What would you say if I told you that I had a free magic potion that would decrease anxiety, decrease depression, decrease stress and increase happiness? You'd be pretty interested right? Yup. That is exactly what science is finding are the results of a regular meditation practice.
Meditation can help us slow down the breath and the body. As we do this good things tend to happen. One of those is that our anxiety goes down. As the breath slows so will our angst. In fact, if you slow down your breath to 3 breaths a minute or less you will experience a remarkable shift in your desires. In some ways the desires thin out and leave you without a strong sense of wanting this or that. When we move into a state of diminished desire or maybe we could call it "not wanting" our anxiety lessens. The breath slows, the desires slow and our anxiety goes down. As all these transpire calmness goes up. The good news is that if you can practice this each day it is cumulative. The more you do the more it accumulates and your general level of anxiety goes down while your calmness goes up. What's not to like?
Of course as our desires go down and our calmness increases this has some some positive impact on any depressive thoughts we might be carrying.
When our anxiety and depression are reduced and calmness increases we are sure to experience reduced stress. As stress is diminished we begin to not fuel our own anxiety and we begin to have a more and more relaxed stance.
When we relax more, have less depression and less anxiety it is pretty much a certainty that we will then increase our happiness. This has the potential to start a positive cycle.
TRY THIS
Find a quiet place away from the hustle and bustle. Close your eyes and become aware of the breath as it passes through your nose. Notice that on the inhale the breath is warm and moist and on the exhale it is cool and dry. Try to maintain this focus for at least a minute and more if you can. Other thoughts will intrude and when they do, just smile and focus back on the breath going through the nose. After a minute or more if you can, stop and assess what you feel like. Any different?
Join us next Tuesday for another look at Feeling Good in a Red Pill World. Men are good! As are you.