You need a break?

Today is a commentary on taking a break from it all via meditation

In my other life, anxiety has been trying to keep me in a stranglehold. A couple of people I love are having major health issues.

Now I will confess to you that I tend to be a worry wart. In spite of my practice I still jump too easily into worry 😉 A few of you may be able to identify with me on that, so I will tell you what I have been doing to side step anxiety:

When a fearful thought rears it’s ugly head I have been doing a two step. First I recognize how the thought makes me feel, then I do one of the following (the one I choose totally depends on how serious the thought is)

When it is a small worry

I ask myself what is good about the situation. For example if I drop a dish and it breaks I can change how I feel by thinking Whew! I am sure glad I didn’t get cut. It is interesting how often I can change my anxiety level simply by changing my frame of reference.

Or if I am already in the middle of  blowing an incident out of proportion I picture what the worst thing is that might have happened. Even when I am in less than blissful mood I find that helps me to put things in perspective.

If you have read the posts about breathing you know another tool I use, focusing on my breath for a few seconds can distract me from over reacting to a situation.

When it is a big worry, I usually do one of two basic different approaches

Sheer unadulterated escapism, but instead of drinking or gambling I find that doing some artwork takes me out of the worry spiral so that when I come back to the situation I am more capable of thinking clearly and acting appropriately.  A friend once told me that she does housecleaning when she is worried, the more worried she is the cleaner her home is 🙂

A word to the wise though, this is meant to be a temporary reprieve!  The sooner you come back to face the problem the sooner you can work out a solution.

Sometimes I find it helpful to go into analytic mode. I list all the pros and cons about a situation, and about all of the possible endings to the situation. By writing it on paper it feels as though I have taken some action and that allows me enough space to leave the problem alone for long enough to do a meditation. I usually do “grounding” and/or “centering” In later posts I will share a couple of each with you. This helps me to gain objectivity about the situation even when the emotions may still be going full blast.

This is a simplification of the process, just enough to let you know a couple of approaches I use. If you have any other meditation-like actions you find useful please feel free to add a comment.