Anxiety occurs to varying degrees, it can be very minor to completely debilitating. It also takes on different forms. It can be very specific and associated with a single fear, or it can be very general and permeating much of your life.
Meditation can be of help in managing anxiety. For some people it can be all that is needed, while for others it is best used as an adjunct to other therapies.
Let's look at how meditation in its many forms can help people in managing anxiety (whilst also respecting that many other therapies also help too).
Is anxiety interfering with your life? Find out how mindfulness meditation may help overcome anxiety on our 2 CD set "Happy not hassled".
Here is one way I have used meditation in order to help me manage anxiety.
Meditation has helped me monitor my mind. In meditation we are sitting and focusing on a single object, e.g. breathing in and breathing out. While we are paying attention to one point of focus we keep a look-out for when we drift away and where we drift away to. Then we gently bring ourselves back to our meditation object, instead of joining in the thoughts that arise and having a conversation with them.
How can this help with managing anxiety? Various thoughts can start and build anxiety. When we think to ourselves. "What if I can't pay the bills?" or "What if I get lost?" or "What if I don't know anyone?" anxiety can be present. If we then follow and engage with these thoughts our anxiety can get worse.
For example, if we say, "What if I get lost?" and then say to ourselves, "Oh that would be awful, I hate getting lost, what on earth would I do, it will be late at night and if I got out of my car I could get mugged, and then no one would know as Bill is away and I could be left in a lane-way for hours without being able to get help and I might die".
This sequence of thoughts escalates anxiety. One thought leads to another thought and so a proliferation of thoughts occurs and we are in the grip of anxiety.
This is where meditation can be so helpful in managing anxiety.
Anxiety does not usually occur in the present moment when we are focusing fully on what we are doing (in my experience, anyway). Instead, anxiety is often brought about by thinking about an anticipated negative future that may never arise.
Meditation helps to keep us in the present moment and stops us becoming attached to thoughts that can start or nurture our anxiety.
I have personally found meditation an enormous benefit in managing anxiety.
Rachel has been meditating since 1987 and has used meditation to overcome panic attacks. She is the author of the 2 CD set: "Happy not hassled: Using meditation to manage your emotions". It is Confident Woman's most popular CD set. For more details go to: "Happy not hassled".
She is also conducting a public course in Perth, with international author and SET teacher Steve Wells: Anxiety detox! More details of and bookings for "Your Anxiety Detox" here:
Copyright Confident Woman Australia, 2011.
NB: This article is for your information only and does not constitute individual advice. Everyone is different. It is not provided as an alternative to obtaining professional advice from an appropriately qualified practitioner. Please seek the help you need for managing anxiety.
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Why can anxiety rear its hateful head so often for people in business? Because there is so much to worry about! There's legislation, recruitment, business loans, staff wages, cashflow, business premises, security, occupational safety and health, unfair dismissal laws, staff retention, tax payments, difficult clients, complaints and more. The list of potential anxieties seems limitless. No wonder many businesses have anxious owners.
This article will look at one of many ways business people can reduce and even prevent anxiety. The technique is called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). It was developed by a medical specialist, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. He is the person who has been credited with first bringing mindfulness techniques and meditation into mainstream medicine.
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn mindfulness practice is a "systematic cultivation of awareness through a particular way of paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally". It is an opportunity to sit with ourselves and to be in relationship with our senses and what arises.
Thousands of people have benefited from learning his method and have seen their stress levels plummet, even when their circumstances have remained the same. People don't even have to do it for very long before they can start to get results from it. Dr Kabat-Zinn has been running ten-day mindfulness retreats for CEOs for over 12 years.
Are you stressed or managing anxiety? Mindfulness techniques can reduce them and they're on our 2 CD set "Happy not hassled".
Anxiety often arrives because people are imagining bad events arising in the future. They think of what will go wrong, how difficult a task will be or how bad they will feel if something occurs.
