Mindfulness with Anxiety Feelings

[bgold21]

Hi there - I have just started to slowly get the hang of mindfulness - i have been doing it for a couple of months (guided meditations) and i notice a lot of the thoughts about the anxiety such as

how am i going to get rid of it? Oh no heres the anxiety again, i feel pretty terrible.

I notice these thoughts almost as a story my brain is telling me, and also when i feel my brain imagine an image of tomorrow and an accompanying thought of "how will i feel tomorrow" i gently bring myself back tot he rpesent moment. I only realized a few days ago how important gentleness is - i found when i was bringing my mind back abruptly I was just being that bit more rough and impatient with myself - does this sound like it could make a big difference? As i'm finding when I'm gentle I don't beat myself up as much for feeling that way.

Also is it quite natural for thoughts about the feelings to remain even if you kind of know the feeling isn't that bad anymore? Is this jsut because those thoughts have existed a long time?

Any help/feedback would be much appreciated

Do you discover more as time goes on ?

[JonW]

Hi bgold21,
Welcome to the forum.
Those thoughts are not uncommon during the early days of practice.
Grounding yourself in the practice is key. Guided meditations are tremendously helpful but they don't provide structure to the learning.
That's why the 8-week course is, in my view, so important.
Nothing really beats a course with a recommended teacher. If none are available in your area or if signing up to a course is unfeasible right now, the next best option would be to follow the course via a book. The most popular book with our members seems to be Finding Peace In A Frantic World by Mark Williams and Danny Penman. It comes with a CD of guided meditations. Well worth investigating.
I hope you stick around and let us know how you're getting on with mindfulness.
Please feel free to ask any questions that arise and to join in any of the other conversational threads.
All best wishes,
Jon, Hove

[bgold21]

Thanks for your response.

Yes i actually just did a 6 week mindfulness course (MBSR) however all that was provided were a few mp3 guided meditations.

I would like to know whether you think that book (i see it has great reviews) will help in working alongside this ? I am on medication but still need to manage the anxiety.

Does that book provide meditation to do post the 8 weeks? I need something to apply to daily life definitely.

[JonW]

Hi bgold21,
That book takes you through the 8-week course but pretty much leaves it up to you to decide how your daily practice is going to shape up after that.
When you ask about meditation to do post the eight weeks, do you mean more guided meditations to work with? There are plenty of those available - sitting meditations, body scans, mindful movement.
If you can establish a daily routine involving at least one of those, employing all three on a regular basis, you'll have a flourishing practice.
There are also a few books that are well worth reading to help ground your practice after a course - Coming To Your Senses and Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn are the ones I would recommend.
In the meantime, we're always happy to offer help and support here on the forum. So do fire away if you have any questions.
All best,
Jon

[Gareth]

Hi bgold21,

Only just noticed your topic tucked away here. I'm going to move it to "beginning," hopefully it will get more views. Good advice you've had there from Jon.

[Eden33]

Really nice article!! Anxiety feelings are really bad for health. Due to my back pain I always feel irritated and anxious. I have taken medications for this pain but nothing worked. Now I am going to try acupuncture at a domestic streetsville acupuncture center. I hope it’ll work!

[Mal_Smith]

Really nice article!! Anxiety feelings are really bad for health. Due to my back pain I always feel irritated and anxious. I have taken medications for this pain but nothing worked. Now I am going to try acupuncture at a domestic streetsville acupuncture center. I hope it’ll work!

Kabat-Zinn's "Full Catastrophe Living" devotes most of a chapter to back pain, and several other chapters discuss physical pain in general. So it might be better for you than the various works by Williams, who tends to concentrate on mental problems. He's also very positive about acupuncture, relating a story about a journalist who suffered a ruptured appendix in China, and underwent the operation with only acupuncture for anasthesia...

[Skywalker]

I think what you describe is insight into your own process. Which could be confusing, even worrying, but I would encourage you not to dwell on it, just see it as part of making progress and try to avoid analysing it after your mindfulness session.

Anxiety has been described as arising through trying to deal with tomorrow today, i.e. while we can plan ahead, we can't deal with events of tomorrow today. Which, from your post, I see you get, but as the saying goes: "Old habits die hard!"

Breaking entrenched habits can be very hard to do, and it can be much easier to replace them with a new habit which leaves the old habit to fade away in the course of time. Which is what you seem to be doing, but while being tempted to pull up the new seedling to see if it has any roots yet?

You have noted some positive signs of progress, which indicates that you are gaining some control over your own process, and I would encourage you to celebrate that and add such awareness to your motivation to continue on the positive pathway you have found.

ATB

Sky

[piedwagtail91]

Hi bgold21
from your post you already look to be developing a good of self compassion and patience which is good and the more you practice the easier it will get.
When you have the thoughts and feel the anxiety I'd suggest seeing if you can let the thoughts go and at same time rest your awareness on the sensations of the anxiety.
Where do you feel it in your body? what does it feel like? notice if it shifts or changes.
Use your self compassion as you explore the feelings of anxiety or whatever other emotion comes up.
Notice how these feelings change as you observe them, allow them to be there, be curious.
Strong emotions can fade away in as little as 90 seconds if you can let go of the thoughts.
eventually they'll fade away.

I use the same technique with my recently acquired pain which it appears is with me for life.
Though those sensations don't fade away.
Allowing the pain to be there and exploring it, letting go of the thoughts, judgements and worries about where it might end up mean that I don't have too much trouble with' secondary' pain which makes my overall pain levels considerably less and easier to be with,.

[SheilaB]

You mentioned gentleness - the discovery of which was certainly transformational for me around difficult feelings that I'd rather not have.

I'm so much of a gentleness convert that you can find plenty I've written about it here on Everyday Mindfulness.

Wishing you kindness and gentleness in your continued practice,
Sheila