How Meditation Can Help Reduce Anxiety

Perpetual worry, anticipation, an inexorable sense of dread, insomnia; Welcome to Anxiety Wonderland, open 24/7, 365 days a year. Free membership. There’s a new pandemic on the rise, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Anxiety is the silent marauder of our sanity and peace. Its taunting, adroit fingers rob us of things most precious to us, our easy laughter, joy, and ultimately, our freedom. Putting out a physical fire seems undemanding compared to fighting an unembodied beast of matter. The elusiveness of its shapeshifting nature makes it much harder for our tangible-oriented minds to grasp its beginning and its hypothetical end. Indeed, anxiety is a tricky beast, and it never sleeps. So, what’s the plan? How do we approach it? The idiom “Fight fire with fire” comes in handy. – Fight the metaphysical with the metaphysical. Mindfulness hour. This is how meditation can help reduce anxiety.

Understanding anxiety

As we already cognize, anxiety is a complex mechanism. Here’s an element of surprise: it’s benevolent at its core. Its sole purpose is to keep us safe from harm, but rather than enforcing the rational plane; it is involuntarily guided by irrationality. As the saying goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions. – And I’m pretty sure anxiety is also perplexed by the result. “It’s not much, but it’s all I have.” That’s the driving force behind its accidental wrongdoing. There are myriad forms of anxiety and myriad intensity levels. Understanding where you stand is probably a good place to start.

Anxiety symptoms

The anxiety disorder palette is vast, from separation anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks, and generalized anxiety disorder to specific phobias. But, all its faces have this in common: excessive, uncontrollable worry. Foreboding joy. All emotions are heightened. Soprano style.  Symptoms include:

• hyperventilation
• restlessness, tension
• irritability
• insomnia
• gastrointestinal issues
• weariness, fatigue
• increased heart rate
• trembling
• sweating
• poor concentration

Meditation for anxiety

Anxiety is humanity’s common denominator, albeit individually perceived and experienced. We all feel it, we know it, and we become it. So, how does meditation exactly fit into the equation? How does it help? It all starts with mindfulness. (the metaphysical counterpart to the original metaphysical problem) If the mind suffers, the soul should answer. Meditation techniques and practices deepen our self-perception by opening the gates to our intricately multilayered consciousness and by naturally changing our mental wiring patterns.

Mindfulness

Due to its irrefutable effectiveness, mindfulness-based meditation is frequently used in treating anxiety disorders. Meditation teaches us to focus our minds on a particular activity, object or thought. For a person consumed with anxiety, swarming thoughts are more than a mere episode; it’s become their modus vivendi. To silence the seldomly quiet “mental beehive,” we must gain power over our thoughts, and that’s where mindfulness-based meditation comes in. By practicing self-awareness, we can identify the swarm queen, the initial culprit, the avalanche-triggering snowflake. By understanding our thought patterns and mindfully identifying tension in our bodies, we learn to detach from our anxiety cascades and embrace our difficult emotions.

Sleep regulation

Sleep is the very pillar of our mental well-being; without it, our mental agility and capacity to fight off the penetrating darkness decrease. It is, indeed, essential. Our fatigue knows it. For many, after-dark hours bring anything but peace; the descending Sun invites metaphysical horsemen of the apocalypse (all four of them), leaving the individual with nothing to blanket their fears. It’s always quiet; it does something to us. – Fortunately, meditation can help reduce anxiety. By mastering the techniques, we can learn to release all the muscle tension that drives the hoped-for sleep away, relax our bodies, and create perfect conditions for a tranquil, safe mental space. Simultaneously, it helps rechannel the negative, panic-inducing thought swarm, keeping our subconscious realm safe from harm.

Stress control

Stress is inevitable, no matter the age; it is an integral part of life. Yin and Yang. Unlike the coping percentage, people who suffer from chronic anxiety experience filter insufficiency (no matter how small the inconvenience, emotions run high) and a lack of healthy coping mechanisms. In other words – they feel helpless beyond repair. Moving house is, whether it’s from Portland to Eugene or any other, among the best cities in Oregon for senior citizens, among the top 5 major stressors known to humankind, especially for seniors. With this in mind, there are myriad superlative places to settle down, but not before we master meditation. Mindfulness-based meditation can help alleviate anxiety symptoms such as high blood pressure, depression, fatigue, and insomnia, caused by raging stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

Self-awareness

The idea behind meditation as a form of anxiety reliever is to acquire a greater knowledge of “the self” through various techniques and practices. Meditation teaches us to gain awareness; it gives us access to information that was previously labeled “classified,” sealed, and stored somewhere in the eerie corners of our minds. By recognizing self-impeding patterns, we can intentionally (we are in control now) change the course toward calmer and more constructive waters. Anxiety is just an illusion of self-awareness. Mindfulness can, without a doubt, expand our understanding of our fear’s existence.

Emotional health

If practiced regularly, meditation can give us back our smiles. Feeling genuine joy doesn’t come easy to individuals with anxiety disorders, and if you have to force it, is it really genuine? The healing powers of meditation can mend our souls. Emotional health improvements include:

• more positive outlook on life
• mood regulation
• regaining focus
• improved memory capacity
• positive self-image
• decreased symptoms of depression

Our happiness rides on self-acceptance and self-love. Although exceptionally beneficial, meditation is used as a complementary therapy. If you’re struggling with chronic anxiety, consider conventional forms of therapy, as well as animal-assisted therapy (the best kind). Emotional support is paramount.

Final thoughts

The long answer is – yes, meditation can help reduce the anxiety of all kinds, all intensity levels. Its healing powers are universal; they intrinsically belong to us. The tools we need to fight the metaphysical dread are already within us; we must learn to silence the mind first. And listen.

 Meta description: Can it really? Yes, meditation can help reduce anxiety – if we let it. Learn more about its innumerable benefits.