A Guide to Meditating for Anxiety
When it comes to anxiety, there are a wide range of options to help manage it. You want to address what your mind, body, and spirit are going through.
Meditation is one method that has been well-researched in anxiety management. It’s an easy and inexpensive way to tackle symptoms you may be experiencing. Here’s a helpful guide to meditation.
How Does Meditation Reduce Anxiety?
Anxiety is like having an alarm bell going off in your head. Your mind can feel loud and chaotic when it starts to spiral. The worry and stress can creep in and control all aspects of your daily functioning.
Meditation is a means of stepping away into a quieter, calmer space. Use of meditation practices can help reign in some of that chaos and turn off those sounding alarms. It helps refocus your thought process to the present moment and bring the body to a state of equilibrium.
Meditation also alters your brain chemistry by releasing more of the feel-good hormones like serotonin and endorphins. Over continued practice, it can improve your ability to be resilient in the face of future challenges.
Tips for Meditation When Anxious
Meditation practices carry a certain reputation for being difficult to complete. This may hold even more true when anxiety is flaring up. Here are considerations for implementing meditation as a tool for your anxiety.
Forego Any Expectations
Almost all the time, you’re going to be your own harshest critic. You may have a pre-set idea of what meditation is and how it should work. For meditation to truly work, it’s important that you let those notions go.
Closing your eyes and instantly being healed isn’t going to happen. Meditation is an ongoing practice and requires repetition. Some days may be easier than others, but as long as you continue to come back to it, you will reap the benefits.
Spend a Few Moments Prepping Your Mind and Body
Meditation can take place at any time of the day. If you’re practicing first thing in the morning, odds are your mind and body are going to be less distracted and busy than they would be in the middle of your day.
Spend a few moments before settling in to your practice to prepare your mind and body. Make yourself comfortable, find a quiet space, and set yourself up for an effective practice. Scan your body to see where you’re carrying any tension and try to release that before stepping into your practice.
Shift Your Awareness
Anxiety is very much associated with wandering or spiraling thoughts. In order for meditation to work, it’s important that you try to keep your focus on the present moment. If it starts to wander, reconnect with the here and now.
Utilize Guided Meditations
If you find yourself having a hard time refocusing on the present or just don’t know what you should be doing during a meditation session, there are guided options available. They can help drive where your focus should be and help initiate you into the practice without feeling overwhelmed, which is the opposite of its goal for use.
Acknowledge and Release Your Thoughts
Whenever you’re spending time quietly sitting with your own thoughts, there’s a good likelihood that random thoughts are going to arise. Don’t force them away. Instead, let them come into your mind and then let them go. It can be a means of releasing some of your woes.
Methods for Meditation
Figuring out which meditation method to use can be overwhelming in itself. Here are some of the more commonly used options.
Mindfulness Meditation
Body Scan Meditation
Guided Meditations
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Breath Awareness Meditation
The key takeaway here is to remember to be kind to yourself. Meditation is a practice and can take time. If you’re struggling to incorporate meditation into your anxiety management routine, we’re here to help. Reach out to us to for a consultation for anxiety counseling.
