Meditation is not about fighting against your mind, it’s about developing an understanding about it. So the struggle that you feel isn’t stopping you from meditating, it’s actually your teacher. So, be curious and ask why can’t I sit still? Why is it so difficult? What is so difficult about doing nothing? Learn more about anxiety and meditation with Stephen Procter.
What is MIDL Meditation?
MIDL Meditation stands for Mindfulness In Daily Life. The MIDL could be pronounced “middle” and the Buddha mentions the middle way or path in his first talk. So MIDL meditation seeks to find that middle path, that middle balance.
The difference with MIDL Meditation is the understanding that seated meditation is just training for daily life. We sit down and use different exercises so we can learn skills. Skills like being able to self-observe, or being able to soften and relax our relationship towards things. Skills like the ability to sit and still the mind and be comfortable with nothing, to be comfortable with no stimulation at all. Once you develop these skills you can use them in the “Real Meditation”, which is being with friends and family, being in the workplace, being in Covid, or when things in life are out of our control.
When meditating for anxiety the most common mistake that is made, is the development of concentration. Using concentration for anxiety doesn’t work in the long run. Because the product of concentration is depression. So if you try to sit and meditate your mind will go everywhere, because the mind is scared.
There are two parts of the mind. The surface level which is where we interact and the more ancient part which is the survival part of the mind. The mind’s job is to sort all of our experiences into 2 categories, is it safe or is it dangerous. And this all happens automatically and the mind uses past memory to interpret this.
Once we re-teach our body how to breathe, the experience of anxiety goes away. You can find this breathing technique on the MIDL Meditation website, under MIDL Meditation for Anxiety.
What should you keep in mind when dealing with anxiety?
When dealing with anxiety it is important to be gentle with ourselves. We need to understand, what we’re dealing with is out of our control. What we’re dealing with is habit, our mind is habitual, our body is very habitual. The heart beats, the lungs breathe, and the mind thinks. The mind won’t stop thinking because we tell it to stop thinking. The mind is scared, so you have to help it feel safe. You have to tell the mind it is safe.
As we treat our mind and heart with a gentleness and respect (the way we would a scared child), the mind will gradually calm down and find safety, find quiet. And the thinking, which comes out of fear, also settles down and stops. You can never be too kind or too gentle with yourself. The struggle and frustration are the survival part of the mind being scared. They’re not you. It is the part of the mind trying to protect you.
So if we can understand that it is just fear in the mind, hold it gently, allow it to be there, teach it safety, it will come to an end and then stop.
Connect and learn more about anxiety and meditation with Stephen Procter: MIDL Meditation Website or via email
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