10 Easy Meditation Tips For Anxiety (That Actually Work!) -

Meditation tips for anxiety, I wish I would have practiced these before this terrible day.

Let me explain, I was having a great time with my friends. We were dancing, eating and talking about how our lives were going.

It felt so good to get out the house. It’s been such a long time!

Especially since all I do is take care of my family’s needs.

In fact, I was beginning to feel like I was the maid instead of the mom. I pretty much did EVERYTHING for them. Because of that, I barely had time to practice self care.

Which led to my anxiety and stress getting worse!

I was so freaking stressed out to the point that I felt like I was going to explode, so this day with my girls was much needed!

I was having a good ole time when suddenly, my palms became sweaty, my knees were weak, and my breathing became rapid.

My vision began to blur and I could hear people calling my name in the background but it sounded so faint. They sounded so far away.

Then I began to feel lightheaded and nauseous.

I was so afraid. All I thought about is how I didn’t want to die.

Especially not like this! I still had so much I wanted to accomplish.

I couldn’t believe this was happening especially since I was finally out of the house

Oh Lord, please, please, don’t let me die. I’m not ready.

I promise I’ll be better.

I promise I’ll be more appreciative.

I promise I won’t be petty.

Please give me another chance!

And just as suddenly as it came on, it started to pass.

My head started to clear and I could hear my friends calling my name.

The lights from the restaurant came into view and I remembered where I was and what I was doing.

But all I could think about was, “What the fuck just happened?”.

What is Anxiety

After having an anxiety attack I went to work to figure out what exactly is anxiety.

I learned that anxiety is a cognitive state connected to an inability to regulate emotions.

Good new is that with consistent practice of something stress reducing like meditation, you can actually reprogram the neural pathways in your brain and improve your ability to regulate your emotions.

What Causes Anxiety

I don’t know if you ever experienced a panic attack but it is extremely scary especially when you don’t know what caused it.

I mean I know that anxiety caused it but what exactly caused my anxiety?

I found out the actual causes of anxiety is not fully understood.

It is believed to be caused by things like life experiences or underlying health issues.

In fact, in some diseases anxiety signs are the first indicators that you have a medical illness.

Some life experiences and medical illnesses that may cause anxiety are:

Heart disease
Diabetes
Thyroid problems
Respiratory disorder
Drug misuse or withdrawal
Alcohol withdrawal
Chronic pain
IBS
Rare tumors
Trauma
Stress buildup or stress due to an illness
Personality types
Mental health disorders
Genetics
Drugs or Alcohol

How Can I Calm My Anxiety

Some people try different methods to calm their anxiety. Methods like:

Taking a time-out
Eating well balanced meals
Limiting alcohol and caffeine
Getting enough sleep
Deep breathing
Counting to 10
Working out and so forth.

Yes, these are all great methods and tips to help calm your anxiety, but sometimes I feel like the tips that the pros give us are pretty much stuff we know. Like stuff you should already be doing.

So I tried to look into some other things that I’m not already doing and what I found is that mediation helps to calm anxiety by helping to quiet an overactive brain.

When I read this, I nearly fell off my chair because if you could be inside my brain you would feel like you are on a hamster wheel.

It literally never stops. It is constantly running, but I’m never really getting anywhere. If you are experiencing the same, then you may want to give meditation a try.

How Does Meditation Help With Anxiety

Meditation has a lot of amazing benefits (insert link).

In fact, practicing meditation helps with anxiety because you familiarize yourself with your thoughts and the storylines you consistently replay in your head. Instead of trying to avoid them, you learn to sit with them and, you learn to let them go.

By doing this you realize:

Your thoughts do not define you
Your thoughts aren’t real.

Which helps you identify what is true and what is irrational.

When you practice meditation, you learn about body awareness.

Body awareness is a skill that brings your attention to your physical sensations in the moment.

Yup just like how you are clenching your teeth and your shoulders are tense, right now, meditation helps you to be more aware of how you physically feel.

