Learn to use your mind so it doesn't use you. Anxiety is only ever a thought the mind creates about the future. It's a wake-up call to question the stories we have unconsciously believed. The same principles that apply to meditation also apply to life, so as you learn to work with something in meditation, you are also increasing your capacity to navigate life. Meditation is like a ballast to a ship that helps to keep you centered independent of the currents; able to move with greater ease in business and relationships while living a more fulfilling and happy life.
The Beginning Stages
When you first start to meditate, you will probably notice that the mind's habit of focusing on thoughts, emotions, sensations and memories is endless! There are some meditations that try to control attention so you don't get lost in the rabbit hole of the thinking world -- like breath-work, mantras, visualizations and so on.
You may like those and even find them helpful. I encourage you to follow what feels right for you. I have found that honoring what has felt right at different times in my life is always supportive. The meditation I invite you to experience is a bit different from the ones mentioned above because it has no direction or goal. It is what I have discovered to be the most profound and purest way to meditate. It is not dependent on a certain state of consciousness, which is temporary and can create anxiety, trying to get back to the high you once felt.
The meditation I am speaking of is more of an opening, to noticing this relaxed receptive awareness that already allows everything to be as it is. In this way, there is no effort in the future to get somewhere you aren't already.
Focusing On The Present
We are conditioned in our society to continue "becoming." The search to be "better" is stressful and can keep us on a self-improvement hamster wheel if we are not conscious of it. This meditation is about stopping that search for more, whether that is happiness, peace, success or even enlightenment.
• It is about recognizing what is here right now when all those tendencies are paused.
• It is a time to rest back in observation, free from following all the thoughts, emotions and sensations that endlessly arise.
Notice the awareness that is always here, prior to these things that come and go. There is something that allows everything in this moment to be just as it is, free of judgment, completely neutral.
Awareness: The Essence Of Meditation
When awareness isn't focused on the mind's endless control patterns and identifications, it is freed up and we feel light. In this meditation all of these mind habits are left to be as they are. So even if you have a thought, it's allowed. Having a thought that "you shouldn't have a thought" is just another thought. This is about not resisting or indulging in anything that is part of your experience. Instead, there is a resting back in the awareness prior to all thoughts, emotions and sensations.
In this way you naturally feel peaceful and open more fully to experience the largest expression of yourSelf. Even if you get lost in the rabbit hole of thinking, that's ok, there's no need to judge it. That which was aware that the mind was lost was not the mind, it is the awareness prior to the mind. Let these experiences be a wake up call to come back to the present moment, noticing that this awareness never had a problem with the mind wandering.
If the mind is loud, it may be helpful to first put attention on awareness itself and notice how it experiences this moment. As you gently relax and abide in the larger all-encompassing presence of awareness, stillness is more naturally experienced as your true nature. This then becomes a way of living and anxiety naturally reduces in your life.