Daily Meditations for Calming Your Anxious Mind , livre ebook

New Harbinger Publications - Jeffrey Brantley

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85 pages

English

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Publié par	New Harbinger Publications
Date de parution	01 janvier 0001
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781608820658
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0758€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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“This book is a treasure—nourishing, sustaining, and skillfully crafted. Calling their approach to the release from anxiety ‘the way of awareness,’ the authors have shaped a warm, authentic rendering of mindfulness practice into direct, easily understandable language. Step by step, they lead us into substantive, well-documented methods for becoming intimately familiar with an inner terrain and integrating what is discovered in this interior realm into a way of being that is the key to freeing us from the imprisoning tyranny of anxiety and fear.”
–Saki F. Santorelli, Ed.D., executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and author of Heal Thyself
Jeffrey Brantley, and Wendy Millstine
New Harbinger Publications, Inc. -->
Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Copyright © 2008 by Jeffrey Brantley and Wendy Millstine
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
Cover design by Amy Shoup; Text design by Amy Shoup and Michele Waters-Kermes; Acquired by Tesilya Hanauer; Edited by Elisabeth Beller
All Rights Reserved.
Epub ISBN:9781608820658
The Library of Congress has Cataloged the Print Edition As:
Brantley, Jeffrey.
Daily meditations for calming your anxious mind / Jeffrey Brantley, and Wendy Millstine.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57224-540-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-57224-540-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Anxiety. 2. Meditation. I. Matik, Wendy-O, 1966- II. Title.
BF575.A6B738 2008
158.1’28--dc22
2008003621
For my friends, whose ceaseless compassion and understanding have been the kindling to the fires of love and inspiration throughout my life.
For my bubi Kayla Sussell, whose blazing spirit of love and guidance has enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams.
—WM
For all who work for peace, justice, and human dignity— may you be protected, and guided by wisdom and compassion.
—JB
Contents
introduction
the foundation
Section 1
daily meditations for relaxing and feeling safe
1. equanimity: finding peace within the process of life
2. sail away
3. befriend your panic
4. breath and light: a meditation for deeply relaxing body and mind
5. safety shield
6. roadway to serenity
7. just the wind blowing: allowing life to move through this moment
8. sound track of life
9. calm in the eye of the storm
10. noticing space, silence, and stillness: a meditation for opening heart and mind
11. sensory scan
12. comforting companions
13. strong as a mountain
14. anywhere but here, please
15. safe haven
16. create your own
Section 2
daily meditations for embracing joys and fears
1. count your breaths: the power to strengthen attention
2. the tao of anxiety
3. you’ve got what it takes!
4. drop in to this moment: tasting the immediacy of mindfulness
5. pamper yourself
6. put yourself first
7. I know you, fear: a mindfulness meditation on fear and its associates
8. dissolve it away
9. wanted: compassion
10. walking mindfully: reconnecting with the present moment through movement
11. center of attention
12. send goodwill
13. your inner body: a mindfulness meditation for connecting directly with your body
14. cultivate patience
15. but what do I say?
16. create your own
Section 3
daily meditations for befriending your anxious mind and body
1. stopping the war: on not hating your upset feelings or yourself for having those feelings
2. the belly relaxer
3. caregiver for yourself
4. reflection on self-worth
5. follow your heart
6. walk out of the fog
7. kind wishes: a basic loving-kindness meditation
8. break for kindness
9. waves of relaxation
10. self-compassion in times of upset
11. let the good outweigh the bad
12. surrender pose
13. loving-kindness body scan: developing affection and gratitude for your body
14. stillness within
15. support for your adrenals
16. fountain of your heart: a visualization for well-being and happiness in yourself and others
17.create your own
Section 4
daily meditations for connecting to the web of life
1. in this moment: reentering the flow of life
2. prayer scroll
3. affirming forgiveness
4. the web of support: a reflection and thanksgiving before eating
5. new glasses
6. sea of tranquility
7. what are you asking me? a conversation with your fear
8. the gift of anxiety
9. transformational tales
10. the end of resentment: a forgiveness meditation
11. stop the spin cycle
