For just over a year I have been experiencing high anxiety for no reason at all what so ever. ( I think it’s anxiety) . It never leaves me alone. Nervous from nowhere, ringing ears comes and goes , stomach problems , other strange feelings.
The thing is my 2 brothers are going through the same thing. One for over two years and the other just under a year. Something don’t feel right , we have always been strong characters in our own ways. Dealing with anything that life throws at us.
—Richard, United Kingdom
Richard,
Let me first state that I am not a doctor. Medical causes should always be sought first, lest diet, exercise, environment, heredity, medications or other factors are playing a role.
General anxiety, perhaps leading to depression, is very common in today’s insecure, over-stimulated, and fast-paced society. Meditation has been well established as beneficial to nervousness and anxiety. One cannot, however, rely solely on meditation or yoga practice to “cure” anxiety as its roots lay deep both individually and socially. General anxiety is that which has no obvious cause or trigger; nervousness is a symptom of general anxiety. One must approach this issue from several directions.
On the other hand, one who has realized the Self lives calmly “amidst the crash of breaking worlds.” Imagine and visualize as a meditation exercise, that you are immortal; nothing and no one can harm or kill you; all your material needs (food, shelter, money, etc.) are met as their needs appear. You walk on this earth as a free soul: calm, confident, courageous. Your only desire is maintain your contact with God and guru, and to serve as their ambassador to others in need! What would you look like? How would you act?
By prayer, devotion, meditation, service and contact with others of like mind you can grow in the realization that you are not this fragile body and ego. Practicing yoga and meditation (which includes the art and science of breath awareness and energy control) you can have strength, courage, calmness and confidence at your beck and call, for these are your immortal nature.
The path between your present state of mind and the image I have drawn for you above is a matter of taking one step at a time towards the goal. Lahiri Mahasaya would say, “Banat, banat, ban jai!” (Doing, doing, soon done!) It is not a pill or quick fix. It takes resoluteness; it takes drawing upon the very same qualities that you seek to become. “If you want to be happy, no one can make you unhappy” Paramhansa Yogananda affirmed.
Reading the lives of saints and masters; having “good” company with other meditators and those who serve others selflessly. Avoid nervous or anxious people if you can. Indeed, consider the greater misfortune of millions of other people on this planet. Express gratitude for all that you have been blessed with: health, education, job, opportunities and so on. Gratitude, service to others, recognition of those less fortunate: these can be added to prayer and meditation and good company.
Read a little generous and kindly humor every day. Do you practice the “tension exercises” (aka Energization Exercises) taught by Paramhansa Yogananda?
We did not create this world, nor yet ourselves. Leave the world a better, kinder place as best you can, but remember life will go on, both troubles and successes. We need first to make contact with our Creator and then, based on that contact, serve the Divine will by serving the Divine essence in others.
I hope even if just a little bit of these suggestions will find merit and progress with you.
Joy and blessings,
Nayaswami Hriman
