Meditation – An Effective Weapon Against Anxiety and Panic
A simple description of meditation would be to say it’s a technique we can use to focus our attention away from the random thoughts that fill our daily lives and onto the truly meaningful parts of our lives. Through meditation, one can achieve great tranquility. This tranquility is very useful to us as we fight against the stress, anxiety, and panic that face us every day.
Yet meditation often goes unused in the war against panic and anxiety because it’s often considered too mysterious. People become intimidated by the thought of learning how to meditate because they think of it as some difficult thing only attainable by a monastery monk after years of training. But this is a false assumption.
Meditation is actually a simple art to learn. To practice it you only need some time and a relatively quiet space. It requires nothing else really except your presence and attention. And after only one or two sessions, you can actually begin to experience its calming benefits.
To start out, I think it’s best to try to find some competent instruction somewhere. Look for an organized class. It’s always better to have a teacher who’s “been there” to help you avoid the wrong turns. Local community organizations like community colleges, churches, or organizations like the YMCA are great, low cost places to find some beginning instruction.
If you’re the solitary type, you can try using a book on meditation. You’ll definitely find lots of them in your local library or bookstore. Books can give you a great overview and general understanding of meditation. Their one drawback though is that you don’t get much feedback from a book. But they can get you started very quickly.
Audio CDs and DVDs are an excellent way to get started with meditation. They provide more guidance by actually leading you into and through each meditation session. This gives you a more “full-bodied” experience and leads to a deeper practice and understanding which leads to more anxiety relief benefits.
Breathing meditations are the usual first meditations learned by beginners. These are easy to learn and they give you a quick understanding of what meditation feels like. Depending on your desire, you can move into more advanced forms of meditating like full-body meditations or conceptual or emotional meditations. The more time you spend in meditation, the more tranquility you feel.
The art of meditation is a deep and wide subject. Meditation has been around for a long time because it delivers real benefits to its practitioners. With a little bit of experimenting, you can find one or more meditations that work for you in your life. I can’t recommend it highly enough as a way to combat the effects of stress and anxiety.
