Meditation - A Coping Mechanism for the Anxious Mind
Many clients who come to me who are experiencing anxiety want to know how they can get rid of these feelings. Anyone who has struggled with anxiety can relate to the uncomfortable, and sometimes debilitating symptoms that come with it, and with the desire to be rid of them so that we can better cope with and enjoy life.
From my experience of working with anxious clients, and from my own experience of being a person living in this fraught and often unpredictable world, I have found no ‘one-fix solution’ or ‘cure-all’ to anxiety. However, one tool I have found to be useful in managing anxiety is meditation.
In this blog, I wish to share with you some ideas about what anxiety is, what can cause it, and how we may go about trying to reduce or manage it.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety can be described as a feeling of unease, such as worry, fear, apprehension or even dread. Fear is a normal feeling that we experience in reaction to danger, however, anxiety is when we experience fear when there is no real danger present. A useful metaphor for anxiety that I once heard is that it is like a smoke alarm going off when there is no fire. The sound of an alarm is useful to us when we need to make a speedy escape, but it is uncomfortable and frustrating when it sounds for no obvious reason.
Anxiety can present in our minds as:
· Feeling tense, nervous, or unable to relax
· Constant worry, particularly about the future
· Racing thoughts, fixation or rumination on past or future events
· Worrying about what others think of us, and making assumptions
· Feeling like you can’t stop worrying, and that bad things are going to happen
· Worrying about anxiety itself (e.g. about symptoms such as panic attacks)
· Needing constant reassurance from others
· Low mood and depression
· Feeling disconnected to your body, your mind, or the world around you
Anxiety can also involve uncomfortable physical symptoms such as:
· Churning feeling in your stomach
· Feeling light-headed or dizzy
· Sweating and hot flushes
· Fast breathing or difficulty breathing
· Nausea
· Panic attacks
· Restlessness
· Fatigue
· Headaches, and other aches and pains
When we experience any of these symptoms, even if infrequent, it can be difficult to be present, to focus, or to enjoy life. This can impact our ability to look after ourselves, to maintain or form relationships or even to work or study.
What causes anxiety?
Just as the experience of anxiety will be different and unique to each person, so will the cause or causes. Freud described anxiety as an inner emotional conflict caused when we suppress experiences, feelings or impulses that are too threatening or disturbing to live with. This is an unconscious process, meaning that there may be things bubbling under the surface for us, but we can be unaware of them, or we may feel unable to deal with them right now, so they present instead as anxiety.
Some factors in our lives can contribute to us experiencing anxiety are:
· Genetics – perhaps a parent suffered from anxiety
· Trauma – in childhood or adulthood, such as neglect, abuse, bereavement
· A build up of stress, at home, in work or at school/college
· Uncertainty in life, such as money or housing problems
· Health problems, including other mental health conditions
· Drugs, alcohol or even prescribed medications
Anxiety - is it all bad?
Anxiety gets a bad rap, which is no surprise given all the unpleasant symptoms mentioned above that can come with it. However, I have come to think of anxiety as a useful tool in itself. When we experience anxiety, this can be our mind and body giving us clues as to what may not be going right for us. It can encourage us to take stock of our lives and question which aspects of it may need to change. Perhaps we are having relationship issues that need to be addressed. Maybe we are not feeling fulfilled in our job, or we are working too much. Are we getting enough sleep and exercise? Do we need to improve our diet? When we experience anxiety, it can be a motivating factor for us to take action and bring about positive changes in our lives.
Anxiety is also a totally normal feeling for us to experience. It is often a natural reaction to stressful or challenging situations in our lives. However, when anxiety begins to affect our day-to-day life, this is when we may need to examine what is going on for us, and seek out tools to help us to manage it.
Helpful tools for managing anxiety
While talking to a therapist, or trusted friend or family member can help to ease our anxiety and reduce our feelings of being alone in our fears and worries, meditation can also offer us a practical way to manage our anxiety.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a practice that involves taking time out of our day-to-day lives to focus our minds using a combination of mental and physical techniques. Meditation isn’t about trying to change who we are, it’s about enhancing our awareness and trying to gain a new, and, hopefully, healthier perspective on ourselves and the world. It’s not about trying to ‘turn off’ or eradicate difficult thoughts and feelings, it’s more about learning to observe them without judgement so that over time, we can start to better understand them so that what feels uncomfortable can begin to feel more comfortable.
Meditation is a ‘practice’, so like with any new skill we are trying to learn, it requires time and practice so that we can become more comfortable with it or feel more proficient at it. We wouldn’t expect ourselves to become concert pianists after just one sitting at the piano – the same goes for meditation. It is unreasonable to think that we will become zen masters overnight, but through regular practice, we can improve our ability to focus and clear our minds, and hopefully, after a short while, our ability to cope with anxiety will be enhanced.
‘Noting’ Technique
One of my favourite meditation techniques for managing anxiety is ‘noting’ or ‘labelling’. It is a technique which can help us to train our minds to create calm by acknowledging thoughts and feelings as they arise, without feeling the need to ‘do’ anything with them.
The meditation app, Headspace, has a lovely short video about the technique of 'noting', which explains it more eloquently than I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjI9v-VYwZY
They also have a nice short wind-down meditation about noting which you can do before bed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPQqN5v92oQ
The beauty of ‘noting’ is that once we can master it in the meditation space, we can apply the technique to everyday life. So when those difficult thoughts can feelings arise, we can get better at acknowledging them and letting them pass, rather than ruminating on them. Even if we manage to achieve this just some of the time, it can help to ease the anxiety in our minds.
YouTube also offers a wealth of free guided meditations one can use. For example, here is a short one on the 'noting' technique, but many more are available. Take time to find one or several that work for you, and revisit them when you find you are in need of making space for calm in your mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesbu-AbcuU
Other meditation techniques such as focussed breathing and body scans can also help us to feel a sense of calm when racing thoughts or difficult bodily symptoms of anxiety arise. I encourage you to find meditation exercises that work for you. As mentioned previously, the Headspace app is one I have found useful, but there are others available such as the Calm app, and other free resources such as YouTube.
More support for anxiety
While meditation is a great tool, you may find that it doesn’t work for you, or that it isn’t quite enough to give you the relief you desire. There may also be other difficult things going on in your life that cannot be addressed through meditation alone. If you feel that you need more specialised support with your anxiety, I would be happy to have a free consultation with you to see if you think therapy would be of benefit to you.
Please feel free to get in touch by filling out the contact form on my website, by emailing me at lornaboyletherapy@gmail.com or by leaving a voicemail at 0833815651.
