Holding Anxiety

[blloyd]

I am confident that anyone can use Mindfulness skills to resolve anxiety (perceived threat). And I am confident that anyone can practise the skills of Mindfulness through meditation. So it is the skills not the meditation that resolves the anxiety. What is more, the skill can be developed without meditation. This is good news, no.

[JonW]

'What is more, the skill can be developed without meditation.'

With respect, this is a site devoted to meditation-based mindfulness practice.
We have no interest in practices that jettison formal meditation.
Frankly, you are wasting your time with this argument.
Best wishes for the future,
Jon

[mybubble]

For the last couple of months I have been working on letting emotions e.g anxiety, depression etc come up within my practice to feel and be with them. A cleansing sit, so-to-speak. This is what I have read and noticed. 1) Trying to make it happen, e.g forcing your mind to bring it up is unlikely to work. 2) The emotions e.g anxiety may have other states that show first in practice, like the tip of an iceberg. These could be impatience, anger, agitation. 3) Focussing too much on breath will block out other emotional states; ease up on the breath, follow it lightly.

The results: Lots of waves of emotions, they do not last for that long, but reiterates how transient our emotions are . They come, stay and go. One amazingly painful insight that bubbled up out of nowehere, a lost memory from childhood, that has formed a major part of my personality. I have been doing this for two months and it is slow, but what I have found out, for me anyway, is that I cant force the pace. It will surface or will not when its good and ready.

Anxiety is different in that it must be hard to bring it up intentionally when completely relaxed. But another more deeply seated memory or emotion or insight may pop up that may be the root cause of it all. Perhaps you are looking too hard to study the symptom and thereby not allowing the root cause to rise up?

[JonW]

A lovely, wise post, mybubble.
JW