It is often suggested that one uses meditation to address anxious thoughts. I have failed utterly every time I sit to watch my breath. The pinnacle I have reached is count to 10!!! The usual result is an attack of the Super Sleepiness!
So this is still a problem for me. However there is one activity that seem to help. I really need someone to discover an "advil" for anxiety. I don't know if one exists, at least legally anyways.
Here is a quick list that seem to help me a bit.
Getting up early on weekends in the morning to a quiet home
A cup of coffee
Reading a National newspaper that rises above the local din
A very long walk (about 2 hours)
A good movie
Old familiar music with character and complexity
Working with my kids on Math, or Science, or Language
Most of these lowers my anxiety, the first part, but don't address the anxiety. Except for the very long walk.
Here is how it works. (Mind you it has to be a long walk.) In the first 40 minutes there are so many buzzing thoughts hitting each other as you walk. You can try to initiate a thought that is a good constructive thought. The mind will be going back and forth and slowly comes around to the good thought. In that sense I call walking the converter of bad thoughts to good thoughts.
At about an hour into the walking you enter a slightly better physiological state where the body is relaxed and walking becomes natural and you start breathing from the stomach and not lungs.
By this hour you tend to latch on to the productive thoughts and they become crystalized. You form these conclusive opinions on the actions that you need to do. Or you start seeing these crystalized truths after discarding all the negative emotions.
yes it does happen. A good 70% of the time. It may be different for you. But the walk has to be long. And may be alone! I have never done to this level when walking together with others. Quietness and Movement seem to be essential to do this.
satya - 5/4/2013 10:24:59 AM
What is anxiety?
Multiple thoughts competing for attention
which one to act on
which one to discard
what should I do?
How about the gnawing guilt if I don't do x
fear of future, what will happen because of x
satya - 5/4/2013 10:27:16 AM
Walking while sitting down: A notebook and a pencil
write down all thoughts one by one
Acknowledge them
Examine each
Pick one
Then it will be easier to commit
when there are million things to do, do one, and not none!
The brain has a limited set of RAM and Stack, you need paper and pencil and perhaps a large surface to think through!
satya - 5/4/2013 10:28:43 AM
Is this meditation?
Look
Consider
Acknowledge
Weigh
Commit
satya - 5/4/2013 10:32:17 AM
What came first? Meditation or Commitment?
Of the most useless things one can do is to do nothing!! I suppose if you are capable of committing to doing nothing I suppose you can commit to anything with even a small profit!
Does one really need a PHD or go to Harvard or a Neuro-X (Or all of them1) to practice meditation? Or is it that they already know how to commit and hence their relative ease with which they take to meditation?
satya - 5/4/2013 10:43:25 AM
Here is something I wrote on commitment
satya - 5/4/2013 10:44:14 AM
It reads...titled: Simple Choice
A fork in the road, I have found myself at. The first path straight in all its turns, The other perhaps curvy all the way. Neither I know well enough for bias. I could take any as they both get me there. I agonize, instead. "is this right or that? Would I regret? Would one be too long? Or the other hard?" I asked a Sage, the Siri, the Oracle, And even an 8 ball! "How should I lead?" They all replied the same!!! "Take any as it matters little which! Matters most is you commit to what you choose. Yet be there a lingering doubt, Take the one that perhaps be harder, as in equal proportion it would be rewarding!"
satya - 5/4/2013 10:47:56 AM
What commitment afford me is the ability to move through time unaware of it: So Defining Present I made some notes
Present is not benevolent, Present is not kind, Nor is it anger or revenge, Neither, as such, it is ambivalent, It demands none nor favors any, For Present is not a state of mind! Present is not a zero hour, Present is not at 8, Nor is it at 5 and quarter, Neither, as such, it is temporal, Although perhaps of Time, Present is not a moment in Time. Present is not quiet, Present is slow or slower, Present is fast or faster, For sure, say I, Present moves! By Counts and Clocks, Present is when you make not, An Account it!! Allowed duration for a task, Mundane or Profound, When Exceeds infinitum, Present then Is for all foreseeable future!