I’m often asked whether people should use meditation when they have severe anxiety, a real anxiety attack. My answer to that is, at first, no.
During the first three weeks of adjustment, you should never use meditation at any time other than your regular twice a day schedule times. Once you’re accustomed to meditating, however, and meditation becomes second nature with you, then you can use what I call Mini Meditations for on-the-spot coping.
About Mini Meditations
Mini meditations are very short meditations. You do them for only a minute or two, occasionally three, and a mini meditation can be done with your eyes partially open, if you wish, thinking the Mantra at the same time.
Actually when you’re under stress, say if you’re waiting for a dental appointment, or you’re about to take an examination, you aren’t usually in a position to shut your eyes anyway, and you may want to see what’s going on around you while you’re doing your mini meditation.
Now, mini meditations can be used, either when you’re expecting something actually stressful to happen, or when a routine high-pressure situation is coming up. Executives, for example may find it useful to do a mini meditation before an important meeting. And, people who have jobs such as police work, or other occupations that keep them tensed up for long periods of time, find it particularly useful to sprinkle mini meditations throughout their day. Meditations under highly stressful circumstances are usually mini-meditations. The nature of a threatening situation demands that we keep our attention focused on the external world, which means that deep and prolonged meditation is out of the question. This is also why many people will keep their eyes either fully or partially open during a mini-meditation. When we feel ourselves facing a threat of any kind, we instinctively glance around us and keep a sharp watch over our environment. Closing our eyes when we feel threatened may make us more anxious because it gives us a feeling of being unprotected and vulnerable.
Mini meditations can also be used in the midst of an actual emergency. It’s surprising how quickly a meditator will calm down just by repeating the mantra for a minute or so. If you are an experienced meditator, it usually takes down the tension very quickly.
How to Do a Mini Meditation Audio (Using CSM)
Learn more about Clinically Standardized Meditation
Mini Meditations for Hypertension
I particularly recommend mini meditations, by the way, to people who are using meditation, along with their medical treatment for hypertension; high blood pressure. I find that in people with high blood pressure, just sticking to twice a day meditations, while these are very useful, is not enough to stem the tide.
During a stressful day, these people will begin to tense up repeatedly and their blood pressure may start to soar. Usually, they can learn to recognize when their blood pressure is beginning to rise and when the events of the day are really getting to them. It’s at that point, they’ll go into another room, sit down, and do a mini meditation; about three minutes of meditation. It will take the edge off the irritation so that the rise in blood pressure is often checked, or perhaps reversed.
This is very useful to keep in mind if you or anyone you know wants to use meditation as an adjunct to medical treatment for high blood pressure. Many meditators to whom I have taught CSM have reported that they effectively use very brief meditations at strategic points during the day.
As an example of one time I used a mini-meditation to overcome stress, I recall being caught in a traffic jam in the Lincoln Tunnel outside New York City. I found myself becoming extremely tense because the tunnel was filled with highly irritating fumes and drivers were honking. As the moments ticked by, I became increasingly uneasy about whether the traffic jam would clear up or whether we were in for hours of waiting. To counteract my rising anxiety about this, I decided to do a mini-meditation. I did this by repeating my mantra and while thinking it I kept my eyes open, watching the other cars ahead of me. This seemed more reassuring than closing my eyes in the face of what I felt to be a situation where there might be danger. Within less than a minute this mini-meditation brought me a sense of calm and reassurance. I was now able to look at the whole problem with good-natured optimism, and to wait easily for the next fifteen minutes until the traffic began to move again.
Those of us who teach CSM find that additional meditations may be necessary when a person is under a special emotional stress such as the illness of a loved one, a financial crisis, or other conditions where a continued strain most be faced. Unlike the occasional use of mini meditations to cope with a specific situation, this involves the scheduling of extra regular meditations over a period of time. Obviously this is a more serious matter than an occasional mini-meditation and should be handled with careful attention to its effects. Properly used, however, it can be extremely effective.
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