Mindfulness Meditation: Yoga & Anxiety – Practices to Consider

Potential Benefits

• Also called Insight Meditation, Vipassana and Open Monitoring Meditation.
• Mindfulness Meditation may be effective for some students in bringing increased feelings of peace and well-being.

Caution

• Please note that those prone to anxiety may experience agitation when attempting to practice meditation. This is counterproductive and an indication to stop the practice. Please help students to notice the effects of practices and to choose those that are most effective for them individually.

Teaching Tools

Lynn Stoller (Yoga Journal) teaches the following in 6 Steps to Tame Anxiety:

Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and allow your breath to rest on your breath, following the inflow and outflow through your nostrils.  Then expand your awareness and notice your present-moment experience — tension in your neck, racing thoughts, sounds around you. When something comes up, whether it’s a thought, sensation, or emotion, name it without judging — “Thinking is happening,” “Worry is happening,” “Planning is happening” — and allow it to pass freely.

See much more in Mindfulness Meditation.