So there are different kinds of meditation.
One kind of meditation,
We do this a lot in the Tibetan tradition,
But I think every Buddhist tradition would have it to a certain extent.
It's more reflective or contemplative thinking.
We use thinking,
Thought,
To think about certain things in order to understand them better.
The Buddha gave a lot of teachings.
He taught for like 45 years.
There's a lot of things the Buddha talked about.
We need to think about the things that he talked about,
To understand them,
And look at how we can relate to them,
And how we can put them into practice in our life.
So sometimes we use thinking,
We use thought,
To understand the Buddha's teachings.
But also this kind of meditation can be used to deal with our disturbing emotions,
Our afflictive emotions,
Like I was saying earlier about anger,
Attachment,
And so on.
These are not going to just go away by themselves,
But there are things we can do to change our way of thinking so that they decrease and we learn to think and see things in a more positive way.
So I thought to lead a kind of thinking meditation,
And we call it analytical meditation,
That's the official term,
That could help deal with anxiety and stress.
Because what happens with our mind when we have anxiety,
Fear,
And so on,
Our mind tends to think in ways that are not necessarily helpful.
We sometimes exaggerate things,
Make them bigger than they really are.
We may fantasize.
We don't do this deliberately.
I don't think anyone does this deliberately.
I mean,
You could if you wanted to,
But I think it's just an automatic process.
We may sometimes fantasize things like worst case scenarios.
Oh,
This terrible thing is going to happen to me.
It can seem like it's definitely going to happen and there's no way around it and I'm just so scared when it's going to happen.
So our mind just goes on a trip like that,
And that makes us scared,
Anxious.
And so it's helpful if we can sit down and just look at what's going on in our mind and ask ourselves,
Is this true or not?
Is this realistic or not?
And we can sometimes recognize where our mind is exaggerating,
Fantasizing.
It's also helpful to ask ourselves,
Okay,
This might happen,
This terrible thing might happen,
But is there anything I can do about it?
Is there something I can do to stop it from happening,
To prevent it from happening?
Or if it does happen,
Are there things I can do to manage it so that it's not so terrible?
So it's like using our intelligence to look at our fears and our anxieties.
And that is so helpful.
That can be incredibly helpful.
So let's do a meditation on that.
I'll talk more and I'll be kind of guiding you along in doing this and just try to stay focused and follow along as I'm talking and see what happens.
So once again,
Make yourselves comfortable,
Try to keep your back straight,
But at the same time,
Try to be relaxed as much as possible and let your breathing flow in and out.
And if you have other thoughts going on that aren't related to what we're doing right now,
Like you might be thinking about something you're doing later today,
Put that aside for now.
Decide to just stay focused on what we're doing right now.
Now bring to mind something you are worried about or anxious about,
Maybe not something really huge like dying of COVID.
That might be too difficult to deal with.
Bring to mind something smaller like,
Oh,
I have to go and meet somebody and I'm worried I might be late.
Something kind of small sized or medium sized.
Now try to step back from this fear,
This anxiety so that you're not all caught up in it and you can look at it objectively.
Ask yourself,
What is this fear all about?
What am I really afraid of?
What am I really anxious about?
Is it some terrible thing that might happen and I'm worried that it will happen?
Now ask yourself,
Is it a hundred percent sure that it will happen?
Or is it just possible that it might happen but it might not happen?
Then ask yourself,
Are there things that you can do to prevent it from happening?
Are there preventative measures you can take to at least try to protect yourself from it happening?
Try to stop it from happening?
Just ask yourself that.
If you discover that there are things you can try to do to prevent it from happening,
Then make the decision to do those things.
Put your time and energy into doing those things that will prevent this awful thing from happening.
But it's possible that even if you do try to prevent it from happening,
It might still happen.
So if that's the case,
Are there things you can do to mentally prepare yourself for it?
Building up your courage,
Asking for help from other people.
There might be people out there who can help you to manage this frightening situation so you don't have to go through it all by yourself.
There may also be some skills you can learn that will help you to manage this experience if it happens.
It can also be helpful to think that other people have been through that experience and they managed to get through it.
They managed to survive.
It was okay.
So if they were able to do that,
I can too.
All right.
So if you use that method with smaller problems,
Like being anxious about being late for something,
Then gradually you can do it for bigger problems that you may be anxious about,
And even eventually the really big ones,
The huge ones.
Other things that can help with anxiety are relaxation,
Just being more relaxed in the body and breathing deeply.
A certain type of breathing is really helpful.
Breathing in slowly and deeply,
And then breathing out slowly,
Kind of a long,
Slow exhalation.
Physiologically,
That activates the parasympathetic nervous system,
Which is the rest and digest system as opposed to the fight and flight response,
Which is the sympathetic nervous system,
I think.
Anyway,
It definitely works.
I've tried it in situations where I've been anxious,
And it really does help to calm down.
And then when you're more calm physically,
Then your mind can be more calm and can think better,
Can think more clearly,
Okay,
What's going on here?
Is there something I can do?
So you can function better mentally and deal with situations.
