Calming Your Anxious Mind – Jeffrey Brantley (1)

(If you happen to already have a yoga practice, you can continue doing it mindfully in place of the walking meditation. Both yoga and walking meditation are body movement practices .) In weeks four and five, begin the practices of choiceless awareness and of loving-kindness. In general, you should do some sitting meditation and some body- focused meditation each day.

Sitting practices include the awareness of breathing, choiceless awareness, and loving-kindness. The body- focused practices include body scan and walking meditation (as well as yoga, which is outside the scope of this book). People often manage this by doing about twenty to thirty minutes of sitting practice plus another twenty to thirty minutes of body-focused practice each day. They often split these up into two different practice sessions. After about six weeks of practice, you will be ready to develop your own schedule for practice using the different methods.

This calls for experience with the different practices, and for recognizing your own resonance with a particular one. Some people choose to deepen the practice method they felt most at home with, while others spend at least some time working on a method they found more difficult. It is very important to stick with whatever practice you choose. A good program would be to do the same sitting practice daily (at least five to seven times a week) for at least two to four weeks.

The same commitment is good for the body-centered practice. Try to avoid “sampling” one, then the next, without really digging in and experiencing a single practice deeply. As you actually do the practices in this book, you will develop a feel for them and how they fit for you. Your goal is to experience growth in your capacity to be present with clarity and openness.

Each of the different practices offers something valuable to help you. If you like, you can use the meditation instructions in chapters 8 through 12 as scripts to make a tape or CD to practice with. Remember to read slowly and to pause a few breaths between each section of the instructions. Being a Gentle Reminder for Yourself Bringing mindfulness into your life is a kind of training of the mind and heart. Like any other training, it takes some work. Effort, energy, and discipline are required.

You can help yourself by taking a patient and gentle attitude. By being a gentle reminder to yourself, being a friend, essentially, to your own practice, you will find powerful support and assistance opening to you as you meditate daily . Encouraging yourself to practice formally, especially when you don’t feel like it, can make all the difference in establishing a regular practice habit. First, just recognize the resistance that is present.

“Dr. Brantley’s book is clear and warm. It takes the mystery out of meditation and explains how things that at first sight appear ‘ordinary’ are in fact very important. His extensive clinical experience and his empathy constantly shine through the book.” —Jonathan Davidson, MD, director of the Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Program at Duke University “I think the book is fantastic and believe it will fill an important niche in the treatment of anxiety disorders. The information on the physiology of anxiety and the stress response helps to demystify the symptoms for readers, making their problem seem more manageable.

Beautifully guided meditations anticipate and address the questions that anxious new meditators will have. The instruction to stay present with the anxiety is powerful and healing. I know I will be recommending it to my patients and colleagues.” —Holly B. Rogers, MD, staff psychiatrist with Duke University Counseling and Psychological Services “As a psychotherapist and teacher of stress reduction, I find this book helpful to clients and clinicians, as well as to meditators wishing to deepen their own practice.

Brantley gives practical and compassionate guidance to anyone seeking skillful ways to work with anxiety and panic.” —Allie Rudolph, LCSW, founder and codirector of the University of Virginia Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program 1kitap1.com/en 1kitap1.com/en Publisher’s Note This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services.

If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books Copyright © 2007 by Jeffrey Brantley New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 5674 Shattuck Avenue Oakland, CA 94609 www.newharbinger.com Cover design by Amy Shoup; Cover Image by Brand X Pictures/Jupiter Images; Text design by Michele Waters-Kermes; Acquired by Melissa Kirk; Edited by Gail Saari Poem from the book She Had Some Horses by Joy Harjo.

Copyright ©1983, 1997. Appears by permission of the publisher, Thunder Mouth Press, A Division of Avalon Publishing Group, Inc. William Stafford, “Being a Person” from Even in Quiet Places . Copyright ©1996 by William Stafford. Reprinting with the permission of Confluence Press. David Budbill, “Don’t Speak in the Abstract” from While We’ve Still Got Feet .

Copyright © 2005 by David Budbill. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271. All Rights Reserved. ePub ISBN: 978-1-60882-124-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brantley, Jeffrey. Calming your anxious mind : how mindfulness and compassion can free you from anxiety, fear, and panic / Jeffrey Brantley. — 2nd ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-57224-487-0 1. Anxiety. 2. Fear. 3. Attention. 4. Meditation. I. Title. BF575.A6B737 2007 152.4’6–dc22 2007008085 1kitap1.com/en This book is dedicated to all whose lives are driven or constricted by fear, anxiety, or panic.

May you find peace, and may that peace penetrate the entire world.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 8fbed93078a0d8bd
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,770,294 bytes (1.688 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9781608821242, 9781572244870
• Pages: 210
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 326.84 minutes
• Total Words: 65,368
• Total Characters: 390,235
• Average Words per Page: 311.28
• Average Characters per Page: 1858.26

Most Frequent Words

mindfulness (472), meditation (469), practice (465), fear (405), anxiety (399), attention (364), body (347), experience (308), present (281), life (251), awareness (217), mind (210), yourself (210), panic (209), moment (208), way (169), feel (159), breath (157), thoughts (148), let (118), time (113), kindness (108), even (107), people (105), like (105), book (102), notice (102), make (101), try (98), feelings (94), feeling (92), pain (91), also (90), help (90), things (88), one (88), practicing (85), learn (83), become (83), stress (82), now (80), work (80), sensations (80), different (79), compassion (78), focus (78), important (77), mindful (77), practices (77), new (76), actually (75), much (75), don’t (74), begin (72), change (71), inner (70), something (70), breathing (70), happening (70), allow (69), means (68), calm (67), many (65), often (65), find (64), experiences (64), sense (63), anything (60), worry (60), learning (60), heart (59), open (59), intense (59), part (58), take (58), come (58), daily (58), get (57), first (57), keep (57), doing (56), recognize (56), without (55), situation (55), habits (54), response (53), see (53), pay (53), think (52), health (52), system (51), silence (50), use (50), good (50), brain (50), stay (49), deeply (49), well (48), kind (48), whatever (48).

PDF Download