Meditation or yoga to cope with anxiety?

[freeanimal]

Yoga has done wonders for my mental clarity. The more time I devote to practice, the more I see healing in my life. I wish I had time for a proper response! (library is closing :() but touched on it briefly in this thread.

/c/threads/things-that-are-helping-anxiety.25481/#post-375668

Kundalini yoga is intense but enriching.
There is a kundalini yoga exercise specifically for PTSD on youtube. I can't post links, but
Here is the second half of the url.
/watch?v=8axJiJSVwjA

Restorative yoga and yin yoga are meditative types of yoga. In each, the poses are held for 4-8 minutes. These forms are very nice for slowing the mind down.

Good luck!

 

[Hashi]

Regarding meditation, I like Chondra's way of putting it - observing in a detached way and feeling larger than the anxiety.

For me it's comforting. It makes me feel safer in my own mind. I can see that there's a possibility of being in the same situation but feeling differently about it.

When I talked to my GP about the anxiety she pointed out that the things I was anxious about were things that other people have dealt with. When I do the guided meditation, I see that more clearly. It would be nice to say that I see that the anxiety is not real, that I can give my problems and concerns any meaning I choose to, or even that I can give them no meaning and no power at all. Unfortunately I'm not so enlightened that I get there completely, but the meditation takes me in that direction. In general, it moves me from feeling I can't survive the situation to feeling how much I don't want to have to deal with it, or even feeling that I have some power and some choice and I will be OK.

Something I'd add that I didn't think to say before, is that I do guided meditation rather than quiet meditation (just me clearing my mind) because it's safer for me. I tried quiet meditation and too much scary stuff came up. Guided meditation keeps things within safe limits.

SheerForceofWill, do you feel ready to try some yoga or some guided meditation and let us know how you find it?

 

[Sheer Force of Will]

I am ready to try it, or at least I want to, but I can't bring myself to. For some reason, I just can't bring myself to sit down and actually do it, to put aside other things and just do it. I am not sure why.

 

[Chondra]

I am having a similar difficulty with restarting yoga. I quit during my last major PTSD episode about 4 years ago. It was a work triggered episode and I was doing yoga at work on my lunch breaks.

I started in again doing just a few "sun salutations" - a small series of poses. I am re-starting very, very slowly. I hope I can nurture this feeble effort into a regular home practice, but I have been stymied before. That is why I am starting so small. I suggest you try doing the same. Keep it really short to start with.

Or you might also try enrolling in a class to get yourself started. And a good instructor can really help with either practice. Yoga classes are rather common where I live, but meditation classes are more rare.

I can't say if I will make it this time, but I am pretty determined. I once heard it take three weeks to develop a habit. Well, I have three days invested so far.:)

 

[VDWngr1355]

I would just start in small increments of like 5 minutes at a time with what Chondra suggested above- sun salutations. Once you get into it, you might want to do it longer. But I go through moods like that as well, when I don't want to do it. I set a timer for 5 minutes and make myself do it. Most times, I will continue pass the timer.

 

[Hashi]

I think starting with small steps and a short amount of time is a really good idea.

I started in again doing just a few "sun salutations" - a small series of poses. I am re-starting very, very slowly. I hope I can nurture this feeble effort into a regular home practice...:)

Chondra, I don't think that's a feeble effort at all. I think it's a practice and an achievement in its own right, as well as being a gentle and realistic way to move yourself past the circumstances around stopping before.


Sending encouragement to everyone.

 

[Sheer Force of Will]

Its not even that I don't have time, its that I am avoiding it. I am not sure why, I just have been avoiding letting my mind go quiet.

 

[NarcSis]

It is extremely difficult to let your mind go quiet, when I started out trying, I could only achieve it for a few seconds at a time, but if you keep practicing and get into the habit of it, the feeling once you've achieved it is amazing. I feel so peaceful and calm I wish I could have it all the time.

If you're having difficulty, break it down into stages, try at first just sitting still for a minute, doesn't have to be on the floor or in a quiet room, just make yourself sit on a chair and let go of the pressure of Doing. If you're on the couch, close your eyes, lean your head back, stop what you're doing and do it for a few seconds with the goal being to just sit still rather than quiet your mind/body.

As you become acclimatized to just sitting for brief periods, then begin to strive for quiet. Turn off ambient noise. Once that is achieved, then you can strive to quiet your mind. It is frustrating when you first start because it's hard to recognize and be aware of when you're mind is Thinking, it chatters constantly and I found it amazing when I realized just how active my mind was. Don't expect instant results, just praise yourself for the small steps and keep practicing. Good luck! :)

 

[ClairBear226]

There's actually a form of yoga called iRest that has been very effective, I understand, with combat PTSD. Though my PTSD is not combat related, I looked into it a number of months ago (okay, I was looking for ANYTHING I could do that did not involve talking to a therapist, lol! ;)). Here's some info:

http://www.irest.us/projects/veterans

I think the information I found about it was originally from the National Center for PTSD, but a quick look didn't find the article I remember from months ago. Here's the home page, if you'd like to look.

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/index.asp

and here's the link to my thread about it:
[DLMURL]https://www.ptsdforum.org/c/threads/has-anyone-heard-of-irest-for-treatment-of-ptsd.20147/[/DLMURL]

Unfortunately, I was not able to find an iRest class in my area. I'm hoping that eventually, there will be something available in my area. I'm not normally a yoga kind of girl, but it sounds like the results were really promising, so I'll keep an open mind.

 

[Sheer Force of Will]

I am going to try to mediate tonight. I have not even gone to bed in the last 3 days and I really need to unwind or I am going to go crazy.

 

[Chondra]

I am going to try to mediate tonight. I have not even gone to bed in the last 3 days and I really need to unwind or I am going to go crazy.

Sometimes we need this kind of motivation to break the ice and get us going. How did it go? I really hope it helped and you get some rest. Sleep is so critical in managing PTSD.

My recent research was similar to ClairBear's in that yoga benefits people with PTSD. The research backing this up is still a bit thin, but ongoing. It was encouraging enough to get me started. If you can manage it Sheer Force of Will, it is worth a try. It can compliment meditation and probably help with sleep troubles.

I am still doing my sun salutations.:tup:

 

[Sheer Force of Will]

I was going to do it last night but then my brother had a psychotic episode. After that I was just to frightened to do it.