With the right form of meditation, you can achieve just about anything. Here are seven meditation techniques that you can use for conquering anxiety.
7 Meditations For Anxiety
1: Anapanasati
Anapanasati is mindfulness of breath. It’s that quintessential form of meditation that most people are already aware of. In Anapanasati meditation, we begin by simply observing the breath moving in and out of the body. This produces feelings of calmness and inner peace. Once we feel that calmness, we allow the mind to reside within that sense of calm and inner peace.
During the meditation, this practice makes us feel incredibly relaxed. More importantly, by familiarizing the mind with the feeling of calmness, we empower the mind to recreate that same calmness when we need it most. For instance, by practicing mindful breathing, you’ll train your mind so that the next time you experience anxiety, it can produce a feeling of calmness to counteract it. This will reduce the frequency of your anxiety attacks and give you the power to stay calm.
2: Vipassana
Vipassana is Insight Meditation. It’s a form of meditation traditionally used for gaining insight into the workings of the mind. Most people practice a rudimentary form of Vipassana. We begin by meditating on the breath and then label what is occurring in the mind and body. For instance, if we’re meditating on the breath and we experience a thought, we simply say, “This is just a thought.” Similarly, with physical sensations, we say, “This is just a physical sensation.” This practice reduces reactivity. For example, if you are prone to anxiety and feel tension in your chest, your mind might immediately associate this with anxiety. Your mind then produces reasons why you might be anxious, which can snowball into a full anxiety attack. Vipassana helps stop this process by labeling what’s occurring in the mind and body, preventing the tension in your chest from escalating into anxiety.
3:Body Scan Meditation
Body scan meditation is a more modern form of meditation that has become immensely popular since Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology devised it in the 1970s. In body scan meditation, we consciously move our awareness from the crown of the head to the feet, very gradually, while observing physical sensations occurring in the body. This helps with anxiety by reducing the mind’s reactivity to physical sensations. By learning to be aware of and accept physical sensations, we reduce our propensity for anxiety attacks.
4: Somatic Meditation
Somatic meditation has become one of. the most powerful forms of meditation that I personally use in my teachings on TheDailyMeditation.com. It is effective for dealing with anxiety, trauma, and other complications of the mind. Similar to the body scan, somatic meditation is a body-focused technique. We begin by becoming aware of sensations around the skin and then gradually move our awareness deeper inside the body. Eventually, we allow the mind, like a pebble at the bottom of the ocean, to be at complete rest while physical sensations and bodily functions occur around us. This technique trains the mind to be less reactive to physical sensations and allows the body to release stored emotions, such as anxiety. You might find that somatic meditation helps you reach a level of relaxation you’ve never experienced before.
5:Loving-Kindness and Other Compassion-Based Meditations
When experiencing anxiety, it’s common to feel alone and unsupported, even if support is available. Loving-kindness meditation and other compassion-based meditations, such as Karuna and Tonglen, help recognize the support around us. In loving-kindness meditation, we visualize the giving and receiving of love, kindness, and compassion. This helps tune the mind into the support from others, making us feel less alone and more supported, which can be very helpful for overcoming anxiety.
6: Fear Exposure
Fear exposure is different from other forms of meditation and is based on modern therapeutic approaches. Over recent decades, fear exposure has become a common method for overcoming phobias and fears. It involves gradually increasing exposure to the things that make us fearful or anxious. For instance, to overcome a fear of flying, we might start by looking at pictures of airplanes, then watching videos of flights, visiting an airport, and eventually booking a flight. This gradual exposure helps train the mind to stay calm in the presence of the fear. Fear exposure can be adapted as a form of meditation by visualizing exposure to the fear, such as imagining being at the airport if you’re afraid of flying. This technique helps reduce anxiety through controlled exposure.
7: Personal Strength
Personal strength meditation involves focusing on our personal strengths. If you’re experiencing a moment of weakness or anxiety, you can meditate on your strengths. For example, remind yourself of your compassion or past resilience. This meditation helps counteract feelings of weakness by reinforcing your strengths and past successes, empowering you to face anxiety with confidence.
Summary
These seven meditation techniques are some of my favorites for dealing with anxiety. While there are many other meditations available, these are particularly effective. If you take away one thing from this video, let it be this: instead of simply thinking meditation helps with anxiety, go deeper. Examine your anxiety with curiosity. Understand how it manifests for you—whether as physical sensations, specific thoughts, or generalized feelings. Once you understand your anxiety better, you can select the most effective meditation technique to address it. I hope you found this helpful.