Meditation anxiety trouble

[funkychunkymonkey]

I have been experiencing heavy anxiety as i sit down to meditate i was able to slide into a neutral sense of peace but now ten minutes into my practice i start feeling very anxious and i end the meditation. does anyone else experience this? how can i hang on? 

[Consilience]

It definitely happens and will more than likely occur again even after this phase of anxiety is released. This is the process of purification, the mind slowly training itself to be at peace in the midst of pain or pleasure without craving and aversion. Long story short, sounds like you’re right on track! 
 

As far as strategies to help soften these kinds of phases of practice, 

1) A shamatha focus rather than vipassana or open awareness. Focusing on feelings of bliss, happiness, contentment, and equanimity while following a meditation object like the breath sensations at the nostrils or whole body.

2) You can try a short breathwork session before a sit. Ive found doing anywhere from 2-5 mins of wim hof style breathing followed by holding my breath as long as possible afterwords to be extremely grounding and energetically clearing before meditation. 
 

3) Throw in walking meditation. These can be very rejuvenating when formal seated practice becomes too intense. 
 

4) Intentionally scale back practice. If 10 mins is all you feel called for, no reason to “should all over yourself” into thinking you need more. 1 minute of formal practice is better than none. Id keep the daily consistency, no matter how small. 

5) Try meditating with meditative music or sound bowls. Can be very healing and help dissipate and transform the anxiety energy. 

6) Listening to guided meditations. The only guided meditations Ill listen to are from a YouTube channel called Samaneri Jayasara, which is about as enlightening as guided meditations can be. 
 

7) Endure, push through, bring equanimity and truth even to these sensations. At the end of the day, all moments are moments of truth and freedom. So even if we find relief through transformation, the process of purifying the mind means we will eventually be able to sit in sensations of anxiety with no issues. 

[funkychunkymonkey]

@Consilience :] thank you the anxiety was so strong, you have helped me greatly!