Calming the Rush of Panic (12 page)

Let’s take a look at the five objects of sitting meditation.

Mindfulness of Breathing

Sitting meditation begins with mindful breathing. In this particular meditation you continue to be mindful of the breath, as introduced in chapter 1, but then we bring in a new emphasis by asking you to be mindful of the changing nature of the breath as it ebbs and flows. The breath comes in and the breath goes out—just like the tides. As you begin to understand how everything changes in life, you can begin to learn to go with the flow of life rather than fighting it.

Take a pause right now and bring awareness to your breath and experience its changing nature.

Mindfulness of Sensations

From the mindful breathing practice you gently shift your focus to mindfulness of physical sensations, bringing awareness now into the body and becoming mindful of whatever distinct or predominant sensations you’re feeling in each unfolding moment. Just as you were mindful of the breath coming in and going out, you now bring awareness to sensations and experience that they are also changing. There are itches, aches, pains, tingles, warmth, coolness, dryness, wetness, and so many different sensations appearing and disappearing. These sensations are arising and passing away of their own accord. They’re not under any kind of ownership or direction—they’re just impermanent sensations, revealing the nature of change.

Take a pause right now and bring awareness to sensations in your body and feel how they’re constantly changing.

Mindfulness of Sounds

Next, you’ll extend your mindful awareness to sounds (also known as hearing meditation). As you bring nonjudgmental awareness to sounds, to the world of audibility, you will also come in direct contact again with the nature of change. There’s no need to like or dislike the sounds you hear; just listen to them arising and then fading away. They appear of their own accord and leave of their own accord. Like sensations, they are without an owner—they’re just sound waves rising and passing away.

Mindfulness of sounds can be very useful and practical for those of us who live in a noisy world. Consider the sounds you hear to be just sound waves teaching you to go with the flow of life. As your understanding of change begins to deepen, you may begin to realize that panic is just another happening that has its own time: it comes and goes. Nothing stays the same.

Take a pause right now and bring awareness to sounds and listen to all the different sounds ever changing.

Mindfulness of Mind States

After meditating on sounds, you’ll shift to mind states that pertain to thoughts and emotions as the object of your meditation. Mindfulness cultivates your ability to bring awareness to thoughts and emotions as they arise, develop, and recede. Thoughts and emotions are just mental events that come and go like clouds in the sky. Rather than getting involved with the contents of your thoughts and emotions, just let them be. In time, you will come to recognize that these mind states are just as ephemeral as the sounds you were listening to, the sensations you were feeling, and the breath you were breathing. You will begin to experience that all these states of mind come and go of their own accord. As you practice non-identification with your mind states, you’ll begin to see that your mind has a mind of its own and is also without an owner. So many thoughts, emotions, fantasies, moments of panic, planning, memories, dreams, and countless mind states are perennially arising and passing away.

When you learn and practice non-identification with panic, you’ll feel more at ease in your life. It is said that the mind is the creator of its own heavens and its own hells. The mind is home to our thought processes, and with its perceptions we create our world. When panic occupies and consumes our thoughts, it can take over and hold us hostage. Panicky thoughts race and swirl about, and the common result is feeling overwhelmed by a sense of impending doom. These thoughts may send us to the emergency room believing that we’re having a heart attack. These thoughts can paralyze us so much that we are unable to get out of the house. These thoughts can make us break out in a cold sweat and begin to hyperventilate just before we give a speech.

As a way to work with panic, perhaps this metaphor will be helpful: As you learn to sit back and just experience the coming and going of your mind states, you can be like the sky giving space to a storm. It is the virtue of the sky, which is made of air, to give as much space as a storm needs—and in the end, as a result of having that space, the storm eventually dissipates. In the same vein, as you give space to the storms of panic, acknowledging what’s present in the body and mind and letting it be, it too will gradually dissipate, recede, or fade away.

Stormy mind states are here for a while and then they leave. Where they came from and where they go is often difficult to comprehend, but what’s most important is to know that they are here and that they are governed by the laws of change

When you practice mindfulness, you will begin to understand yourself more deeply. You will learn to recognize dysfunctional patterns within you that don’t serve your health and well-being. These insights will help release you from old embedded habits—what we call your conditioning—to help free you from the snares of panic.

As you become aware of the stories you spin and the traps you create, you can begin to disengage from them. You’ll come to understand that panic is just another impersonal state of mind that comes and goes; that these thoughts are not facts, nor are they a complete definition of who you are. Freeing yourself from your own self-limiting constructions of yourself will bring deeper levels of freedom and peace. Once you become aware of the stories you spin and the traps you find yourself in, you can then begin to disengage from them. You may realize that your story, your running narrative, doesn’t serve your health and well-being.

Take a pause right now and bring awareness to mind states and experience how they’re ceaselessly changing—just states of mind.

Choiceless Awareness

The last object we introduce in sitting meditation is called choiceless or present-moment awareness. In this phase of sitting meditation, you become aware of whatever’s arising in the present moment. Rather than focusing solely on one object, as with the breath, sensation, sounds, or mind states, you now open up your awareness to whatever’s prominent and distinct in the unfolding of each present moment in your body or mind.

