What Is Best Meditation Technique For Stress And Anxiety?

[tc101]

What is the best meditation technique for stress and anxiety? I am using some techniques I learned at a Goenka retreat many years ago. I sense the breath at the nostrils, and I slowly scan through the body, detecting body sensations. Are there any better techniques? I am having problems with stress, anxiety and insomnia. There is no big external cause for this. It seems to just be coming up.

[rockyysdt]

Before you start, if you have time, try to relax yourself as much as possible.

Have a shower, change into relaxing clothes, establish a quiet place to sit.

Either sit comfortably or lie on the floor (if lying, not on something comfortable like a bed as you don't want to end up falling asleep).

Close your eyes and focus on your body.

Start with your hands and feel any tension, let go of any tension present. Clench your hands and then relax them so you can feel the difference between tension and relaxation.

Work your way up the arms until they are fully relaxed.

Repeat with your legs, beginning at the feet.

Then repeat with your hips stomach, buttocks chest, shoulders and neck.

Feel the tension in your face jaw, and forehead. scrunch up your face and then let go.

Feel the tension rapidly disappearing from your entire body more and more and more.

Now feel your entire body looking for any localised tension and focus on this until all tension has gone.

Feel yourself so relaxed that you are sinking heavily into the floor from gravity.

So relaxed your body has yielded completely to gravity.

Feel this state. Feel how good this feels.

Now slowly turn your attention to your breathe.

Don't control your breathe but simply observe it.

Observe it coming in at your nostrils and all the way into the nasal passages and pushing down into your lungs and pushing down onto your diaphragm.

Now observe the breathe exhaling all the way back and out through the nostrils.

Breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out.

Don't control your breathe, simply observe it.

If your mind wonders you'll find tension has returned to your body.

Don't be mad at yourself should you find yourself day dreaming or having lost concentration.

Simply refocus on the body, looking for any tension present and relax until the tension disappears.

You'll find that tension in the body will create random thoughts, and random thoughts create tension in the body.

Our bodies are linked to our mind. Each affects the other.

You'll find that after a few practices you'll be able to quickly focus on your body globally letting go of any tension fairly quickly without having to focus on each body part every time.

You'll find adopting this practice will not only allow you to experience a deep state of relaxation free from anxiety and stress, but you'll also be practicing Vipassana which is mindfulness or self observation.

With regular practice your self observation will be experienced at an ever increasingly deeper level.

Initially you will carry this deep relaxation with you for short periods into your life after each session.

In time the feeling of deep relaxation will start to seep into your daily life pushing away anxiety and stress.

The key is regular practice and overcome negative talk which convinces you to find excuses not to practice.

Also review your lifestyle by eating a well balanced diet with regular exercise and avoid intoxicants.

[Joop50]

Good advice Rocky, most of the time it will cost some discipline to get started and there can come up a question like "is this the right way?", in that case it would be very nice someone guide you for a while.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Joop50

[fabianfred]

perhaps you need massage rather than meditation...

[rockyysdt]

perhaps you need massage rather than meditation...

Isn't vipassana a better option though?

Whilst overcoming stress and anxiety, he may discover something far more powerful.

My path began many years ago in an attempt to overcome the very same afflictions.

[sabaijai]

Most teachers will recommend samatha meditation or anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) for people suffering from stress and anxiety.

Mindfulness practice - satipatthana vipassana - may create more anxiety in the short term but in the end the source of the stress - clinging - will be eliminated. Ajahn Chah called it 'suffering that leads to the end of suffering.'

[fabianfred]

I tell my students that if they just want to feel comfortable...then get a massage. If you cannot stand suffering then you are unlikely to progress in meditation.

Certainly just trying to note constantly....vipassana......is the way....but without formal sessions of sitting and walking to train oneself it is hard to get started.

[tc101]

Thanks everyone. Special thanks to Rocky for taking the time to write out all those directions. I spent about 4 hours today doing alternate sitting and walking meditation and now feel better. The embarrassing thing is that I have been practicing pretty regularly for over 20 years and I can still get extremely stressed out over nothing.

