Recommend me some meditation techniques

[Growly]

I need to cope with my anxiety so can you recommend me some good meditation to combat this. I already know some but I don't think it works but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[Growly]

bump

 

[Leo Gura]

Download a metronome app for your phone.

Turn on it on and follow every tick and tock with your mind. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the tick and tock. Keep doing that until your mind becomes focused and clear.

Binural beats are also very good for just calming down a noising mind.

[The0Self]

The Mind Illuminated

TWIM

Rob Burbea

[The0Self]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Download a metronome app for your phone.

Turn on it on and follow every tick and tock with your mind. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the tick and tock.

This'll work, too.

[Matt Skinner]

This, especially combined with some concentration practice, has worked well for me.

[Carl-Richard]

Consistency.

[Phyllis Wagner]

Can also recommend "The Mind Illuminated", best book on meditation ever.

[GreenWoods]

For many people mindfulness helps to reduce anxiety. For me, it didn't really reduce anxiety.

The only stuff that had a significant effect has been:

• opening the heart chakra
• awakening

[EternalForest]

My favorite kind of meditation is just star gazing and cloud watching!

It's magical ✨

[Carl-Richard]

3 hours ago, GreenWoods said:

For many people mindfulness helps to reduce anxiety. For me, it didn't really reduce anxiety.

The only stuff that had a significant effect has been:

• opening the heart chakra
• awakening

I read in a book about cognitive science that consistent meditation increases things like executive functioning (selective working memory a.k.a mental focus), and the effect is mediated by a reduction in unwanted thoughts (worrying). Anxiety has a worrying component (cognitive) and an arousal component (physiological) which interact with eachother, so meditation can certainly help with anxiety.

Edited May 13, 2021 by Carl-Richard

[Dodo]

5 hours ago, Matt Skinner said:

This, especially combined with some concentration practice, has worked well for me.

Hehe this one I have downloaded as mp3 on my phone, I've listened to it in the park a lot while meditating  Good stuff. @Growly I recommend meditation outside, connect to nature and breath in the fresh air..

 

[kinesin]

There are actually 2 distinct things which people generally refer to as 'anxiety'.  Cognitive anxiety, and physical arousal.  To clarify, arousal doesn't refer to sexual arousal but simply energetic activity in the nervous system which produces anxiety's physical symptoms such as jitteriness, raised heart rate, fast breathing, sweating etc.  Cognitive anxiety can and often does produce physical arousal, but not all physical arousal is the result of cognitive anxiety.  The first step is to recognise which type of anxiety you're experiencing.  Are you worried or fearful of something in particular which leads to your symptoms, or do the symptoms originate seemingly out of nowhere?  Are they more mental or physical in nature?
If your anxiety is originating in the mind, then meditation techniques aimed at quieting the mind will help.  If your anxiety is arousal based, you need to treat it physiologically.  For this, getting a rough sense of the broad functions of the nervous system is necessary. 

There are really only 4 things you need to know about the nervous system -

1:  The parasympathetic nervous system.  Governs energetically 'down' functions in the body.  Rest and digest mode.

2: The sympathetic nervous system.  Governs energetically 'up' functions in the body.  Fight or flight mode.

3: The vagus nerve is the main nerve which mediates activity between the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems.

4: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia.  Sounds like something bad, but is actually a normal function.  When you take a deep breath in, this activates the vagus nerve and your heart rate increases along with general sympathetic activity.  When you let a deep breath out, this releases pressure on the vagus nerve thereby slowing heartrate and increasing general parasympathetic activity.

Google those terms so you get a bit of a sense of how they work.  The main takeaway from this knowledge is the realization that by controlling your breathing in specific ways, you can directly influence your arousal level.  Don't just take my word for it though, please experiment with your breathing and see for yourself.  Try long, slow inhalations followed by longer, slower exhalations and pay attention to how you begin to feel after 5 or 10 breaths.

This video provides a short and sweet summary -

 

[Carl-Richard]

11 minutes ago, kinesin said:

To clarify, arousal doesn't refer to sexual arousal but simply energetic activity in the nervous system which produces anxiety's physical symptoms such as jitteriness, raised heart rate, fast breathing, sweating etc. 

The sympathetic nervous system that is associated with anxiety is also activated during sexual arousal and highly pleasant emotions.

[Nahm]

16 hours ago, Growly said:

I need to cope with my anxiety so can you recommend me some good meditation to combat this. I already know some but I don't think it works but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Give these meditations a read. They’re oriented toward being without anxiety, by understanding & expressing, vs coping. I think one or two will really ‘click’ just in reading them. If you spend ten minutes a couple times a day with those one or two I think you’ll be glad you did. Be sure to release / express, and not to suppress (typically with the belief “something is wrong with me”). 

Also, understanding the emotions you’re experiencing, vs misunderstanding or potentially misinterpreting and directing thought toward yourself, is incredibly relieving and empowering. 

The frame work, or thinking behind these methods is that anxiety isn’t something one has, and has to combat, but an experience one creates unknowingly from collective conditioning and self referential thinking. The more it is seen & understood how one is creating it, the less one does, and the more one feels the true nature of love, peace and happiness via alignment with the true nature. 

Making a dreamboard can be a real life changing experience specifically in relation to anxiety. What was interpreted as fear or nervousness is realized to be excitement and enthusiasm. 

[Dodo]

@Growly

 You can also try this visualised meditation using the Mandelbrot set 

[herghly]

Om Swami meditation books  > everything else

[Growly]

@GreenWoods I thought chakras were fake ngl. I tried to open the "third eye' When i was 16 yrs old but it ended up giving me a headache and I think that is too complex for someone that has stopped meditating for 2 years now.

[The0Self]

20 minutes ago, Growly said:

@GreenWoods I thought chakras were fake ngl. I tried to open the "third eye' When i was 16 yrs old but it ended up giving me a headache and I think that is too complex for someone that has stopped meditating for 2 years now.

I thought they were fake too. After thousands of hours of meditation, I think there's something to them. There are certainly distinct "layers" of the mind.

[Growly]

@Nahm  

"If you spend ten minutes a couple times a day with those one or two I think you’ll be glad you did. Be sure to release / express, and not to suppress (typically with the belief “something is wrong with me”)." Maybe 

I think I did a meditation practice similar to what you said 2 years ago and it did work because I didn't feel much anxiety anymore so I'll try again.

"understanding the emotions you’re experiencing, vs misunderstanding or potentially misinterpreting and directing thought toward yourself, is incredibly relieving and empowering."

I understand and I know where my sadness is mostly coming from.

"The frame work, or thinking behind these methods is that anxiety isn’t something one has, and has to combat, but an experience one creates unknowingly from collective conditioning and self referential thinking. The more it is seen & understood how one is creating it, the less one does, and the more one feels the true nature of love, peace and happiness via alignment with the true nature."

I think that's the source of anxiety and you explained  it XDDDD 

"Making a dreamboard can be a real life changing experience specifically in relation to anxiety. What was interpreted as fear or nervousness is realized to be excitement and enthusiasm."  

I think I understand what you're talking about on the 2nd statement. When I learn new things, I get excited but I procrastinate after because Idk why but I do know why. Maybe my  subconscious says: "I'm too afraid to change so I'll procrastinate and waste my team on unproductive low consicous things yayayay" somewhere like that xDDD

I think it's pretty sad how I could of ascended when I was 16 yrs old and been persistent throughout my years but now I'm 18 wasting more time on petty things like facial attractivess and other attachments.

I'll maybe be happier if I start smoking spritual related drugs or start a new meditation practice.