiety Symptoms?
People attempt to manage their anxiety in a number of different ways:The sense of Urgency: They’re unable to focus on their work or enjoy their free time because they’re preoccupied by whatever situation is making them anxious, such as having to pay a bill or fix the car.Catastrophizing: When people catastrophize, they worry that things won’t work out and they’re convinced that something terrible is going to happen. They must take action immediately to avert the catastrophe. Avoidance Behaviors: If there’s a problem they sweep it under the rug and pretend that it doesn’t exist. The anxiety though doesn’t go away. It just makes the situation worse because it leads someone to avoid addressing an issue that requires action.Perseverate: These are people who can’t stop thinking about what’s making them anxious. They turn things over and over in their minds and can’t let go. It becomes difficult for them to focus on other things that actually bring them relief from their anxiety, such as activities that they enjoy. This prevents them from feeling fully present in their lives.
How Can Mindfulness Meditation Help with Anxiety Symptoms?
Mindfulness meditation is different from these other strategies because it requires you to sit with your anxiety and experience it rather than avoid it. When you feel a sense of urgency, mindfulness meditation asks you to sit with that feeling rather than immediately act on it. As you experience mindfulness, you discover two things. First, the experience is tolerable. You can handle it. Second, the anxiety eventually passes. You don’t have to act on it or avoid it to make it go away. If you don’t resist it, it will leave of its own accord.
It Sounds Like Mindfulness Meditation Can Be Really Empowering.
First of all, it’s empowering to know that you can tolerate your anxiety. One thing that makes anxiety so uncomfortable is the feeling that if we don’t actively resist it, it just gets worse. In fact, our attempts to resist it are what actually make it worse. When we’re able to sit with it, it loses its power over us. We’re no longer afraid of it.Another advantage is that mindfulness meditation allows us to ground ourselves in the present instead of getting caught up in our fantasies about worst-case scenarios. Instead, we’re able to clear our minds and make decisions that allow us to solve the concrete problems that are contributing to our anxiety.The secret is to begin developing a practice of mindfulness meditation when you’re not in crisis. If you can learn to train your mind in this way, you can experience a new sense of freedom from the most disabling forms of anxiety.Click here to learn more about anxiety treatment with Dr. Jane Rubin.Jane Rubin, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in Berkeley, California. She works with individuals in Berkeley, Oakland, the East Bay and the greater San Francisco Bay Area who are struggling with depression and anxiety. She also specializes in working with people who are trying to find meaning and direction in their lives.