How to Get Rid of Anxiety and Have a Calm Mind Using These Meditation Methods

Anxiety is an inhibitor to your life that prevents you from really embracing the beauty of your experience here on earth. You’re not capable of enjoying the pleasures of being human when you feel constantly flustered, afraid and tense throughout your body. When you have an over anxious feeling constantly, it’s simply not possible to move further in life. You hesitate when you could embrace and overcome things. Shy away from challenges and have a constant fear of life. If you have anxiety, you’re not alone in your struggles as it affects over 40 million adults in the United States alone. That’s 18% of the population of adults over 18 years of age that suffer with it and these are just the people who have been diagnosed.

Meditation has long been a spiritual practice used in the Eastern Hemisphere. While you may not believe in Buddha, the practice has profound capabilities of centering you so that you can deal with your Western world stresses. The Mayo Clinic states that meditation is very beneficial in reducing anxiety and stress. The mere practice of finding a quiet place to relax yourself and shut the mind off can change your perspective. It can be immediate and doesn’t need to take much time out of your day. Feel free to make it fun and spoil yourself with aromatherapy, candles and relaxing music.

How to Reduce Anxiety in Easy Steps

Here are some of the best meditation methods that can calm your mind and reduce anxiety.

Mantra meditation

The Mantra meditation is known for it’s ability to calm. You use this method by repeating a calming word or mantra. Many of the mantras that coincide with meditation are in Sanskrit. Saying them out loud will actually create a vibration in your voice that’s deeply calming in itself. The repetition of the mantra is also calming because you shut out all other thoughts. This quiets the mind and gives you an opportunity to just sit in the moment. Mantras allow you to affirm what matter to you in life. They can remind you of your worth, of the beauty in life and other positive aspects that bring relaxation.

Mindfulness Meditation

Here are some mantras that help keep you calm;

  • OM – The first original vibration that represent birth, death and rebirth. While the meaning of birth and rebirth cycle may not inspire you to relax, its in the vibration of the “OM” where power lies. It causes your voice to vibrate at 432 Hertz which is the musical pitch in our universe.
  • Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu – This mantra is the wish that all beings on earth can be happy and free. Wishing others happiness can make us feel closer to the universe and everyone in it. Anxiety and it’s roots actually stem from fear of separation from one another.
  • Om Gum Ganapatayei Namah -The direct translation is “I bow to Ganesh who is capable of removing all obstacles.” While you may not be a believer in the elephant god, you are asking for obstacles in your life to be removed with this mantra.
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Mindful Meditation

This meditation method is recommended highly by the Mayo Clinic for calming the mind. There are various ways you can go about your practice. At the center of it though, it’s about being in the moment. There are breathing techniques you can do in the beginning to cleanse your body and relax the mind. As you feel the sensations of your body and whatever comes up, you can just be. It’s not restricted to just simply sitting in the lotus pose either, you can do it while you take a walk or perform daily tasks. Mindful meditation only asks that you’re in the moment and aware of your body.

Getting Started With Mindfulness Meditation
hand of a woman meditating in a yoga pose on the beach

Here is an example of a basic Mindful Meditation;

  • If possible, find a place with little distraction and where you can be comfortable. It should be free of clutter as a cluttered space is a confused mind. Dim the lights down, light some candles if you want and play some relaxing music.
  • Sit or lie down in the space you have created for the practice
  • Start to feel your breath as the cool air goes into the throat, chest and belly and sense the hot air that comes back out.
  • Your mind may wander. Don’t get frustrated, just go back to the breath.
  • Feel sensations that rise in the body. Feel the tension and the painful parts. Gently acknowledge they are there and focus on trying to relax these spots. Likely areas are in the stomach, shoulders or neck. Allow yourself to relax deeply and notice as the pain subsides.
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Muscle relaxation

With this practice, you tense and relax muscles in the body. It calms all of your muscles one at a time, leaving your body feeling calm and completely relaxed. As you focus on the art of tensing and relaxing, the mind has no space to be heard. You can begin at the top of your head and move down to your feet or start from the bottom, up. Tense your muscles for a period of five to ten seconds and then release. You will notice a major difference immediately. Often used as a method to falling asleep, you can lie down while you do this type of meditation. Focus on your breathing as you go though the process and feel yourself becoming blissfully calm.

Woman doing yoga at sunset
Young woman doing yoga

Visualization Meditation

A deeply powerful practice that allows you to receive anything you want. In fact, astronauts and athletes alike use visualization in order to gain valuable experience in their discipline. The mind doesn’t know the difference between a real or learned experience. With Visualization Meditation, you can see yourself as being very calm. You can play out an important meeting or interview before it happens. This gives you a great deal of power when walking into a situation where you need to have your wits about you. It’s a way of preparing for something where you need to express yourself. If you positively visualize what you want in life, it is far more likely to happen. This has been proven time and time again.

Visualizing takes focus so you need to relax. Focus on your breathing to calm you down. When you do visualize, don’t just see in your minds eye what you want or who you want to be. Make sure to also feel how that success would be. You may find yourself with a big grin at the end of a visualization practice as you have essentially lived out your dreams in your mind. You can alleviate anxiety in the body as you begin to feel yourself being a stronger and more confident person within. Imagine that you have absolutely no stress and that things come easily for you. This practice can be really fun. See yourself receiving gifts or allow yourself to have the feeling of success as your boss offers you the promotion you’ve been wanting.

Getting Started With Mindfulness Meditation
hand of a woman meditating in a yoga pose on the beach

 

 

A digital nomad, traveling the world while I work as a freelancer.

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