Mindfulness meditation encourages us to leave our future worries and anxieties to one side, for now, and instead to return to the sensations that arise right now, in this moment. The sensations of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching can all happen in each moment, but anxiety can take us away from them. By focusing on them they can take us away from anxiety.
For example, if you are sitting in the staff tea room having lunch notice every sensation involved in slowly moving your lunch to your mouth, feel each fork full of food as it enters your mouth, and then focus on the food as you slowly eat it. Feel it between your teeth. Sense the tongue moving it around. Become aware of the food moving, the saliva joining it and the desire to swallow.
What are you doing here? You are focusing your attention on the sensations of what you are doing now. Moment by moment. When you become more grounded in the ongoing sensations of the present moment anxiety about the future has less of a hold and you'll find managing anxiety in business can become easier.
Do you think you can't meditate? Try the meditations on this CD. They're easy, even for beginners: "Happy not hassled".
When you get anxious your breathing may change. It may speed up. It may become shallower.
Focusing on your breath may help it to settle back into a smoother gentler rhythm. Wherever you are your breath is with you, slowly going in and going out of your body, even when you're not thinking about it.
Notice your breath going in and your breath going out. Your breath going in, your breath going out. Your breath going in, your breath going out. Have you got the idea? It's very simple! You just have to stay focussed on it.
Once your breathing is less agitated you may feel less agitated too. Whatever you are doing in your business you are always breathing. You don't need any special equipment, any special environment or to go anywhere, so watching your breath going in and out is something any business owner can do. Even just for a few moments.
Want to have calmer breathing? There is a mindfulness breathing exercise on our CD set, "Happy not hassled".
Developing self-awareness is a very important part of being a successful business manager or owner. Mindfulness practice helps people develop self-awareness and insight.
One thing we can do to practise mindfulness is to simply sit in silence with no agenda. Our business lives are full of timetables, meetings and agendas. We are driven by what we must do and what must be done. No wonder we get axious. Sometimes the ability just to stop and be quiet for a few minutes can help our minds settle and our anxiety ease.
Can you sit for five minutes in silence with no agenda? What happens when you do? Can you sustain your attention on the silence or your breath for just 5 mins?
Most of us can't. Instead, our minds flit here, there and everywhere. It is this flitting that can fuel anxiety.
Seldom are we fully present when we are involved in reading our e-mails, or listening to customers or staff, or participating in meetings. Jon Kabat-Zinn says, "When we divide our attention we are neither here nor there. ... Wouldn't it be better if you had 100% of your marbles present when the proverbial stuff is hitting the proverbial fan rather than only 20%, 40% or 60%?".
By becoming more mindful we can develop greater skills in perceiving what is going on in a meeting, we can listen more fully to what someone is saying, and we can know how we are feeling and what we are thinking. In addition, our thinking can become clearer. All this helps in managing anxiety and running a successful business.
By being silent we can know what is happening inside ourselves so we can manage and reduce anxiety.
Find silence too difficult? Try our 6 minute body scan mindfulness exercise instead. It's on our 2 CD set, "Happy not hassled".
We need to develop a great deal of discipline to run a successful business. Practising mindfulness based stress reduction, (MBSR), may also be a useful part of running a successful business. It need not involve large chunks of time. It can be quiet moments one at a time.
It can be two minutes in the toilet. It can be three minutes waiting in a queue. It can be practised on the train, while you are waiting for a meeting to start, or sitting in your own car before driving home. I even know of one person who shuts himself in a cupboard to practise mindfulness each lunchtime, such are the benefits.
Studies by Dr Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist, have demonstrated that measurable and positive changes occur in the brain during mindfulness practice. His research has shown that when practising MBSR over an 8 week period people get a demonstrable improvement in brain functioning, a lowering of anxiety and stress levels, and an increase in immune functioning.
The choice is clear - find yourself managing anxiety in business or discover the benefits of calm and clear thoughts to guide your business.
