[Warrior Spirit]

Salutations,

I wanted to share my three-part system that has been incredibly effective with me in reducing my anxiety and generally improving my life. This is not a system, however, that you can just apply and get results straight away. It is a system that you have to practice and the system itself grows with you. I will forewarn that I am an unapologetic spiritual person, and many of my comments will be biassed in that direction. If you are somebody who are offended by such things, or want to debate these philosophies then please do not read any further. I am not going to debate these philosophies here, but I am open to discussing them in private if you want.

The Science

One of the reasons we are feeling the anxiety is because of self-consciousness. Rather than our attention being focussed on the world, which we are getting from our 5 basic senses, our attention is focussed on our internal dialogue. Statements like "Are they are looking at me funny", "I am doing something stupid" are going through our mind and these then precipitate certain feelings like nausea, stress, heart palpitations, sweating, blushing etc.

The problem with many of us SA sufferers is that the gap between the thought and the feeling is so narrow, that we are often not even aware of the negative thoughts, so it seems to be very automatic. To an extent it is true that it is automatic, our nervous system has become so use to reacting as it does, that it has become a habitual response. As soon as we encounter certain triggers such as somebody looking at us in a certin way, that response is recalled.

This can seem rather depressing, if the process is just an automatic nervous system response, then what can we do? Are we just victims to our own body? Fortunately the good news is, and I will speak for myself, there is always a window of awareness in which we can catch these thoughts and nip them at their bud. That window of awareness can seem so small, that it may not seem to be there at all, but I will again confidently assert - again speaking for myself - it is there. And I have more good news, this window of awareness can be expanded and made wider and wider.

How does awareness help? When you are in awareness, the gap between thought and feeling becomes visible to you. You will be able to observe your own thoughts as they occur in the space of your awareness, in the same way you can observe images pass by on a movie screen. Sometimes, we become so engrossed with images even on a movie screen, that we lose awareness. If a huge monster chases a human in a horror movie, we might even get scared. This is because we become identified with the situation in the movie. That identification is broken as soon as we come back to awareness and realise we are watching a movie and the images are not really us; we are the observer of the movie. Likewise, the thoughts that are occuring within the space of our awareness, are not really us, we are the observer of our thoughts.

The realisation that I am not my thoughts is very powerful, and it is a realisation that you will hear from many mystics and sages both in modern and ancient times. So what are we? We are the awareness within which thoughts, feelings and forms take place. The observer of it all. When one makes this realisation they are able to pull themselves out of all identifications and see things from a much wider and higher perspective. In this state of being you are spiritually free and limitless. It is said to be the state of true happiness, confidence and abundance. It is a beautiful state to be in and thus a state we should cultivate.

How?

This is of course the most important part of this post. I think I have discussed enough background and the basic science of why this system works, now I will get straight to the methods. There are three parts of this system, which when applied properly can expand your awareness and begin to cultivate higher states of being.

1. Affirmations

If you understand the science and agree with the science then you are already affirming the truth that "I am awareness" But after a while you will forget this again and again identify yourself with your thoughts, or with your body, or with some image. Simply because it is habit to do this and moreover the identifications seem very real. This is why saying the affirmation, "I am awareness" to yourself over and over again throughout the day, like a personal mantra is very helpful in maintaining the realisation that you are indeed the awareness. You are indeed the observer of all thoughts, feelings, forms, images. You are not them. You are beyond them.

2. Meditation

There are 101+ ways to meditate. If you already are meditating and have a practice going on just continue doing that. There is no right or wrong practice. All these practices are doing the same thing: cultivating awarenss. I am going to share a very simple practice with you that is used in the Gnostic school as an introductory meditation. It maybe introductory, but really it is sufficient by itself and you may never need any other practice.

1. Assume a comfortable position, a position in which you can stay comfortably still for at least 15-20 min. The best positions I find are sitting crossed-legged or sitting upright on a chair. It is best to keep your spine straight. Now close your eyes.

2. Start to relax your body progressively, becoming aware of various parts of your body and relax them. It usually helps to do this systematically beginning from your toes and working your way up your body. The aim is simply to relax your body.

3. Take 3 deep breaths through your nose, this will oxygenate your brain and your blood, leading to deeper relaxation. Now become aware of your breath for at least 2 min. This is an excellent method of leading you into the deeper practice of awareness.

4. Now become aware of the various sensations around you. Just become aware of them, don't try to label them or name them, just experience the sensations. First Become aware of the feelings of the air touching your skin, the temperature of the room, the body, the breath entering and leaving your nose. Secondly, become aware of the sounds around you. Now become aware of the darkness behind your eyes and the colours that may appear. Now just allow yourself to remain in this awareness.

5. Now that you are in awareness, just remain in this state of awareness for as long as you can for a minimum of 15-20 min. Whenever you catch yourself drifting off or thinking, just return to awareness by becoming aware of the sensations around you or just repeating step 4.

If you are new to meditation you will likely find that you will not be able to maintain awareness for long. Your mind will jump from one thought to the other, your body will fidget, you will feel like coming out of meditation constatly. This is fine and to be expected. The more regularly you will meditate the less this will happen and the longer you will be able to remain in awareness. It is just like working out the gym, it is uncomfortable and difficult at first, but with regular practice and perserverence, you are able to make some impressive gains.

As your awareness develops you will be able remain in meditation for longer periods and barely even notice the passage of time. It is advisable to start a regular daily meditation routine.

3. Application of Meditation: Mindfullness

The real test of how well much you are progressing in your meditation is if you can remain in awareness even after meditation is over, in your daily life. This is where it becomes especially important for us SA sufferers. If we could be in awareness all the time, then anxiety would never take place, because the identification with the anxiety-causing thoughts would not take place. However, being in awareness all the time is difficult even for advanced meditators, so a more realistic goal is to aim to be in awareness some of the time. To do this begin to practice the method of mindfullness.

Mindfullness could not be any more simple. Whatever you are doing, whether that be walking, washing the dishes, eating, listening, talking, put all your awareness into that. I especially want to say something about listening from an SA point of view. Most of the time when we are listening, we are feeling the anticipation of speaking, because whilst listening we are already thinking of speaking and thus we are not being mindful of listening.
If we were mindful of listening, much of our anxiety about speaking would go away.

This is the entire 3-part system I have been using and still using for many years now. It has definitely delivered excellent results for me. I cannot guarantee you results though, because I have no idea how you are going to use the system and what other factors are involved. I can say however that if you do sincerely practice the system, and do it regularly and perservere, it is highly likely you will get just as good results, if not better.

Wishing you a good and swift recovery,

Warrior Spirit