People's thoughts on dealing with anxiety

[Mindsfull]

So I'm just wondering what people's thoughts were on this...

I've been practicing for a while now (18 months off and on) just finished the FPIAFW again and have been practicing daily since around the new year.

When anxiety/panic flares up I guess I've learned to breath into the feelings and have been practicing this. But Ive read in a JKZ book that the breathing anchor could literally be practiced alone for a number of years - I guess meaning when anxious or otherwise overwhelmed we can bring ourselves back to the breath.
Then there's good old being totally present. Being as present as possible.

So what's people thoughts.

I guess my process is... anxiety arises, I note the thinking and breath into the physical symptoms and then come back to the present moment. But as I struggle with noting at times and then when focussing on physical symptoms of the panic attack can cause panic to worsen. My thinking is that maybe it's too early to try to deal with the emotion? Other options being - trying to be present in spite of the feelings, not giving thoughts any room etc. Or coming back to the breath to anchor etc?

Just some thoughts around this recently that I'm not sure about. And I've been thinking that it's possible certain skills such as dealing with emotions may take a long time to learn. Or even being able to note the thinking that comes up.

[monkey]

Hi there. I've had this same discussion with myself. If I try to label or turn towards it feels too much and almost like I'm adding to the thinking, and the problem is that there's too much thinking already! Often turning towards or labelling makes it very difficult not to get sucked in for me and then it all spirals.

I've been responding to anxious, repetitive thoughts in three ways. And here they are:

1. I breathe into my belly and breathe out and relax my whole body, feeling the weight through my feet, legs etc. I find this calming.
2. If that is not enough I go through all my senses: what can I see? What can I hear? What can I smell, taste, feel by touch? Where are my limbs and body in space (and with this a feeling of space around me)? How am I balancing, how is my weight grounding down into the ground? This brings me out of my head and into my senses, which is calming and grousing.
3. As well as one or both of those I try to disengage from the thoughts and see what the underlying emotion is. I have several regular anxious thoughts which I can now identify. I know that one of them is really about feeling that I am not good enough, that people will reject me or find me unacceptable in some way. So I try to find kind phrases that I need to hear to feel like this isn't the case, I might say to myself (in my head, of course) 'I am enough, what I do is enough etc' they come naturally if I ask 'what do I need right now?'

That's what I've been doing. For me, these are very difficult thoughts and my priority is kindness and looking after myself. What works for you? I

[Mindsfull]

Great post. Thanks.

I guess what I've started to do is....

1. As the situation arises it's easy to get caught up in thoughts and forget everything. So I may have thoughts of wanting to leave the situation immediately. I may try to defuse the thought. Or if there's so many thoughts as panic begins to build it may helpful to note with 'thinking'.

2. If the environment provides opportunity I may breath into the physical feelings but when this doesn't shift any feelings of anxiety it can make somewhat worse which is the reason for my questioning.

3. Overall I remind myself it's more helpful to stay in the anxious situation than leave.

4. If/when I feel more comfortable in the situation I then become more aware of the surroundings as you said above.

I know the process should be more accepting of whatever feelings are present but this I find very difficult.

[monkey]

Hi mindsfull. What situations make you anxious? I can see that you'd need different approaches to me, I tend to be fine when around others but sometimes get home and then go over things and worry and spin etc. So I can kind of deal with it however works, there aren't other people around (well, the children, but we know each other well). I can see that if others are around you need to find something different.

I have to say that I have decided in the last week or so that a great deal of my anxiety was caused by trying to control myself and impose a kind of informal practice structure on myself during the day, which obviously just led to a lot of stress and more thoughts and less 'presentness'. I decided to do slightly more in the way of formal practice and just forget any kind of mindfulness during the day, on the basis that my formal practice would naturally sustain that. I'm a lot happier. But perhaps our situations are different.

[anatta]

I think this article would really help you understand...
truth-ada.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/life-didnt-come-with-instruction-manual.html

Hope it helps