[rockyysdt]

The embarrassing thing is that I have been practicing pretty regularly for over 20 years and I can still get extremely stressed out over nothing.

TC.

Anxiety can be quite debilitating.

What I'd suggest is to firstly keep doing what you're doing, but also be mindful of the anxiety when you experience it.

Observe the anxiety, its intensity, and the influences, both internal & external, which bring it about.

Observe it as an impartial observer without attachment.

After awhile you might recognize triggers in your life which might influence your anxiety.

Anxiety can have psychological and physical causes.

Good diet, regular exercise & relaxation is important.

If there are mind triggers, recognizing these through constant mindfulness gives you the opportunity to either resolve issues or to let go of recurring negative thoughts.

Edited October 11, 2010 by rockyysdt

[christiaan]

Thanks everyone. Special thanks to Rocky for taking the time to write out all those directions. I spent about 4 hours today doing alternate sitting and walking meditation and now feel better. The embarrassing thing is that I have been practicing pretty regularly for over 20 years and I can still get extremely stressed out over nothing.

You have been practicing for over 20 years???

Can you tell what practice you have done in this 20 years?

Do you have any clou why you get stressed?

Maybe it is helpfull to see what happens every time before you get stressed and so probably does make you stress?

I hope you are not getting stressed because you have a great desire to practice.

I would say the technique you describe in the opening of this topic in my eyes is no meditation but a practice of concentration in a techniques that could make you feel relax and could make it possible someday to meditate.

[mojo80]

Firstly i advise Chi-Gung ( due to the fact its all i know and helps me), however depending on the level of anxiety, it would help to do a good 20-30 min exercise an hour or so before meditating, as often when your prone to anxiety its much harder to get into a zen state of mind, hence the exercise should use up some unwanted tension and anxiety so you can benefit more fully from the meditation. My 2 cents anyway. also try goggling twinheart meditation, very relaxing and helpful meditation which is free or can be streamed on the internet, you will be talked through the meditation gently nudging you in the right direction to relax!

If you anxiety is pretty bad and affecting your day to day life, try reading the linden method. very helpful stuff there.

[rockyysdt]

it would help to do a good 20-30 min exercise an hour or so before meditating, as often when your prone to anxiety its much harder to get into a zen state of mind, hence the exercise should use up some unwanted tension and anxiety so you can benefit more fully from the meditation.

Very insightful M.

I have my best sittings after an hour or so of gym work.

Whilst on retreat, an hour of yoga exercises really helped to settle the body/mind.

Anxiety releases lots of adrenalin and other chemicals which make it difficult to settle.

Exercise uses these up allowing you to settle and allow your mind to quieten.

Edited October 12, 2010 by rockyysdt

[james24]

I really dont recommend paying much attention to your body's feelings,t is will just race your mind quicker as there is so much going on in there. Only physical feeling should be at the top, e.g the eyes.

Concentrating on breathing too much, in m opinion can be counter productive as youll soon start to try and breath in a meditative way when you do other activites e.g running and youll get out of sync and feel grotty. Plus your body will breath, no need to observe it, concentrating on it too much will, again make your breathing feel strange when your not meditating. Its all about being yourself and you gotta look in your mind for that.

Calm down your thoughts and the body will take care of itself. The more you dont do when meditating the more your brain will slow down.

Please note this works for me, you have to find what works for you. I meditate to prepare, no point in preparing though if you dont do. I spent ages at this rock then realised I gotta start doing. You dont that will stress you out.

Feelings are natural, dont try to hold them back, it will just build up, just be yourself, always.

[sabaijai]

Thanks everyone. Special thanks to Rocky for taking the time to write out all those directions. I spent about 4 hours today doing alternate sitting and walking meditation and now feel better. The embarrassing thing is that I have been practicing pretty regularly for over 20 years and I can still get extremely stressed out over nothing.