This way, you can sit with your physical sensations the same way you sit with your thoughts. This way, you have a safe place that can be accessed when your anxiety starts to creep up.

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10 Meditation Tips For Anxiety

When your anxiety starts to creep up, there are various tips that you can do so that it doesn’t turn into a full blown attack. Some of them are:

Explore your breath

Usually when you are anxious, you will take shallow rapid breaths that lead to increased heart rate.

When you recognize this, you can take deep breaths that actually relax you and protect your health over time.

Get out of your head

When anxiety creeps up, your thoughts start to run wild with all types of story lines and what ifs.

Meditation helps you to get out of your head, recognize your thoughts, without reacting or building on them.

Explore your attitude

The thing about meditating is that you may experience some negative thoughts from past memories or events that have happened. This is not to scare you or anything. I just want to be real with you.

With that being said, I always want you to explore your attitude when you finish meditating. Know that how you are feeling right now is valid and what you experienced is valid too. But just know your thoughts, past events, etc are things of the past. They are not your reality.

Be kind to you

A great meditation tip for anxiety is being kind to you.

This is a great self care tip that will help you to calm your anxiety because you will no longer put yourself down. Lashing out increases your anxiety while self compassion helps to calm you.

Accept unpleasant experiences

A lot of times our anxiety creeps up because you want to control an unpleasant situation. You wish you could change the outcome or change what happened.

But, if you accept that unpleasant experiences happen and that’s how you grow, you can stop worrying as much.

Acknowledge your thoughts

When a thought comes into your mind, like you need to call the doctor, or something negative like a memory of your grandma passing, you tend to steep on it or try to complete it.

But this meditation tip for anxiety, acknowledge your thoughts, means to just be aware of your thought and then return your mind back to your anchor so you can focus and not get distracted.

Gradually come out of your mediation

When you finish meditating, do not rush to get up and get started with your day.

Allow your self to gradually come out of meditation. Acknowledge how you feel, what you are feeling, compared to how you felt before you sat down and meditated.

Comfortable position

Whew girl! After having 3 kids, this cannot be said enough. In fact this is definitely one of the best meditation tips for anxiety if I do say so myself.

Make sure that you are in a comfortable position so that you can actually relax and focus. Of course, don’t lay down because I don’t want you falling asleep.

Quiet setting

Yes, I know it is hard to get away from the kids. This means you may have to wake up early or go to sleep a little bit later so that you can meditate in a quiet setting. But it’ll be worth it!

If you don’t believe me, check this article on all of the awesome meditation benefits meditation has to offer you! You will be surprised!

Repeat a mantra

Ok so not going to lie but sometimes when I sit down to begin meditating, I have all the right intentions to focus and get the most I can out of this session, but I can’t quiet my brain AT ALL!

But of course your girl has a trick to this and it is called Mantra Meditation. By reciting a mantra, it helps me to focus and recenter so that my meditation session doesn’t become a waste of time.

The Last Thing You Need To Know About Meditation Tips For Anxiety

Overall meditaiton is great for helping with your anxiety.

In fact, when I experienced my anxiety attack, it literally came out of nowhere. I had no idea why it happened and it took some reflection for me to figure out what could have caused my anxiety attack.

When I realized what it was, I literally had a come to Jesus moment. I realized that I was not giving myself what I needed.

I was too wrapped up in giving to my kids, my husband, my family, my friends, my job, my community, to everybody and everything, that I literally had no time at all for me!

I lost myself. I didn’t know who I was, what I wanted, or what my purpose in life was anymore.

But if you asked anyone they would tell you I had an amazing life. I had a great family, nice house, great career, amazing husband. I had all the things that were supposed to make me happy on paper, yet I wasn’t.

It wasn’t until I took control of my life, my time, listened to these meditation tips for anxiety, and practiced self care, the right way, that I learned how to create my happy.

I want the same for you!

I want you to take these meditation tips for anxiety and get my free 15 minute self care guide below so that you can wake up and feel as great as you look on paper!

Remember Love Always and Spread Bliss,

Ree