​If you or anyone you know is suffering from intense anxiety, this short audio from Insight Timer will help.
​
It’s by Jim Malloy, a longterm American meditation teacher (since 1973) with a soothing voice and caring manner.

ANXIETY BREEDS ANXIETY

Experiencing anxiety is not our fault. It’s not a shortcoming. We’re designed to flip into anxiety when feeling under threat.

The scarier the threat, the greater the anxiety.
Even being anxious about getting anxiety can bring on more anxiety.

OFTEN LOWGRADE

For many of us anxiety is low grade, a background trickle of unease hardwired into the metabolism.

It’s an inherited Stone Age design, intended to protect us when sabre tooth tigers and the like lurked around every corner.

LURKING AROUND THE CORNER

Lurking around the corner these days tend to be threats of a social nature: the demanding boss, the moody spouse, a frown across a dinner table, putdowns and eyerolls; even pieces of paper can bring it on (tax returns, speeding fines).

Not to mention mortgage stress, health scares, bushfires, floods, incompetent governments ...
 
THE BIG WHAMMY

Or the real big whammy, terminal diagnosis, for our self or a loved one.
 
HELPERS

Our best friend at such times is the breath ... making the breath long, deep and slow ... and returning focus to the breath when anxiety tries to regain centre stage.

Breathe from low in the body, from the belly or lower back.
​
Breath is helpful because it is a direct route to the nervous system.
 
UJJAYI BREATH

When times are really tough, intensify the impact of the breath by using an ages-old yogic technique known as ujjayi. It means making a soft snoring sound in the throat. Find instructions here and more here.

REPEAT SYLLABLES

During an intensely stressful time in my twenties, the breath and ujjayi were great helpers. I added a third element too: sound.

Repeating syllables (also known as mantra) focuses the mind even more intently on the breath and the moment. ‘Intently’ in a soft way.

Syllables can be repeated out loud, or silently to yourself. Or you can use soothing words.

Thank goodness for the yoga classes I attended during that stressful time. So helpful.

WITH THE BREATH

We learnt a meditation that repeated the syllable SO with the in-breath and HAM (‘hum’) with the out-breath.

After a while, we drew our breath-awareness from the belly up to the chest or throat, when repeating SO with the in-breath; on repeating HAM we descended the breath-awareness back down to the belly.

Slowly, rhythmically, methodically.

(Actually, you can use any syllables at all. It doesn’t have to be SO HAM)

 
ANXIETY RECEDES

When we’re focused on the moment, via breathing and repeating syllables, anxiety can’t take hold.

It recedes like a pup yapping at our feet. It’s no longer a massive growling hound.

In hindsight, the anxiety-lessening techniques I learned in my twenties have proved invaluable.
​
It’s so good to have the skill ... because you never know what's lurking around the corner.

​WEIRDO MEDITATOR
 
Back in the day when I started as a meditator, meditation was still regarded as a slightly suspicious navel-gazing endeavour.

​ STRESSCALATION
Has your family or workplace ever felt like a chain gang throwing the hot potato of stress from one person to another?