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Welcome to TheFearMonsterSlayer

Hi and welcome to my blog. I’m Jeff Aronson, TheFearMonsterSlayer. In this and future blogs I’ll share some simple, effective and fun tools for managing fear and anxiety. So, welcome aboard!

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MEDITATION--MINDFUL MINDLESSNESS

8/19/2015

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"Life is what we do while we're waiting for something to happen"--John Lennon

Meditation has been around as a spiritual practice for centuries but really burst into public awareness in the late 60's when the Beatles and The Beach Boys travelled to India to study what came to be called Transcendental Meditation, or TM, under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi--an event that certainly demystified the practice of meditation and made it available to just about anyone. Prior to that time the stereotype of meditation was a highly evolved and disciplined guy in robes and a long beard sitting on a mountain peak in an impossibly uncomfortable position with a beatific look on his face. Well, we have John, Paul, George and Ringo to thank for introducing this practice to the rest of us lesser mortals.

So what then is meditation and how is it beneficial in battling anxiety as well as for general overall health? Meditation is simply the practice of focusing our attention on one thing at a time, a "passively focused inner awareness." The focus itself is relatively unimportant and varies from one tradition or individual to the next. The focus can be a syllable, word, group of words or sounds, known as mantra meditation. Or it can be an image like a candle or nature scene, babbling water, chirping bird or the wind. It can be guided imagery such as visualizing ourselves walking along a tropical beach, listening to the waves, feeling the warm sun on our back, the soft sand between our toes. Are you there yet? Probably the easiest is simply focusing on our breathing, a slow breath in, a slow breath out. 

You can do these meditations using your own thoughts and images or the internet is rich with every imaginable music, sound effect and spoken guided imagery. Years ago my wife and I took a course in TM ( we didn't get to meet The Beatles) in which we were each given our own personalized mantra to focus on, repeating it over and over. I no longer use it but listen to CDs of Gregorian chants, Native American flute or ocean waves. All work equally well, whatever is most conducive to getting yourself to that focused relaxed state.

Start out practicing for a couple of minutes at a time and gradually work up to 20 minutes twice a day if possible. And don't worry when your thoughts wander; this is the nature of the brain. YOU'RE NOT DOING IT WRONG! Just push the thought away and return to your meditation. With time and practice you'll find yourself going deeper into meditation, becoming more relaxed, less aware of physical surroundings and time passing. Some experienced meditators report the sensation of actually leaving their bodies.

Lastly, find a comfortable position that's right for you. Sitting in a chair with your knees comfortably apart and your hands in your lap or leaning against the headboard of your bed (don't lie down as you might fall asleep and sleep is not meditation). We've all seen brochures for health spas showing someone sitting on a stone surface in a beautiful nature setting with a blissful smile on their face. For most of us all we would focus on is the pain in our back and butt. Be sure you're comfortable.

Strange as it may seem, exercise is a form of meditation. Studies of brain activity have shown that repetitive physical activity such as swimming, biking, running or rollerblading actually engages the part of the brain that's active in daydreaming and creativity. Our focus becomes the rhythm of our feet hitting the pavement, the air rushing by as we cycle, the feel of our arms stroking through the water. And then of course is the release of endorphins, the feel-good chemicals in our brain.

And stroking a pet is calming and relaxing, creating an almost trance-like state. The stress hormone cortisol is lowered and dopamine and serotonin (feel-good hormones) production is increased. Blood pressure drops while petting an animal and even watching fish swim lowers stress and anxiety.

Research has also shown that meditation reduces the size and activity of the amygdala whose function is to activate the body's alarm and defense system. It also increases the size of brain parts associated with empathy and compassion. And people who meditate regularly are less prone to anxiety and panic attacks.

So meditation is simple to learn, requires little time and, while you'll probably never attain Nirvana or perfect enlightenment, you can derive great pleasure and benefit from it.

