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Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

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Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#81

Post by murukesh_s »

graderjs wrote: post #45
burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

That's why you need to do yoga. Relaxing the body is so important and Meditation, without yoga, can be harmful. Simple, long holding, hatha yoga, beginning with deep part by part body relaxation and pranayama prepares you for meditation and allows you to handle the energies that can be released during mediation. So much stress is held in the body. Western productization of more eastern traditional practices unfortuna…

> if you do mediation, you also need yoga Not sure Gautama Buddha did yoga? Don't get me wrong, i am not against yoga, but wondering if great saints who never did yoga also attained greater heights including moksha..

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#83

Post by dQw4w9WgXcQ »

Barrin92 wrote: post #11

I think the advice of focusing on how to turn anxiety symptoms down and moderate physical responses are fine, but it's kind of missing the point, at least for serious cases of anxiety. I suffered pretty badly from it in my early 20s (apparently typical age for this kind of stuff), and you go very quickly from particular anxiety attacks being the issue, to fear of anxiety itself being the bigger issue. An anxiety/pani…

> your first thought after dealing with an anxiety attack by breathing deeply is "okay, but what if it doesn't work the next time?"

It always will. Practice choosing various thoughts in your focus (thankful, calm, happy, etc) and watch how the feelings seem to follow ~15-30 minutes after. It will always work (in time) because it's literally a neurochemical reaction with physical laws equivalent to the guarantees of gravity. You're basically asking "what if the laws of physics and biology stop working for my body?"

Admittedly you can get yourself stressed enough over months or a single impactful event to really require some dedicated relaxation time, but the body will always over time respond to relaxation. And recovery is not linear, but moreso analog with ups and downs.

In my experience people struggling with anxiety (and everyone gets anxious) can be impatient and want their feelings to resolve in seconds to minutes. And typically that comes bundled with some perfectionist desire to avoid a past fear ("if I do X I'll never experience Y terrifying thing again") which winds themselves up further in the moment as they monitor for a calming outcome that takes longer than they wanted ("Oh God, I'm trying to relax but I'm not calming down!"). Literally start a stopwatch and give yourself 20-30 minutes to sit with the pain, focus on breathing/calm thoughts, and watch as it dissipates like the steam off a car after you turn it off.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#84

Post by defterGoose »

monkeydreams wrote: post #71

It was only when I was heavily medicated for depression and anxiety that I realised the physical symptoms of anxiety. Whenever I was expecting a negative outcome, or when I was surprised, my body would give me a jolt of pain along my vagus nerve. Literally any negative event would cause me pain, and it was this pain that my brain was seeking to avoid. My current medication does not remove this pain altogether, though…

Out of curiosity, do you mind sharing what medication you're on? I feel like i have a strange vagus nerve dysfunction as well.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#85

Post by rover0 »

osacial wrote: post #33
bamboozled wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I just realized that there was nothing I could really do about anxiety or the physical symptoms that came along with it. I decided to mostly try to quit noticing and thinking about it. And that really helped. I think this is mission accomplished from your mindfulness practice, you realized that you're not really doing anything and that anxiety just appears, you accepted it and it felt better.

There are some problems with that type of approach - there are some things that won't vanish, if you stop thinking about them.

It won't vanish.

Acceptance just makes it hurt much less.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#86

Post by aantix »

Nutritional deficiencies should be part of this conversation.

A majority of Americans are magnesium deficient. Magnesium calms the nervous system.

“In healthy adults, magnesium sits inside the NMDA receptors, preventing them from being triggered by weak signals that may stimulate your nerve cells unnecessarily. When your magnesium levels are low, fewer NMDA receptors are blocked. This means they are prone to being stimulated more often than necessary.“ https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-does-magnesium-do#...

Mg L-threonate has helped my anxiety 2x more than years of talk therapy.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#88

Post by Sargos »

_y5hn wrote: post #63
zepto wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I recommend working with a qualified teacher in a spiritual tradition. These practitioners will have extensive training (at least decades) and will be drawing from a few thousand years of careful study of the effects of meditation (as found in Buddhist and Yogic/Hindu documents and oral traditions). How many teachers actually have this, and how can one know that the one you’ve chosen is one of them?

You will notice you have lots to learn and experience that gives you something. No teacher is forever, except life itself perhaps. It has more to do with the "student".

You're hired!

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#89

Post by fblp »

siquick wrote: post #58
burlesona wrote: post #6

I noticed as young adult that I didn’t really worry or consciously stress, but my body had somewhat predictable reactions to situations that I would realize, in hindsight, were highly stressful. Those physical reactions sucked, and as they got worse over time, it really concerned me. At some point I was encouraged to go to CBT, which I did, but honestly it made things worse. I became hyper aware of how anxious I was…

Reminded me of a passage from Sapiens on Buddah. "...Gautama Buddah found that there was a way to exit this vicious circle. If, when the mind experiences something pleasant or unpleasant, it simply understand things as they are, then there is no suffering. If you experience sadness without craving that the sadness go away, you continue to feel sadness but you do not suffer from it. There can actually be richness in t…

Great quote, thank you for sharing.

Re: Anxiety is in your body, not your mind

#90

Post by Zelphyr »

sammalloy wrote: post #8

One other thing to consider, that I rarely hear anyone talk about, is that anxiety can sometimes be a symptom of an underlying physiological condition or disease. For example, hypoglycemia-related anxiety is a common complaint.

I've been on the keto diet for several years and one aspect of that is that you have to pay a little more attention to your sodium intake than you do otherwise, for various reasons I won't get into here. Suffice it to say, about two years into it I thought I was getting enough. I added salt to my meals, etc...

However, one day I noticed I had been getting REALLY anxious for no apparent reason. I have a history with panic and anxiety and have seen a therapist for it so I was able to sort-of detach and observe it, but it was still odd that it happened the way it did. Often, the causes of panic and anxiety aren't readily apparent and will only become so days or weeks later, but this felt different in a way I can't quite explain.

I decided to get some over-the-counter salt tablets to see if that might help. It was the craziest thing. The second that tablet touched my tongue, it tasted soooo good. Not at all what I was expecting! Within about 2-3 days of taking that supplement my anxiety went away almost completely. Now, interestingly, when I take the salt tablet, it is pretty bitter and almost overwhelming. Clearly my body was in need at the time.

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