The technique Rocky describes above is anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), which is a samatha or calm-abiding meditation. It's known to be useful for relaxation and stress reduction. It can be extended to noting the quality of the breath, ie long or short, etc as described in great detail in the Anapanasati Sutta.

Later you can advance to satipatthana vipassana meditation. In that case qualities of breath (but not breath as a concept) may also be an object. Rather than the concept of breath (or in and out, etc), you examine the ultimate realities. Thus even when aware of breathing, it's not anapanasati. This choiceless awareness of ultimate realities leads to vipassana.

Here is a succinct explanation of the difference by Burmese master Chanmyay Sayadaw.

http://www.aimwell.org/Books/Other/Anapana/anapana.html

[james24]

Id like to add that the reason Monks etc dont get stressed is because they dont lead stressful lives. (thier choice).

Meditation doesnt solve your problems, it only makes you aware of them.

[Joop50]

Id like to add that the reason Monks etc dont get stressed is because they dont lead stressful lives. (thier choice).

Meditation doesnt solve your problems, it only makes you aware of them.

Hey that's a good one James, I just wanted to write down, when you meditate for 20 years and it didn't bring you the solution, you can try something else.

I for me, I did meditation many periods in my life some shortly, some longer, I never liked the rules or and/or the philosophy 100% so that I could embrace it.

Until I found the radical self-inquiry from Non-duality, but that's my thing.

[james24]

Yeh I know what you mean, Buddhist meditation especially is quite confusing as they put alot of their religious beliefs into the practises.

Whats the practice you are into nowadays, I just did a google search, sounds interesting.

Edited October 13, 2010 by james24

[rockyysdt]

Id like to add that the reason Monks etc dont get stressed is because they don't lead stressful lives. (their choice).

I was thinking this only this afternoon whilst observing myself reflecting on Buddhism and positions put forward by posters.

There are many external influences which can cause us to be stressed in our lives.

I'd imagine Monks might have reduced stress levels having removed themselves from the obligations associated with modern life and the need to provide for oneself and ones family.

On the other hand Monks could be subject to considerable psychological stress brought about by the mind.

Meditation doesn't solve your problems, it only makes you aware of them.

I've given this some thought.

My experience is that random thoughts bring about a chain of others and can overwhelm you with recurring problems and issues.

Doesn't Meditation or Mindfulness allow you to stop a chain of thoughts before they can overwhelm you and cause you to react physically and emotionally?

At other times doesn't Meditation or Mindfulness also allow you to review problems or issues allowing you to resolve these or to come away with a different point of view?

In Mindfulness the observer observes without attachment but the ego is given the opportunity to take advantage of the observers view.

You indicated that for you it's unhelpful to focus too much on the breathe as you may end up breathing meditatively during wakeful activities.

When I observe my breathe my focus is to do this without attempting to control it in any way.

When in deep relaxed meditation I notice my breathe becomes short & shallow.

When I'm stressed I notice myself automatically taking deep breathes which help me to restore my composure.

When exercising I'm mindful of deep and rapid breathing.

Any time I observe breathe I notice there are no two breathes which are ever the same.

Always changing, the one thing constant in my life is that I always breathe (whilst alive).

Watching the breathe is excellent for concentration which then allows observation of everything else.

[tc101]

You have been practicing for over 20 years???

Can you tell what practice you have done in this 20 years?

It is not unusual to have psychological problems after years of practice. If you have any doubts about this, read "After the Ecstasy the Laundry" by Jack Kornfield.

Can you tell what practice you have done in this 20 years?

Most of my practice has been Vipassana techniques as taught by several teachers from the Insight Meditation Center in Barre Mass in the USA, and as taught by Goenka at his 10 day retreats.

[tc101]

Do you have any clou why you get stressed?

I get stressed out over all kinds of silly things. Part of it may be genetic. I don't know.

Maybe it is helpfull to see what happens every time before you get stressed and so probably does make you stress?

I am working on that now. I am doing a partial retreat, although I am still here on the computer for a short time every day.

I would say the technique you describe in the opening of this topic in my eyes is no meditation but a practice of concentration in a techniques that could make you feel relax and could make it possible someday to meditate.

