How Meditation Can Help Us Alleviate Our Fears, Anxieties and Worries

When you meditate, the key of meditation is to focus on your breath because that is the only thing happening right here, right now.  You may have a mantra, a prayer word, visualize or use a guided meditation, but the key to any meditation is to be in the here and the now.

Our mind typically centers on the past and the future.  As you meditate your mind quiets down and begins to focus on one thing only, the here and the now.  Right here in the now, there are no concepts, no fears, and no anxieties to worry about.  Those fears and worries come when our minds are working, going from the past to the future, thinking about what has been and what could be.  When we make our minds quiet and be in the here and the now, these fears and worries go away.  That’s one of the beautiful things about meditation, you are in the here and the now without the concepts that you have created that cause fears and worries in your mind.  It gives you a respite from all these worries, anxieties and fears we experience throughout the day.

Besides meditating your worries and fears away, you can practice being in the present all the time.  If you are in the here and the now you are just thinking and focusing on the one thing you are doing at that moment.  You’re keeping the thoughts of the past and future from entering your mind.  If you get up and wash the dishes, you simply just wash the dishes; if you sit down to write someone an e-mail you just concentrate on writing that e-mail.  Of course, during these times thoughts will arise, but living a true meditative life is one that when these thoughts arise you get back to being present with “what is” and focus on that and nothing more.  A lot of people worry that if you keep pushing these thoughts, these fears and anxieties aside and ignoring them you won’t get anything accomplished; however, the exact opposite is true.  Highly successful people are able to get lots done while “working in the zone”.  I talk about this more in depth in my book/ebook Success Beyond Your Imagination – Working in the “Zone”.

The message I’m trying to get across is that you must be present in whatever it is that you are doing right now.  For example if you are a surgeon and you are in surgery, you concentrate and are 100% present with your surgical instruments and procedure.  If you are a police officer and have other people’s lives in your hands you must be totally present in what you are doing or people could die.  Of course, not all of us have these types of responsibilities and have much more mundane lives that do not really require constant attention and focus.  This is why we often allow our minds to wander and not be present with what’s happening right now.  If you go back to your meditation you go back to your mantra; similarly when your mind wanders in your every day life and allows you to worry you just go back to what’s happening right now.  Don’t get upset that you’ve allowed your mind to stray but instead just come back to focusing on the here and now.  Keeping those thoughts of the past and future from entering into the present will keep those fears, worries and anxieties from stressing your life.