I tried meditating recently and was experiencing anxiety. I thought meditation was supposed to be calming. Why is that?

Hi. It’s Jenny at AnxietyBoss.com. Our question today comes to us from Philip in New York. I tried meditating recently and was experiencing anxiety. I thought meditation was supposed to be calming. Why is that?

Well, meditation is widely considered to be one of the best methods of getting calm, reducing stress and anxiety, but it’s really not that simple. If you have the Type A personality and you always feel the need to be on the go, meditation can be an extremely grueling activity for you when you first practice it. This is because it takes a lot of practice to tame your mind into being in the present moment and focus on nothing except for your breathing. But as a beginner, your mind will do everything but be in the moment. Your mind will begin to wander into thoughts about your worries, your daily tasks, your chores, your job duties, so sitting still and doing nothing but worrying will make you feel more anxious than ever. You might find it to be one of the most difficult tasks and you will just get more and more frustrated and angry.

So if you’re experiencing similar feelings, then you should consider taking another approach to meditation. Don’t try to meditate right away, but try to do exercises to help your breathing such as yoga, Pilates, or various other exercises that can help you concentrate on your breath. If you want, you can try meditating in just small increments starting from five minutes after finishing your workout. Sometimes after working out, your mind is at its most clear and it will be able to relax far easier.

While meditation can be a great way to help your anxiety, it’s not the only way. There are plenty of others which can work well for you.

AnxietyBoss.com can show you various ways that have worked well for other people that can also work for you. Getting rid of anxiety is not a one size fits all approach and it must be tailored to the individual; otherwise, everyone would follow the exact same formula and nobody would have anxiety anymore.