I guess it depends on how you define "Meditation". These are the techniques that thousands of people have used in the Goenka meditation retreats, and they call it meditation, but it is really just a matter of definition. When you say it is not meditation, how does it vary from your definition of meditation?

[tc101]

Until I found the radical self-inquiry from Non-duality, but that's my thing.

What is that? How does it work?

[christiaan]

tc101 I would say pure observation is something one can see wit animals. Hunting animals and prey-animals need to have a very good observation. They react to their observations with their instinct. They do not have to go into and cannot go into some proces of contemplative thinking in relation to their observations. They live inside their specialised knowledge. So when feed and safe they can relax very well.

When someone likes to relax, one especially needs to relax in the mind. So a technique that is asking to focus on pure observing the breath and body sensations in relation to the breath is not only taking your focus from thinking. Like: do not think, just focus on your breath, just focus on a specific part of your breathsystem, but it is also learning you to concentrate.

People with a dissabillity in concentrating, because their mind always is wandering away or running away (psychotic disorder) cannot relax. They are adviced not to enter a ten day course.

When you are going to focus to your breath for three days and your mind continuously walks to some uncontrolled thoughts (that could make a person to feel stressed) I would say you will not enter the state of awareness described by the course and one can start to feel stressed and fail just for that.

A succesfull concentration for 3 days on almost anything neutral will relax anybody and will, when done repeatedly, lead to a strong concentrating mind. This in itself will benefit probably anybody.

Just keep in mind: when one thing in this world dramatically did change then it is the way people are drawn out of their concentration and focussing. Our world did becoame a world where people are interrupted, hastened, distracted, disturbed, and so on. Just compare a middle class child in the first class of high school in a big city to a child of same age living in a small village without electricity in the country in the middle of China. The last child will probably feel more happy then the first and will not need Vipassana techniques.

There probably still also are not much stressed, psychotic and mentally disordered people originally living in such village in the country.

Meditation, in my opinion is contemplative observation. To do this in a qualitive way one needs to - develop - or have a good abillity of concentration. Then there are many ways of meditation depending on the 'intention' related to the meditation.

Probably all people meditate out of some - aware or unaware - background, some concept of science. That could be a muslim concept, a christian or a buddhist, or a scientology concept. Just name it and it will be present with somebody.

Those concepts are linked to a certain morality. There is not just one morality. One can out of wishfull thinking in an abstract way think there is just one morality, but that is not what life and experience is telling us.

There are people who do all kinds of concentration excersises and meditations just to become very skilled fighting machines.

When you notice you cannot level down the stress you experience you could consider to do some practice that cannot and will not dissapoint you. A practice that will be helpfull because you will not feel to be a failure.

Realise, in succesfully developping the abillity to concentrate for a longer period on a task will make you feel more happy.

Why?

Because people feel more happy when they can feel 'free' working out of their faculties to handle their life.

It is a good thing you can choose how to deal with your experiences and not to be locked in some pattern of reaction.

Then there is nothing wrong in feeling stressed, it is just feeling bad when you notice you cannot control it, and this feeling of being stressed is taking over you and is controlling you.

A lot of the techniques in many religious practice in general can be described as : Becoming the Master of Your Self (Soul). And you, your " I " ,your spiritual essence is the Master of your Soul

[Joop50]

Until I found the radical self-inquiry from Non-duality, but that's my thing.

What is that? How does it work?

In a nutshell, nonduality means "not two" or "nonseparation." It is the sense that all things are one interconnected whole. This realization of oneness is also known as presence, space-like awareness, consciousness, being, liberation, the infinite or simply "This." But these are just concepts pointing to what is beyond words.

Although it is at the core of major traditions, nonduality is not a religion, nor is it a "New Age" philosophy. It is about investigating our true nature which is awareness itself.

Why learn about nonduality?

