OK.. I'm doing a couple of things.. I've been meditating and being mindful of for example my Anxiety.. I will acknowledge the anxiety and then I will envision it as a simple form and I will visualize it burning up and it disappears. While this works for me I'm wondering if it is bad to do this?
I have suffered from irrational anxiety, and rational anxiety.
Quote from: Tirisilex on September 25, 2017, 03:09:37 pmOK.. I'm doing a couple of things.. I've been meditating and being mindful of for example my Anxiety.. I will acknowledge the anxiety and then I will envision it as a simple form and I will visualize it burning up and it disappears. While this works for me I'm wondering if it is bad to do this?Is this chronic anxiety, and does it keep coming back? Do you have the sense it is always in the background, waiting to latch onto something?
Quote from: Anemephistus on September 26, 2017, 08:51:48 amI have suffered from irrational anxiety, and rational anxiety.'rational anxiety' is like 'dry water'
Quote from: ground on September 30, 2017, 01:55:22 amQuote from: Anemephistus on September 26, 2017, 08:51:48 amI have suffered from irrational anxiety, and rational anxiety.'rational anxiety' is like 'dry water' Tell the man facing the rattlesnake about to strike that his water is dry.
Quote from: Spiny Norman on September 30, 2017, 01:45:43 amQuote from: Tirisilex on September 25, 2017, 03:09:37 pmOK.. I'm doing a couple of things.. I've been meditating and being mindful of for example my Anxiety.. I will acknowledge the anxiety and then I will envision it as a simple form and I will visualize it burning up and it disappears. While this works for me I'm wondering if it is bad to do this?Is this chronic anxiety, and does it keep coming back? Do you have the sense it is always in the background, waiting to latch onto something?I get a couple of different forms of anxiety. One is just a random anxious feeling that isn't from any trigger. It just arises.. Then I have Anxiety that arises from the occasional delusional thinking. While I have techniques to help me deal with the delusional thinking itself the anxiety is still a problem. Is it reoccurring yes but it's not cosntant. Mainly I would say about once a week. Sometimes twice.
Tell the man facing the rattlesnake about to strike that his water is dry.
Quote from: Anemephistus on September 30, 2017, 04:00:50 pmQuote from: ground on September 30, 2017, 01:55:22 amQuote from: Anemephistus on September 26, 2017, 08:51:48 amI have suffered from irrational anxiety, and rational anxiety.'rational anxiety' is like 'dry water' Tell the man facing the rattlesnake about to strike that his water is dry. And then?If one who is overcome by anxiety is told that anxiety is irrational that does neither eliminate his anxiety nor does the continuation of his anxiety render this anxiety rational.
Quote from: ground on September 30, 2017, 11:38:00 pmQuote from: Anemephistus on September 30, 2017, 04:00:50 pmQuote from: ground on September 30, 2017, 01:55:22 amQuote from: Anemephistus on September 26, 2017, 08:51:48 amI have suffered from irrational anxiety, and rational anxiety.'rational anxiety' is like 'dry water' Tell the man facing the rattlesnake about to strike that his water is dry. And then?If one who is overcome by anxiety is told that anxiety is irrational that does neither eliminate his anxiety nor does the continuation of his anxiety render this anxiety rational. There is more than one form this takes, I have expressed my experience with two forms. One arises from reality as it is experienced, the other one for me first seemed like attachment to preconception then became apparent that it was a cerebral-chemical physical malfunction. The first kind I can deal with and have to with relative frequency for my culture and place in the world. The second kind I could endure but not solve. They share an element of feeling but their arising circumstances are very different. For the first I have been faced many times with very disturbing and dangerous things that have taught me in a non-academic sense that anxiety has a place as long as it is tempered with a disciplined mind. Unless we are free of the attachment to life and can keep that freedom in focus during events that may genuinely present an immediate danger to our continued physical existence we feel anxiety as a rational response. What we do with that determines it's value. Running may be in the best interest of a being caught in a fire or faced with a snake, I assert that this is rational. With disciplined thinking one can make a good decision faster and have more energy to react and find a safe solution to the circumstance hopefully. Training and forethought is best for this. For the second kind it can be hard to tell if it creates delusion or is based on it. Like using the mind to ask a question to which you already know the answer, what comes first? The question or the answer? For me, after much time and focus it became clear that it was a root of delusional thinking, not the result of it. It can easily be the other way around. Arising from attachment and wrong views and general Avidyā. After days sitting with mine I had an answer, there was no thought, it was in my body and was not based on thinking or not thinking, or breathing or eating, it was physical. For others this may be different. I could sooth my mind but my heart was racing and I was sweating to the point of exhaustion over nothing. I had to devote mental resources to reminding everything arising from the feeling of the truth and the process was very frequent and not always successful. I was wrestling my mind with my mind. Determining why we suffer is important, not all feelings arise under the same circumstances and while ultimately it may be able to overcome them, or make them bearable, for me it was physical. I see nothing wrong with the Op's approach save that if these things arise under delusion it may be better to address the root thinking that gives them rise than to deny the feeling that root creates, provided that root is addressable because it may not be in the case of schizophrenia or other illness' effect. As I said though I feel it can easily be either way and a person must find that answer through wisdom, I can only share my experience with this, because the wisdom came from the Dharma and I cannot speak for it, only my own results from learning and practice. I think nothing irrational can be rendered rational without delusion, which is false, but there is a center between the conditions of having a feeling for an apparent reason in which that feeling provides subjective benefit, having a feeling because of wrong thinking in which it provides no benefit, and having a feeling that creates wrong thinking on it's own without input from the one having it... which has no more benefit than being stuck with a permanent flu and is an issue of health.