You might like to watch this video of a mindfulness meditation I taught on eating: http://www.youtube.com/user/RachelGreenEI#p/a/u/0/jsqVUKPICdA
Included in the video is a guided mindfulness exercise that you can do sitting at your computer. Maybe you and your staff could all do it together?
If you would like a CD of mindfulness exercises of varying lengths they are on this CD set, "Happy not hassled".
Rachel has been meditating since 1987 and used meditation to overcome panic attacks. She is the author of the 2 CD set: "Happy not hassled: Using meditation to manage your emotions". It is Confident Woman's most popular CD set. For more details go to: "Happy not hassled".
Rachel also conducts a live webinar "Managing anxiety - creating calm" that you can enrol in throughout Australia. It only takes an hour and if you have a computer you can join in at home or at work. For more details go to: "Managing anxiety - creating calm"
She can also speak at your conference or event on: Managing anxiety: don't panic yet!
This is an inspiring speech, hilarious, practical and relevant.
Copyright Confident Woman Australia, 2010.
NB: This article is for your information only and does not constitute individual advice. Everyone is different. It is not provided as an alternative to obtaining professional advice from an appropriately qualified practitioner. Please seek the help you need.
]]>What is meditation? The basic idea is to practise focusing on a single object and to keep returning to it whenever you are distracted from it. It is that simple.
When you are focusing on the object there is no room for the anxiety. Despite what you may think two different ideas cannot be in the mind at the exact same time. However, if you get distracted by your anxiety from the object you are focusing on, you simply learn to go back to the object.
You keep gently and kindly returning to the point of your focus. And you keep doing this over and over and over again.
I think of it as being a bit like taming a wild horse.
You have the horse on a long rope but it keeps jumping all over the place and pulling on the rope, trying to break away. Each time it does you gently coax it back. It returns after some effort and a lot of coaxing.
However, the more times this happens, the more it learns not to run away. Over time the horse pulls away less and less. When it does pull away it learns to come back to you more readily. In the end it may just stand still.
The mind is the same. When you first start meditating it gets distracted. Every time it runs off you just gently coax it back to the object you are focusing on. The more you do this, over time it will come back more easily and quickly. After a while it learns to stay for longer and longer on the point of focus.
I remember one of the women in the meditation class I was running once. She was sure she could not meditate. I encouraged her to come to the class for at least 4 weeks before deciding whether it would help or not.
I didn’t want her to be one of those people who say, "Oh I tried meditation once, it isn't for me, I couldn't do it." They miss out. They simply haven’t tried it for long enough nor understood the process.
In the first week she was very restless and she described her mind as a bucking bronco, jumping all over the place. The second week she was the same; a wild untamed horse was inside her head. The third week seemed similar.
In the fourth week, she said, “Do you know I still have a horse in my head but it isn’t a bucking bronco any more. It’s got calmer. It’s kind of just walking around now instead of jumping. Well I never!” success!
It was the repetition that did it. She just kept coaxing the horse back to the focus each time it ran away, until it learnt not to run away so hard or fast.
I remember the first time I tried to meditate. I'd gone along to a meditation group who were giving free lessons. At my first class I ended up getting mad in my head with the teacher and at the stupid ticking clock they had in the room. At the end I was more stressed than when I arrived.
But, for some reason I went back for a second go. It was just as bad, my mind was still restless, my back hurt, and I kept getting frustrated with the man next to me for breathing so loudly. I simply couldn't stay focused. Was I more relaxed? No way - I was just more aware of how busy my head was. I left not wanting to come back.
However, I decided to go again. What a fool. Guess what? My mind was still racing. I was still fidgeting on the chair. And I still hated it.
But something funny happened. When the teacher said at the end, "Just notice if anything has changed since you started", I noticed that my mind was not racing as quickly and I was a bit more peaceful. How odd, I thought, maybe there is something in this after all!
After that I began to mediate more often. And over time it became easier for me. The rewards it has brought me have been significant and wonderful. I even cured my panic attacks by meditating.