1. For inner peace.

2. To explore the nature of reality.

3. To ease suffering caused by the illusion of separation.

4. To end the bondage of "seeking" when one doesn't feel complete.

But rather than getting or becoming anything, it's about knowing who or what you already are.

(The main question is to find out "who am I?")

More you can read from these teachers:

http://non-duality.rupertspira.com/page.aspx?c=90f81887-cf5c-479e-94ea-905a452c0837

http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=writings_inner&writingid=12

[Joop50]

Yeh I know what you mean, Buddhist meditation especially is quite confusing as they put alot of their religious beliefs into the practises.

Whats the practice you are into nowadays, I just did a google search, sounds interesting.

I've send you an email.

[christiaan]

out of the description of non duality:

The waking state also seems to be comprised of objects but if we explore these objects we find that their reality is also only mind. For instance the visual world consists only of images and these images appear only in the mind.

Christiaan:

Does this statement tells that when we are awake the tiger we see in the zoo is not a real tiger?????

Does it tell this tiger is also and only mind?

So then it tells that after one has seen this tiger and go home this tiger does not exist anymore when the mind is not focussed on this image but is then focussed on images of food out of images of feeling hungry?

Then this tells me Joop50 is just also and only an image of my mind, he is no real person in the flesh, and this forum is also just an image of my mind?

Wauw, I would not be surprised when people can start to feel very stressed living in such an imaginary world,

Because they would, when they are consequent, discover their own body is also and only just an image, and their mind itself is also and only an image and no reality.

I would not advocate to meditate out of such philosophy. ( but it is interesting to ponder about it)

Beside the fact that there have been quite a number of philosophers in the west in the past - and still now - thinking about the same way, in my opinion this is according to the kiss rule: an abstract way of thinking.

Yes I could keep it short by just sticking to the kiss rule, but then there is no substance for dialogue.

[Joop50]

Read it again please.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Joop50

[christiaan]

again:

The waking state also seems to be comprised of objects but if we explore these objects we find that their reality is also only mind. For instance the visual world consists only of images and these images appear only in the mind.

I read several times before .....and after. What part of the message do I miss????

I will not go too much into the essays of Rupert Spira but I am astonished how complex and fabricated they are, just read " Deep sleep, Death and reincarnation"

and this one part out of it: That is, we have seen that there are, in experience, no physical bodies or objects We have seen that the apparently perceived object, body, other or world is made only of sensing/perceiving. In other words, we have seen that all so-called physical objects are made out of mind.. (the underlining is mine)

I just stay with my opinion I would not advocate to meditate out of such a philosophy, it is a delusion.

In the consequence of this philosophy your own body, and so your own physicall mind is only sense perceived. By what - non existing - sense organs is this non existence sence percieved? By what mind when the mind is made by a non existing mind? This..... is a phantasy that imagines itself.

This way of thinking is familiar with historical scientists/' philosophers' as H.Taine (his 2 volume book De l'intelligence 1870), Johannes Müller 1801-1858, Friedrich Henle (Anthropologischen vortragen 1876) , Emil Du Bois-Reymond ("On the limits of our understanding of nature" 1872) , and to some extent Herman Helmholz (1821-1894)

Wrong 'ways' of meditation are not helping but damaging, an unsuccesfull meditation technique can make your Self weaker and the problems continue and can even get more worse.

But, ofcourse anyone can choose to do the meditation technique preferred, that is Karma at work.

[tc101]

Last night I went to Laughter Yoga. I had read about this but never done it. It was very silly and very fun. We laughed together for an hour. At the end I was exhausted, but also strangely energized. I slept great and woke up feeling great. Do a google on laughter yoga to learn more.

[christiaan]

Maybe one day you can write an encyclopedia about meditation techniques?

But probably there are some already.

[Joop50]

Last night I went to Laughter Yoga. I had read about this but never done it. It was very silly and very fun. We laughed together for an hour. At the end I was exhausted, but also strangely energized. I slept great and woke up feeling great. Do a google on laughter yoga to learn more.

I have experienced it a couple of time too. It can be really refreshing to do this once in a while. Good to read you felt great.