this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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This resonates with me … sadly
I hate to be the guy to say this on an internet forum. But mindfulness really does help. There are thousands of resources out there and finding one that is the perfect fit can be tricky. Most of them are to ‘new wave’ for me, but some are great and can really help with this.
Thanks, appreciate the concern and advice. But I’m good.
In terms of such apps, I can highly recommend downdog if you’re on iOS. They cover yoga, mindfulness and other areas.
For Android I recommend Calm. Or if you don't want to spend money on an app like this then Insight Timer is the way to go.
However if you're actually aiming to waking up, then the app for you is just that, Waking Up. Not for the faint hearted. Do not start if you're not in it for honest, real awakening. It is very disturbing if you're not prepared. ❤️
Haha that sounds like an adventure :D
Don’t hate to be that guy. Because you’re being really helpful. Also, you’re right. Mindfulness is really helpful to figure out stuff like this. But same, I don’t know much about it either and I’ve tried it a couple of times and those 10 mins are not easy 😂
The really cool thing is - it doesn’t need to be easy, you don’t have to be ‘good’ at it in order to work. I highly recommend the ‘mindfulness for beginners’ course by Jeff Warren on the app Calm (30 times 10-12 minutes) If you prefer reading, he co-authored the book ‘meditation for fidgety skeptics’ which is also down to earth and humorous.  By the way, I’m in no way affiliated to him in any way, was just relieved to find someone with his style to ease me into it.
Can you elaborate how it helps? My limited understanding is that it helps curb the mental anxiety even if your body is simultaneously full of stress hormones.
Mindfulness is only actively choosing what you're paying attention to. Mindfulness meditation is the exercise of picking something to pay attention to, and then continually bringing your attention back to it whenever you find your mind had wandered. Practicing this 10 minutes per day strengthens your ability to recognize and choose where your attention goes.
Anxiety at a cognitive level is caused by your mind thinking about things in the past or the future that are not serving you well. Strengthening your mindfulness skills allows you to recognize when your mind has wandered into that territory and decide to let it go and give your attention to something else.
Unfortunately our modern society is designed in a way that encouraged shorter attention spans and less control over our attention
I’m no expert myself, but what it definitely can do is help you recognize the different symptoms that you can feel in your body that your brain recognizes as anxiety, that way you can kind of break the cycle of the body influencing the mind and vice versa. Then there is non-identification, which means that you kind of look at your anxious feelings, as if you are a spectator, not identifying with them. This way you realize you are not your feelings, but you have your feelings and can snap out of them way quicker and not get caught in a loop. It sounds kind of trivial when talking about it, but experiencing it can be quite profound.