Meditation is not for everyone, but hopefully one can appreciate that it is not sectarian/religious, but about managing one’s body/mind.
There was for a while in DK a weekly Sangha time for shared quiet on Mondays and it would be nice to bring that forward again. But that’s for another group.
If nothing there are many online meditation timers.
It was intuition that led me to the practice of mindfulness. All along, medication and CBT felt wrong for me. Even chanting affirmations, burning lavender candles, and distracting techniques seemed unproductive—as though I was telling my mind, “This is a thing that must be gotten rid of!”
It really is the equivalent to “Don’t think about pink elephants!” Of course we will. It is in our nature.
tinybuddha.com/...
Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, a psychiatrist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that mindfulness meditation makes perfect sense for treating anxiety. “People with anxiety have a problem dealing with distracting thoughts that have too much power,” she explains. “They can’t distinguish between a problem-solving thought and a nagging worry that has no benefit.”
“If you have unproductive worries,” says Dr. Hoge, you can train yourself to experience those thoughts completely differently. “You might think ‘I’m late, I might lose my job if I don’t get there on time, and it will be a disaster!’ Mindfulness teaches you to recognize, ‘Oh, there’s that thought again. I’ve been here before. But it’s just that—a thought, and not a part of my core self,'” says Dr. Hoge.
One of her recent studies (which was included in the JAMA Internal Medicine review) found that a mindfulness-based stress reduction program helped quell anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, a condition marked by hard-to-control worries, poor sleep, and irritability. People in the control group—who also improved, but not as much as those in the meditation group—were taught general stress management techniques. All the participants received similar amounts of time, attention, and group interaction.
To get a sense of mindfulness meditation, you can try one of the guided recordings by Dr. Ronald Siegel, an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. They are available for free at www.mindfulness-solution.com.
www.health.harvard.edu/...
Relaxing is not necessarily tied to substances, and they are not about achieving mindfulness. Meditation is not about relaxation; it is beyond that, which actually makes it more beneficial.
MFP is caring for my mother, a task for which I am not professionally trained, and I expect to try to put her in some form of institutional care soon.
Every day begins as an anxiety trigger and the rest of my waking is spent trying to cope.
Coping is barely possible, what with that daily routine and the paperwork nightmare I nourish.
And then there’s the distraction of writing diaries here.
Happiness is possible again even as time runs out.