12. cultivate curiosity
13. happy together: a meditation on sympathetic joy
14. healing time
15. love without limits
16. prepare yourself to follow me: a meditation on death and wisdom
17. create your own
epilogue
references
introduction
We live in the present moment.
Our inner life and the outer world meet here and now. Each world interacts, reacts, responds, and to some extent, shapes the other.
Right now, in this moment, what is your relationship to the ever-changing flow of inner and outer life? How much of the process are you aware of? How steady is your attention to the flow? Is your heart filled with curiosity and affection or with dullness, fear, or even dislike for what is with you now? It is these unconscious and habitual inner reactions of body and mind to the real and imagined threats of living that create a prison here, in the present moment.
Meditation is an activity that involves sensitive attention; inclusive, nonjudging awareness; is sustained by attitudes of kindness and compassion; and offers the possibility of deep and wise understanding of yourself and how to live with more ease and happiness. Meditation is also an ancient and diverse inner technology—involving a vast array of different practices—for examining and transforming your inner life and its interaction with the outer world.
Fear is the reaction of mind and body to the presence of a threat or danger. The capacity to react to threat is wired into us, mediated by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. The incredible cascade of mind-body events that makes up the reaction to threat can also be called the fight-or-flight response or stress response . Interestingly, the body can be activated to produce the fight-or-flight response when it senses threat or danger outside of itself, as when you hear a siren or smell smoke; or the body can activate the fear response from signals produced by the brain that suggest danger is present, as when you have the thought “I am stuck in traffic, and my whole day is ruined.”
Anxiety is the feeling of fear that is out of proportion to the situation or that arises when there is no clear threat or danger in the situation. Worry is the mind’s manifestation of anxiety, characterized by endless frightened and frightening thoughts about the situation in mind. Inner manifestations of anxiety and worry such as fear of the future or the unknown, fear of taking risks, and self-criticism are examples of a simple principle:
Anxiety, excessive fear, and worry arise because you turn away from the present moment and become lost in memories, stories, and beliefs about the past or future.
The feelings of anxiety and worry themselves are actually part of the present-moment experience and can be seen as such instead of as an absolute truth or an immutable personal defect. The shifting of attention away from the present to someplace else is usually just an unconscious habit of mind—a pattern of paying attention—that you have learned as a means of meeting life’s challenges. Unfortunately, such unconscious attention shifts do not often help with feelings of anxiety and upset, but instead lead to increased and repeating distress.
Feelings of separation and isolation arise from inattention to inner reactions and from habitual, defensive patterns expressed through heart, mind, and body. These inner reactions can interrupt your sense of connection to others, drive you to withdraw from and resist the constantly changing conditions in each moment, and imprison you in feelings and stories based on fear and worry.
Yet freedom is closer and more natural than you might think. Peace, ease, joy, and discovery at the wonder and mystery of life are also here, in the present moment. They wait for your presence and attention, living in both your inner and outer worlds, where life itself is constantly unfolding.
The Healing Power of Mindfulness and Compassion
In the companion book to this one, Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic (Brantley 2007), the central message is that human beings have within themselves enormous power and potential to radically change the way they experience and interact with life itself, both inner and outer. That includes how they manage the powerful and disturbing energies of anxiety, fear, and panic.
Anxiety and fear will continue their reign over you until you develop the language and skills of inner awareness that empower a different relationship to those energies and to your own habitual reactions to them. The key to accessing your inner power for a different awareness, and the resulting transformation, lies in your ability and commitment to develop mindfulness. Mindfulness is an awareness that follows from kind and nonjudging allowing, and from present-moment, centered attention.
Just that—learn to stay present, to keep your heart and mind open, and stop trying to change anything; ju