Written by
Karla Solano
What is anxiety?
•Anxiety, anxiousness ((psychiatry) a relatively permanent state of worry and nervousness occurring in a variety of mental disorders, usually accompanied by compulsive behavior or attacks of panic). A vague unpleasant emotion that is experienced in anticipation of some (usually ill-defined) misfortune)
We all experience anxiety at one point or another in our lives; the constant state of emergency which we live in causes our stress levels to rise and our defense mechanism to drop, thus, causing our body to reach a breaking point when faced with difficult experiences.
Anxiety is a form of fear and worry; these feelings are just energy, in this case it is energy that causes a negative emotion. Since energy is transmutable it can be altered to its opposite state of being. It is important to keep in mind that we have the power to change this negative energy into positive energy that can bring us peace and pure bliss. We just need to learn to expand our minds and recognize this power of change within ourselves. This is when meditation comes to play an important part of our lives, because it can help us transform our inner turmoil into peace and it can also give us clarity of mind and a true connection with our natural state of being.
Anxiety & meditation
Deep, relaxed breathing by itself can help reduce high levels of stress. This helps you get plenty of oxygen and activates the relaxation response, which is the body’s antidote to stress.
Other ways to reduce stress and anxiety include but are not limited to:
•Listening to relaxing music, spending time in nature, reading a book, dancing, playing with a pet and children, talking to a close friend, finding time to laugh and be youthful.
10 minutes of deep breathing meditation
The best way to deal with anxiety at the moment we feel it creep up is to maintain calm, close your eyes for a few minutes and take deep breaths. Count 1 as you inhale, 2 as you exhale, 3 as you inhale and so forth & so on. Do this exercise for 10 counts. Become aware of your breath going in through the nose and out the nose. Do not follow the breath through your lungs. Just keep focusing on the refreshing feeling of the breathing, put the palm of your left hand in your heart and connect with the beating of your heart as you breathe, feel the rhythm of the heart synchronize & slow down as you begin to center yourself.
Keep breathing in and out, if thoughts of worry or fear begin to distract you, let them be, notice them and let them go as you continue to count your breaths. Do this for as long as you need to, until you feel the anxiety, fears and worries slowly dissipate.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Living for today
Author
Karla Solano
The universe has a way of bringing very special & joyful moments into our lives every minute of our existence here on earth...Those wonderful experiences are very meaningful when we submerge ourselves completely to that moment in time, living it to the fullest and without limitations. Realizing that today is all we have makes it even more special because we can stop obsessing about what tomorrow may bring.
Living for today really means to take every second of our day and savor it with love, gratitude and joy. Imagine for a moment that you only had today to live, wouldn’t you want to make sure everything you did, you did in a meaningful way? Instead of rushing through life to get us nowhere, in fact the only place we are rushing to get to is our death bed; because stressing over every little thing only brings us more suffering and disease.
We live in a constant race against time, going through the motions without really paying attention to what we are doing. We wake up in the morning and start our routine by rushing out of bed to get ready as quickly as we can to get to work, or school, and we barely take the time to really enjoy a healthy breakfast in the morning and if we do make time for breakfast is a rushed cup of coffee as we travel to work. How can we say that we are living life if we are in this constant state of emergency?
We must bear in mind that living mindfully is key in order to have a fulfilled existence and it is up to us to make sure that our life doesn’t pass us by without really embracing it and making the time to fully experience it.
There is nothing more precious than taking time to smell a flower and really connect with the fragrance, the texture, the colors and the beauty the flower has to offer, or how about really eating our meals enjoying what we are eating, chewing and really tasting every flavor without being on the phone or watching television? Or how about really listening when someone is talking to us instead of texting someone else at the same time? We are so used to multitasking that we have forgotten how to focus our attention on one thing at a time.
We all know how distracting life can be but we cannot and must not allow the constant distraction gear us away from fully submerging ourselves in having a true connection with our every day experiences. The truth of the matter is that if we don’t fully immerse ourselves in the things we do, we run the risk of living a life without deep connection, barely tapping on the surface of what true living is all about.
All I can say is that no matter how hectic our life may get, we have to make a conscious commitment to ourselves to not waste any minute of our existence here on earth, and by this I mean not wasting a second to fully engage in a deep state of connection with everything we do. Because we have not lived life until we have learned to live mindfully; so start today, take one experience at a time and enjoy it, fully embrace it and feel your way through life instead of rushing through it.
Karla Solano
The universe has a way of bringing very special & joyful moments into our lives every minute of our existence here on earth...Those wonderful experiences are very meaningful when we submerge ourselves completely to that moment in time, living it to the fullest and without limitations. Realizing that today is all we have makes it even more special because we can stop obsessing about what tomorrow may bring.
Living for today really means to take every second of our day and savor it with love, gratitude and joy. Imagine for a moment that you only had today to live, wouldn’t you want to make sure everything you did, you did in a meaningful way? Instead of rushing through life to get us nowhere, in fact the only place we are rushing to get to is our death bed; because stressing over every little thing only brings us more suffering and disease.
We live in a constant race against time, going through the motions without really paying attention to what we are doing. We wake up in the morning and start our routine by rushing out of bed to get ready as quickly as we can to get to work, or school, and we barely take the time to really enjoy a healthy breakfast in the morning and if we do make time for breakfast is a rushed cup of coffee as we travel to work. How can we say that we are living life if we are in this constant state of emergency?
We must bear in mind that living mindfully is key in order to have a fulfilled existence and it is up to us to make sure that our life doesn’t pass us by without really embracing it and making the time to fully experience it.
There is nothing more precious than taking time to smell a flower and really connect with the fragrance, the texture, the colors and the beauty the flower has to offer, or how about really eating our meals enjoying what we are eating, chewing and really tasting every flavor without being on the phone or watching television? Or how about really listening when someone is talking to us instead of texting someone else at the same time? We are so used to multitasking that we have forgotten how to focus our attention on one thing at a time.
We all know how distracting life can be but we cannot and must not allow the constant distraction gear us away from fully submerging ourselves in having a true connection with our every day experiences. The truth of the matter is that if we don’t fully immerse ourselves in the things we do, we run the risk of living a life without deep connection, barely tapping on the surface of what true living is all about.
All I can say is that no matter how hectic our life may get, we have to make a conscious commitment to ourselves to not waste any minute of our existence here on earth, and by this I mean not wasting a second to fully engage in a deep state of connection with everything we do. Because we have not lived life until we have learned to live mindfully; so start today, take one experience at a time and enjoy it, fully embrace it and feel your way through life instead of rushing through it.
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