Looking back on my life, one of the most important things I ever did was learning to use meditation to cure my anxiety.
Let’s go back some two and a half decades to the late nineteen nineties. The Backstreet Boys were singing I Want It That Way, Buffy was on TV, and Man UTD were the number one team. Oh yeah. And there was me. Little shy guy Paul trying his best to fit in at school with his crippling social anxiety and generalized anxiety. I was a quiet little fella. I sat in the corner at school trying not to speak to anyone but one or two close friends. When I got home I hid myself in my bedroom and just played Super Nintendo all night. Little did I know that within four years I would be very confidently acting on stage around England and actually enjoying having people watching me. So what on Earth happened?
Well, many things. And I’ll be honest, it wasn’t just meditation. I also left home for the first time to go and live in my digs at university. And I lost about fifty pounds… weight, I mean, not sterling. All of that was definitely benefical. And then came that fateful day when one of my acting teachers, a worldly guy with a big long beard, suggested that I look into meditation because it might help with my anxiety. I don’t think either of us realized at that time that meditation would become my biggest passion in life, nor that I’d become a professional meditation coach.
I thought, “Meditation, sure, can’t hurt.” And so I started looking into it. This was before there were sites like Lions Roar and Tricycle. There was nowhere near as much info on meditation then as there is now. My introduction to meditation came from Lama Surya Das’s inspirational book Awakening The Buddha Within, a book that isn’t even really about meditation but more about Buddhist philosophy and insight. It did discuss mindfulness though, in enough detail for me to at least get started with being mindful.
And so I sat and watched my breath for twenty minutes. And I think the first thing I noticed about meditation was that there is this infinite, empty, silent space within, a space that I could retreat to if dad happened to drink too much or if the stress of the time got to me. There’s always a stress of the time, by the way. Right now it’s finances. But anyway, I digress. Yes, meditation produced a silent inner space that I could retreat to anytime my anxiety flared up. Of course this helped me to relax while meditating. But equally as important was simply knowing there was a way to escape my anxiety should I need to.
Mindful breathing gave me a way to relax and also was a constant reassurance, because if everything went to hell I could just stop and breathe. But this was just the beginning. As I progressed in my own meditation training I gradually learned new techniques, such as Vipassana, Loving Kindness, and Chakra Dhyana. And every day my love for meditation grew, to the point that I created this website in 2013 and shortly afterwards became a meditation teacher. And somehow now I, of all people, teach people to beat their anxiety with meditation.
I have previously written in depth about the best meditations for anxiety. But today I’d like to discuss the method that works for me and for my meditation students. And I’ll also share a guided meditation for anxiety that you can use. Incidentally, you can find the script for this meditation here.
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My meditation for anxiety
For me, the best anxiety meditation is a combination of mindful breathing (Anapanasati), Vipassana, and Body Scan. I start with mindful breathing, which I’ll do for about ten minutes to start to calm and clear my mind. Then I’ll move into Vipassana by observing my mental phenomena and lebaling thoughts and feelings. This reminds me that my thoughts are’nt real and that I don’t need to be troubled by them. And then I’ll do Body Scan, which helps to make me less reactive to the physical symptoms like a tense chest. And that is the meditation that I use to calm my anxiety.
If you’re struggling with anxiety and you’re hoping meditation can help, trust me, it can. The meditation I shared above has helped me to control my anxiety for years, and it can do the same thing for you too.
Paul Harrison BSc is a qualified meditation teacher who believes in genuine, authentic meditation. He has more than 15 years experience in teaching meditation and mindfulness both to individuals and to corporations and is the author of four books on meditation. He has been featured in Psychology Today, Breathe Magazine, Healthline, Psych Central and Lion’s Roar.
Paul studied meditation in beautiful Oxford, UK, and Hamilton Ontario Canada, and earned his degree at Staffordshire University.
Paul’s biggest inspirations include Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat Zinn, and Jack Kornfield.
“My goal is to provide the most authentic meditation sessions so you can harness the power of your own mind for personal transformation” – Paul Harrison