Next Time:



  

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MINDFULNESS: ANXIETY ANTIDOTE

8/2/2015

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"How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?"--The Firesign Theater

Sitting on the floor in a circle with ten other people, each of us with a raisin in our mouths, and for the next five minutes we are to do nothing but focus on the raisin, its feel, texture, size, shape. We can roll it on our tongue, nibble it between our teeth, move it from front to back, do anything but chew it up and swallow it. So what's going on here, raisin engineers testing a new product?

No, actually it's a mindfulness workshop and our assignment is to do nothing but focus on this raisin and experience it in all its nuances, pushing all other thoughts (including how silly we look and feel) from our minds.

So what exactly is mindfulness and how does it work against anxiety. Mindfulness is simply the practice of focusing on what's going on right now, shutting out all thoughts of past or future or anything else that might be happening in the present outside of ourselves. It's "being in the moment" as it's so popularly put in today's therapy or self-help practices. Just go online and look at all the books, CDs, blogs, workshops that are available and you'll see what I mean. And it takes practice as it's the nature of the mind to jump around from one thought to another. It's remembering to remember.

Here's how it's an antidote to anxiety. Remember that whereas fear is the presence of an immediate threat in the environment, anxiety is future-based, the imagination of some threat without any evidence or likelihood of its existence. It's the WhatIfMonster (see an earlier post on The Attack of the WhatIfMonster).

Mindfulness is staying in the present, this very minute, dealing with what's going on right now and breaking things down into small, do-able parts. It's how we got through our tours in Vietnam and why the theme of AA is "One day at a time." Otherwise, the future can become overwhelming, terrifying and hopeless.

Here's an example: A couple of months ago my wife and I were rollerblading along one of the paved bike trails around Tucson when a cyclist coming toward us said there was a five foot rattlesnake on the trail about a mile ahead. So we had to decide, do we turn around or keep going? Well, we decided to keep going, thinking we'll keep our eyes open (a five foot snake should be pretty visible) and if it's still there then we'll turn around or wait for it to move on--I sure won't try to jump over it; I'm not 18 anymore. As it turned out, we never saw the snake as it was gone and we went on, still on the lookout. This is being in the moment, otherwise the WhatIfMonster would have gotten over on us.

Mindfulness also makes us less stressed and more efficient. We hear about how it's important to multi-task, people priding themselves on their multi-tasking ability. The reality is it's less efficient as part of our mind is on the next task rather than totally on the immediate one at hand. Sometimes we have no choice and have to deal with several things at once but whenever possible it's best to stay totally focused on one task at a time. And doing so, our stress and anxiety level is going to lower.

Multi-tasking is also one of the reasons we misplace things such as our car keys or sunglasses, because our thoughts are some place else when we set them down. And then we find them the next day in the garage and wonder how they got there.

So here's how mindfulness made time expand and extended my vacation: We look forward to vacation but then when it finally arrives we can find ourselves start projecting ahead to it ending. Then when it does it seems to have passed so quickly. Right? By focusing on and being aware of what's happening right now--I'm on a boogie board in the California surf with my granddaughters waiting to catch the next wave, showing them how to read and  catch a wave, the warm sun on my back, salt on my skin, the smell of the ocean, the roar of crashing waves, the rush of riding a wave into the beach. And I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing right now--the moments that make up time become fuller, more intense and richer. Multiply these mindful moments over the course of the vacation and the time will seem to have passed more slowly and didn't just fly by, even though it was still exactly the same number of hours and days. But don't take my word for it, try it for yourself and you'll see what I mean. Now if I can just remember where I put my sunglasses.

Next Time: MEDITATION
Caveat--You might not want to practice mindfulness while having a root canal.


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    Jeff Aronson

    Hi and welcome to my blog. I’m Jeff Aronson, TheFearMonsterSlayer. In this and future blogs I’ll share some simple, effective and fun tools for managing fear and anxiety. So, welcome aboard!

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