Feeling anxious, agitated and/or depressed? Meditation can help

[RedDawnParticipant 1391]

This morning when I awoke, I felt depressed and agitated. After feeling like this for about half an hour going about my morning routine I decided that some meditation was in order. Now I know many people feel meditation can seem painful in the sense that you’re essentially sitting and focusing in one place while your mind is eager to drag you around the world and back so I thought I’d explain how you can relax into meditation more easily and how this technique affected my mood positively this morning.

1.Sit in a comfortable position somewhere quiet

2. Twitch your nose to one side and inhale slowly through one nostril till you fill up with air, while counting the seconds (usually takes 5-10, but you may be able to do more).

3. Hold the air low in your belly and focus on relaxing your body, counting the seconds as above.

4. Twitch your nose to the opposite side and slowly exhale, counting the seconds.

5. When the air is all gone, relax your entire body, counting the seconds.

Repeat this for about 10 mins or for as long as practical.

This technique helped me this morning to focus and enabled me to go into the rest of my meditation routine.

Which entailed:

following my breath mindfully saying in my head ‘this is a short breath‘ while inhaling and exhaling a short breath. Repeating for as long as I desired.
I then moved onto saying ‘this is a long breath‘ while inhaling and then exhaling deeply. Repeating for as long as I desired

After this I followed my breath saying in my head ‘calming my body‘ and relaxing all my muscles as best I could. Repeating for as long as I desired.

I then just focused on feeling my breath enter through my nostrils into my lungs, feeling my belly expand and following the air back out again.

This took me just over an hour though I felt deeply relaxed doing this, so it was quite pleasurable. You can get satisfactory results from shorter periods of meditation, but I’ve found the longer sessions (1-1.5 hours) is even better. When I finished this exercise today I felt extremely relaxed and a little ‘stoned’ in a good way for about 10-15 mins. My mood had turned 180 Degrees and I felt a neutral happiness (the goal of meditation). On the way to my friend’s place I noticed my endorphins shot up as I sang Rammstein in the car and I felt like a total badass not giving a damn (as Stealthy puts it). Though when one’s mood gets this manic it’s important not to get reckless, but enjoy the mood.

My mind has been in a pleasant place the rest of the day, so I hope my humble instructional post has given you the tools to give meditation a go. If you feel restless during meditation that’s OK, I often tell myself that ‘restlessness is a state of mind and this state of mind can be overcome‘. I will force myself to stay in meditation until I lose this sensation and even though sometimes I don’t feel as relaxed during the meditation as I want, I always emerge calmer and more relaxed than when I went in.

ps. The three mantra’s during the meditation exercise have been adapted from the book ‘The miracles of mindfulness’ by Thich Nhat Hanh, which I recommend if you are interested in mindfulness and meditation.

Courage is the key to life itself - Morgan Freeman

[RoyDalParticipant]

The US Marines are using meditation, which lends it much validity in my opinion. I do it too, although a different method.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[Tiga KParticipant 1693]

I used to practice meditation regularly, but found no need for a strict routine. Once I learned how to meditate, I found I was able to use meditation whenever I need it, so I just use it whenever the need arises. That said, I do go on walks on a regular basis and consider that to be an active form of meditation. I usually empty my mind and focus on my breath and my surrounds for a few minutes then I let my mind settle into an interesting thought and then alternate between thinking about that and taking in my surrounding/being observant. Good post by the way.

[KeymasterKeymaster]

Tiga K wrote:

do go on walks on a regular basis and consider that to be an active form of meditation. I usually empty my mind and focus on my breath and my surrounds for a few minutes then I let my mind settle into an interesting thought and then alternate between thinking about that and taking in my surrounding/being observant.

I second that absolutely. A good uphill walk (slight sweat) without the pounding of jogging gets the brain in order and focussed. Makes a BIG difference to me.

If you keep doing what you've always done... you're gonna keep getting what you always got.

[RedDawnParticipant 1391]

I find the breathing exercises are easier to focus on, and during so I will challenge myself to hold my breath as long as I can occasionally wherein I count the seconds (which is a form of focusing). My record is 2 minutes, today I got to 100 seconds and I hadn’t even practiced this technique in a while.

Courage is the key to life itself - Morgan Freeman

[qeeqoParticipant 1168]

I’m finding several factors help me. Walking on the treadmill, lexipro was a miracle drug for my depression. I was in a deep dark hole for a decade before I started it, now my sense of humor is coming back. I’ve lost almost 20lbs… 60 to go to be a normal weight. on the Atkins diet, I’m incorporating leafy veggie smoothies with mine. I am going to incorporate prayer with the treadmill. If I’m really frustrated the treadmill dials it down by 10.

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