Jessica T

I think that to be more spiritual is to be more human and more compassionate. Otherwise what’s the point of spirituality?

Reflecting on impermanence full-on can be a very valuable thing to do. Research shows that when people reflect very directly on the death of those they love, they experience more love, kindness, and patience. When we only acknowledge death “out of the corner of our eye,” so to speak, we experience fear.

You are right – practicing lovingkindness helps me cultivate compassion for myself, my circumstances and others. My anxiety is the kind of anxious attachment…the fear of loss, abandonment and betrayal. That feeling has been with me since childhood and has never left. As Rick Hanson points out anxiety is the fear the bad things will happen in the future. The fear of the future.

Yes a portable or walking meditation practicing lovingkindness with deep belly breathing (my anxiety is located in the belly) is a good suggestion. Thank you for that. I will breath in the lovingkindness in to my belly.

I must confess that my anxiety seems more like a spiritual problem. Learning to let go of the persons and things I love most. Learning to hold them more loosely.

And yet the key to life is not to be more spiritual, but rather of human…more kind, more compassionate, more gentle, more loving.

It’s impressive that you manage to meditate for two to three hours a week.

I’ve certainly found that doing lovingkindness practice as I go about my daily affairs has a big effect on my anxiety levels. I find it’s impossible to be cultivating lovingkindness toward people and simultaneously be worrying about what they might think of me. I’m talking here not of sitting practice (which no doubt helps too) but of cultivating lovingkindness as I walk around, etc.

Making sure that you breathe fully into the belly helps as well. It centers our experience and slows the mind.

Self-compassion is a vital practice: notice that you’re suffering when you’re in a state of anxiety. Locate the source of suffering in the body as specifically as you can. Send it thoughts of lovingkindness: “May you be well, may you be happy, etc.”

We have a couple of recent articles by Rick Hanson that you might find useful. One on Noticing that You’re Alright Right Now and another on Using Appreciation to Generate Inner Nourishment.

Along the lines of “Noticing that You’re Alright Right Now,” one thing I’ve been doing recently is to count my blessings. As a meditation practice, I become aware that I am in a building, safe and protected from the elements, and I say (inwardly) to the building, “Thank you.” I notice that I have plumbing, and electricity, and internet access around me, and I say (inwardly) to all these things, “Thank you.” I notice that my body is whole, and basically functioning, and even if there is illness present I know my body has the resources to heal itself, and I say to my body, “Thank you.” I notice that my senses are intact, and I say “Thank you.”

It’s important to actually make the sound of the words in your head. There’s something about articulating gratitude in the form of words that makes the emotion of thankfulness more real.

By focusing on what’s right in our lives, we take our awareness away from the things that we image to be wrong, or that we imagine could go wrong.

By there are many forms of anxiety, and sometimes they’re very specific and can be addressed with very specific antidotes, so it would help if you could identify your core anxiety. What is it that you most commonly fear? What’s your worst-case scenario? (For me, I used to suffer anxiety when giving talks. My fear was that people were bored with what I was saying. My worst-case scenario — nightmare scenario, really — was that people would start chatting amongst themselves, or would get up and walk out! I found ways to avoid that fear arising.)

You might want to take a read of this article: http://www.wildmind.org/mindfulness/one/breath-control. We’ve all had problems at times with controlling the breath, and this is what worked for me.

You could also check out the peripheral vision exercise that you’ll find embedded as a video on the following page: http://www.wildmind.org/applied/stress/meditation-for-the-very-very-busy

I suspect both of these might be helpful.

I am wondering if there are any specific meditations that might help me overcome claustrophobia, I tried to do mindfulness of breathing , but somehow focussing on my breathing made my lungs and breathing feel more difficult, especially when having a claustrophobic attack. I guess it exaggerated my reaction?

Thanks

Have you look at the mini-meditation techniques listed on this page? http://www.wildmind.org/applied/stress/meditation-for-the-very-very-busy

Or if you’re looking to take up a more formal meditation practice, I’d suggest you start with the Mindfulness of Breathing. You can find instructions for that on this site, or you could also sign up for one of our online courses if you’d like the help of a teacher (that’s me) and the support of classmates.

No matter how much we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we can’t do more than one thing at a time. And we can’t sustainably keep running all day long from one thing to the next. When we practice of mindfulness, we begin to learn how not to jump on every impulse of urgency. We can slow down and do things more deliberately, without all the extra baggage of anxious thoughts adding to our stress. Practicing mindfulness is a good place to start learning how to go about things in this way.

Best wishes,
Sunada
http://www.mindfulpurpose.com