meditation and anxiety

Hi!
I recently started meditating to be better at handling my anxiety.
I tend to be supersticious under my anxiety periods and I saw a vision of what I thougth was me driving a car with a soda can in my hand.
Could have been exactly anything, but since I read that maditation boosts ones
intuitive capability I right away started thinking that It had some kind of meaning, like something is going to happen while im driving my car drinking cola or something.

Im only 1 month into my meditation and its probably just my dark imagination.
Looked more like the kind of CEV one gets after closing my eyes and leaves a print from what I saw.

Does the visions always say something or am I just really supersticious?

SO, it has left me a little scared driving my car.
Please talk me out of this mess in my head!:)

[Kaere]

Let's look at the symbols.

Driving in a car can often represent one's journey (life's road, get it?).

Soda is sweet, liquid candy... do you enjoy drinking soda or is it something you should be avoiding?

or...

Is it possible you recently saw an ad for soda that was similar. Our brains often regurgitate things we've seen during our day.

Okay, is it normal to make wrong connections with once mind and become scared and even a bit superstisous when starting to medaitate?

What style of meditation are you doing? If it is vipassana then practice observing it and go back to the breath. I think you need to do some reading or find a teacher to get on the right path. More than likely it is the kilead trying to disrupt your practice.

[Belle]

Personally, I don't meditate when I am anxious, I move towards guided visualisations, or a walk. I'm very imaginative, and so my mind can go into overdrive, even orbital and fact and fiction become intwined.

For me to address anxiety, I write. I write down my fears and look at them and tell them it's ok. For me, the anxieties are based in the inner child and it is integrating them and accepting them, that seems to manage and depower them.

But when I tried to meditate my way through them, they became more powerful.

I would say it's good to be a little scared of driving a car, a little caution is ok and would that more people were mindful of the road and the realities that cars are potentially very dangerous if not handled correctly. Accept yourself in this situation and thank the universe for advising caution and ask for protection and safety. Work with the energy that you have been shown, not against it.

Okay, im not sure what kind of meditation im doing. Im sitting and just clearing my mind mostly focusing on breating.

I think my anxiety is trying to scare me, giving me something to feel worried about.
I have been having problems with paranoia and anxiety for many years and have a diagnose for ADHD.
Scares me a bit this thing going on in my head, with the car vision and so.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by jayman87

Okay, im not sure what kind of meditation im doing. Im sitting and just clearing my mind mostly focusing on breating.

I think my anxiety is trying to scare me, giving me something to feel worried about.
I have been having problems with paranoia and anxiety for many years and have a diagnose for ADHD.
Scares me a bit this thing going on in my head, with the car vision and so.

It's just a dream vision, so no worries. Keep focus on breathing and don't be distracted by it.

This is something those who are taught well in meditation come to realize quite quickly; Each thought that comes from your mind doesn't necessarily come from an innate youness, or a higher power of any kind. Often, thoughts are the result of a seed of thought being placed in our mind and having the space and nutrients to grow into a manifesting visualization or thought.

It is very easy to put doubt into the relationship of others, even those who seem most secure. This is because all you need for a thought to arise is analogous to a flower.

You need the seed, the nutrients and the sun.
In this analogy, the sun is our mind's activity. The nutrients are our beliefs and attitudes. The seed is a small idea.

Visions are always budding and wilting. When a good practicing meditator encounters a thought in his/her mind, the reaction is one similar to how we would encounter a flower in nature. You look, but don't feel involved - you're neither involved in it's process nor necessary. It may be ugly, or beautiful. He/she will feel a comfortable level of detachment toward it, and admire it for it's presence as an act of the greater nature which pervades all things in this universe.

To meditate is to be a gardener of the mind, it is an art form. To root up the negative influences, protect the flowers from parasitic attitudes and keep it habitable and clean for your universe to dwell and grow within.

So. My advice is not to look into the details of a vision, you could find meaning in anything if you looked hard enough. Instead, if your plan is to help your mind - learn to observe the garden and it's manifestations without judgement. This alone will cause fertilization of the good seeds, and uprooting of the negative ones.

Meditation is priceless to those of us who's minds have overgrown with the decays of a mind left desolate by our lack of internal observation. It should be done with as least prejudice as possible. I also have suffered from anxiety, depression as well as intrusive thoughts and frequent paranoia (assuming things are being done out of malice or as an attempt to 'defeat' me). Saying that, it is only part of what's needed if you genuinely wish to have a healthy and truly free mind. You also need to make sure you have the things that humans need, at least at first.

Sangha, any community of people who are honest, and genuinely wish to help you get better (in all ways).

Exercise, it unlocks a full experience of full body joy which you can then augment with meditation.

to give Compassion and Love. Without giving and living these, happiness will only ever be an imitation of happiness. These things ARE happiness.

Thanks for being so helpful all! really thanks! I tend to play with my thoughts to much. This seems to be a great place for me to share thoughts.

I am seaching the internet for a book or cd in guided meditation. I have a feeling that meditation can be really helpful to me.


PS. I am from sweden so my english isnt always on top:)

Mindfulness in plain english by Venerable H. Gunaratana Mahathera is a very good book. Keep in mind it is your mind that comes up with this chatter, the last thing the kilead wants is for you to be i control. so the images and thoughts keep popping up and if one captivates you it will keep occuring. It is the easiest way for the kilead to thwart your intent to control your mind.