Just as you might sit by the side of a stream and watch whatever goes downstream, in choiceless awareness you sit in the present moment and experience whatever’s there, whatever’s prominent and distinct. Choiceless awareness is the most fluid of mindful practices that’s reflective of moment-to-moment changing experience. You begin to see clearly into the body and mind as a dynamic organism in a state of constant change. Although outwardly you may be sitting motionless—visibly unchanging—inwardly it’s another story. There are sounds to be heard, sensations to be felt, thoughts and emotions to be experienced, and the breath coming in and going out. Sitting meditation teaches you how to ride the waves of panic knowing that it won’t last forever. Panic is just a passing mind state.

Take a pause right now and bring awareness to the present moment, to whatever’s prominent in your body or mind, and experience its changing nature.

Foundational Practice: Sitting Meditation

Take a seat on a cushion or chair and find a position in which you can be alert and comfortable. If you prefer to lie down on the bed or carpet, you are welcome to do so.

Similar to other meditations, choose a quiet environment where you will not be interrupted. Turn off your phone or any other electronic device that could disturb you. Read and practice the script for this guided meditation below, pausing after each paragraph for a short time, or feel free to download a recording from New Harbinger Publications at
www.newharbinger.com/25264
. You can download a fifteen-, thirty-, or forty-five-minute version.

Begin by congratulating yourself that you are dedicating some time to meditation.

As you become present, become aware of the body and mind and whatever’s being felt within your body and mind—checking in with how you are feeling from the day’s happenings or whatever has been going on within you recently.

Simply allow and acknowledge whatever is present and let it be, without any form of problem solving or evaluation.

Gently, shift the focus to mindful breathing. As you breathe in, be aware of breathing in, and as you breathe out, be aware of breathing out, breathing normally and naturally. Being aware of breathing and focusing on either the tip of the nose or the abdomen. If focusing on the tip of the nose, feel the touch of the air as you breathe in and out. If focusing on the belly, feel the belly expanding with each inhalation and contracting with each exhalation.

Just living your life one inhalation and one exhalation at a time. Breathing in, breathing out, experiencing each breath appear and disappear. Just breathing. Just like the waves of the sea ebb and flow, so too the breath comes and goes out, revealing the nature of change.

Now gently withdraw from the breath and bring your awareness into the world of sensations in the body. Experiencing, feeling, and acknowledging the varying sensations as they change from moment to moment and letting them be.

As you sense into the body, you may find areas of tension and tightness. If you can allow them to soften and relax, that is fine. If not, just let them be.

Riding the waves of sensation with your awareness, allowing them to flow wherever they need to go. In time you will also directly experience how sensations rise and pass away, just as the breath comes in and goes out, disclosing the changing nature of things.

Now release awareness of sensations and bring your attention to sounds, to hearing meditation, listening to all the sounds appearing and disappearing in your environment. Being aware of the multitude of varying sounds either in the room or outside. You can also bring awareness to sounds in your body such as your pulse, your heartbeat, or a ringing in the ears, from one moment into the next.

Whether the sounds are external or internal, notice how they are ever changing, just like the sensations and the breath. Sounds rise; sounds pass away. Listening to them coming and gradually going…they are just sounds.

Now gently shift your attention from awareness of sounds to mind states—thoughts and emotions—and experience the mind without any aversion or indulgence. Just acknowledging the multitude of varying mental formations from moment to moment.

Like lying on a field and watching the clouds float by…experiencing the mind in the same way…mind states coming and mind states going, disclosing this nature of change.

You may become aware that the mind has a mind of its own. It analyzes, scrutinizes, plans, remembers, compares, and contrasts; it dreams and fantasizes; it likes and dislikes. The mind is busy thinking about this and that, thoughts rising and falling. Experiencing them appear and disappear…just thoughts without ownership…they just come and go.

Cultivating awareness to be like a meteorologist, experiencing the internal weather systems of the mind without judgment, simply being with the way things are…thoughts rise, thoughts fall…experiencing them appear and disappear…they are just impersonal thought formations.

As you learn to give space to whatever is arising with greater equanimity and balance, you can begin to go with the flow. Instead of putting your energy into resisting what is there, just go with it…they are just mind states rising and passing, ever changing.

Even if you are experiencing storms of panic, just give the storm space and it will gradually diminish.

Very gently now, withdraw awareness from your mind states and bring your attention to the present moment itself as the primary object of attention; this is called choiceless or present-moment awareness.

Choiceless awareness is the practice of being mindful of whatever arises in the present moment, in the body and in the mind, whether that is the breath, sounds, sensations, or mind states. Just sit back and experience the show of the ever-shifting tides of the body and mind. Although very still on the outside, on the inside may be another story. Your body and mind form a dynamic organism interacting with constantly changing stimuli from the senses and the mind.

Be mindful and experience whatever is predominant or distinct in the body and mind, and be present to it. If nothing is particularly compelling and you are unsure of where to focus your attention, you can always go back to the breath to fasten onto the here and now.

This is similar to sitting in or by a stream and just experiencing whatever goes downstream. Sometimes there are breaths, sounds, or sensations; sometimes there are thoughts and emotions. Sit and experience directly the changing nature of the body and mind.

Even if you are experiencing storms of panic, worry, angst, or painful memories, allow them to be there. Let them pass through your awareness. You will see and experience that they will gradually diminish.