Have you tried meditating yet? Have you stuck with it? It could be the anxiety management technique you need.
Rachel has overcome her own panic attacks and spent several years successfully learning how to manage anxiety. She has found meditation very helpful.
The meditations that Rachel used to help ease her anxiety are all featured on her CD set "Happy not hassled." Let her teach you how to meditate and guide you to greater peace and calm. Click here to buy your copy.
She can also speak at your conference or event on: Managing anxiety: don't panic yet!
This is an inspiring speech, hilarious, practical and relevant.
Copyright Confident Woman Australia, 2010.
NB: Any information contained on this site is not provided as an alternative to the obtaining of professional psychological advice from an appropriately qualified practitioner.
I have explained in an earlier blog what meditation is and described how important it is to focus on a single object.
But what object should you focus on?
Meditation objects can vary and there is no one right object that fits everyone. It is important to find the object that best suits you. Then when you have chosen your best object I suggest you stay using this for several months until you have become accomplished in its use.
One particular focus that I have used, and many of my friends and clients have benefitted from using, is saying a soothing phrase or word over and over again, silently inside my head. This is sometimes called a mantra. However, you do not need to know the technical word to gain greater calm from it.
The main idea is to focus on a word or phrase that conjures up soothing relaxation or peace. What these words are can be your choice. All that matters is that the phrase you use resonates inside you to evoke an atmosphere of peace and quiet.
For example, it is unlikely that the phrases, “I am in debt”, “I hate John” or “Blood and guts” are going to be the type of phrases that will put you at ease!
Instead, some of the phrases I have repeated to myself and found calming have been:
How can you use such phrases? By saying one word on the breath in and one word on the breath out. Then repeating this over and over and over again.
It would go something like this. As you breathe in you say the word “peace”. As you breathe out you say the word “calm”. As you breathe in again you say the word “peace”. As you breathe out again you say the word “calm”. As you breathe in again you say the word “peace”. As you breathe out again you say the word “calm”.
If you ever drift away or become distracted, e.g. by your neck aching, concerns about tomorrow, or worries and regrets about the past, then gently return to saying “peace, calm”. As you breathe in you say the word “peace”. As you breathe out you say the word “calm”.
Thus it continues, for 5 minutes, 15 minutes or 30 minutes.
Overtime the more you practise the more the anxiety may lessen.
Even when you are feeling anxious you can do this.
What I have found is that even if I’m feeling anxious and I start using the peace and calm mantra, the anxiety may be there but my anxiety or fear about the anxiety lessens. I am no longer so troubled by the anxiety itself. It is just there but I am more at peace with it. Then there is nothing feeding it.
One of the women in our meditation group really likes this particular meditation. She has many stories to tell about how useful it has been to her.
She uses it particularly to help settle her nerves and anxiety when she goes to bed. In the past, she has had considerable problems sleeping. Now, by repeating “peace and calm” over and over again she gets off to sleep far more easily. Managing anxiety is easy for her now too.
She has also reported, that she is far less likely to wake with anxiety in the middle of the night. If she wakes, guess what she now does? Yes! By repeating “peace and calm” over and over again she gets back to sleep.
What words or phrases can you say to yourself, inside your head, to help you in managing anxiety?
And are you willing to practise? That’s how your anxiety will lessen. It is one of the best anxiety management techniqes I know.
Rachel has overcome her own panic attacks and spent several years successfully learning how to manage anxiety. She has found meditation very helpful.
The meditations that Rachel used to help ease her anxiety are all featured on her CD set "Happy not hassled." Let her teach you how to meditate and guide you to greater peace and calm. Click here to buy your copy.
She can also speak at your conference or event on: Managing anxiety: don't panic yet!
This is an inspiring speech, hilarious, practical and relevant.
Copyright Confident Woman Australia, 2010.
NB: Any information contained on this site is not provided as an alternative to the obtaining of professional psychological advice from an appropriately qualified practitioner.
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