Anxiety is something we have all felt before and it needed a anxiety treatment, but for some people, it is something that has nearly complete control over their lives. They feel anxious in the simplest of social interactions while going about their day-to-day lives, or for no logical reason at all. Luckily, for those people, we are starting to discover that meditation is an effective treatment.
To really understand how meditation can help anxiety treatments you first need to know what is happening while you’re anxious.
When you are feeling anxious your inner voice is starting to go out of control. Your inner voice and your thoughts start thinking of the worst possible way a situation can go. And, then those thoughts get worse and they get so out of control that your anxiety starts manifesting physically in the form of pain, rapid heartbeat, or trouble breathing.
Let’s use one of the most common triggers of anxiety for people as an example to better show how this works. Let’s say you’re scheduled to be a part of a public speaking event. Before you go on you have one little thought; what if I make a mistake? In reality, you will probably move on in your speech and be fine. But, in your head, it’s a whole other story.
Your inner voice starts going wild. “If I make a mistake people will laugh at me. They’ll call me names and I’ll look like a fool. Someone will record it and put it online and I’ll be the laughing stock of the whole world.” Before you know it your runaway train of thought has triggered an anxiety attack and now you’re hyperventilating.
Meditation helps you learn to quite that inner voice before it gets out of control. Meditation is the practice of quieting your inner voice. In might sound easy, but try to do it for even five minutes and you will see there is rarely a second your mind goes completely silent.
People have been practicing meditation for thousands of years to reap the benefits of a still mind and now science is starting to finally catch up. Numerous studies have shown the link between meditation and anxiety and how learning to benefit can ease anxiety.
Meditation can actually rewire your brain to be calmer and less anxious. Meditating and silencing your mind for even a half hour every day can start to develop new pathways in the brain and stop your anxious thoughts from overtaking you.
It does take some practice to get meditation right, but many people start to notice the benefits of meditation after the very first session. You simply need to find a quiet place and focus on breathing deeply and quieting the thoughts that run through your head. The most effective way to do this is to simply count your breaths. Every time a thought pops into your head simply start your counting over. Try to make it to a count of ten without another thought, then push yourself further until you can quiet your mind at will.