Reduce Anxiety Meditations
Many people suffer from anxiety. There are skills that we can learn that help deal with life’s experiences. We can get anxious about what is happening around us at any given moment. We also can be anxious about the racing thoughts in our mind, emotions and body sensations. As a result we grasp onto wanting to feel better and we try to prevent our unwanted emotions and body sensations. We cling onto trying to control what is happening around us in order to maintain equilibrium.
When we grasp and avert our experiences, tension gets generated. Our emotions get exaggerated and they play out in our body in a heightened manner. We then become even more anxious. The only way out of this grasping and averting is through ACCEPTANCE. Accepting what is happening – especially when we have no control over what is happening.
In addition, whenever there is FEAR present (anxiety) that is an indication that TRUST is not present. Fear becomes minimized when we build trust. We need to build trust that we can handle what ever experiences come our way. By building trust that we can handle experiencing the sensations present in our body our fear of our body goes away. When we build trust that we have abilities to handle what comes our way. When we build trust that we can learn whatever we need to, in order to move forward, we no longer fear the future.
The following meditations help accept what is and build trust by allowing whatever is happening to just happen. It is an open and allowing skill that we are building. By allowing our thoughts to race or emotions to BE or our body to react then we are learning that these are just experiences and sensations that come and go. We learn that we are safe and nothing bad will really happen. We are starting to shift our thinking from exaggerating to something more reasonable.
Basic Skills Learned:
- Present moment focused attention.
- Accepting what IS with non-judgement.
- Starting over is OK.
- Practicing being kind and curious to our selves and our experiences.
Extended Skills Learned (based on different types of practices):
- Trust, compassion, kindness, positive focus, optimistic re-framing of our stories, openness etc…
Rhythmic Breathing Meditation – 10 Minutes
Keeping your breath rhythm steady enables your heart beat to become more cohesive. This increases blood flow to your brain and lets you think more clearly.
Resilience Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a meditation that teaches us resiliency by teaching us the skills needed to re-frame our stories to allow us to bounce back from change or challenge. Trust and acceptance are the key skills we are learning here.
Compassion Breathing Meditation – 15 Minutes
Self compassion exercises are a great place to start. Becoming self aware can be challenging. When we uncover our beliefs and hear our thoughts we may not be pleased with what we find. Self compassion allows us to see our challenges as a common human trait allowing us to be kind while we more forward to the place that we want to get to.
Muscle Tension Relaxation Meditation – 15 Minutes
Many times we go around our day with stress and this plays out in our bodies. Scanning our body for tension and then consciously releasing this tension helps us physically relax and thus release some stress.
Releasing Perfectionism – 15 Minutes
This mantra meditation is designed to help us release the negative judgments we have about ourselves.
Loving Kindness #2 Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a meditation based on the traditional loving kindness meditation which allows us to open ourselves up and send good wishes to not only ourselves but others.
Loving Kindness Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a traditional meditation that allows us to open ourselves up and send good wishes to ourselves first and then to others.
Gratitude Meditation – 15 Minutes
Being Grateful is a great way to look at your life in a positive manner. The science tells us that being grateful is the best way to shift from pessimism to optimism.
Everyone has many things to be grateful for.
Noting Meditation – 15 Minutes
Noting is an exercise where by we observe what is happening in the present moment and “note” or label what we are noticing.
Open And Allowing Meditation – 15 Minutes
Open and allowing is a stance that we practice in a meditation exercise that teaches us to accept what is happening and letting it be.
Embrace A Positive Experience Meditation – 15 Minutes
Our minds naturally gravitate to what is negative around us. This exercise helps us retrain our focus to what is good around us.
Releasing Negative Beliefs Meditation – 15 Minutes
Negative stories show up often. Being aware of them as they come up allows us to observe them and release them.
Self-Compassion Meditation – 15 Minutes
Self-compassion allows us to see our experiences, ourselves and others with greater kindness and curiosity.
Thoughts/Images Meditation – 15 Minutes
Thoughts, images and inner dialogue constantly occur in our minds. We cannot prevent them from popping up but we can practice viewing them just as they are.
Body Scan Meditation – 15 Minutes
Our emotions play out in our bodies. For this reason it’s valuable for us to feel the sensations that come and go.
Breath Meditation – 15 Minutes
This is a traditional meditation that teaches us present moment focus. We learn to focus on our breath and when our mind wanders off we gently guide it back to our breath.
Emotions Meditation – 15 Minutes
This emotions meditation teaches us present moment focus and awareness of our emotions.