Mantra meditation - have you tried it? Does it reduce anxiety?

Hi

Have any of you tried mantra meditation?

I've done mindfulness meditation for the past month and a half, but had to stop as it made me sleep less than 5 hours per night (!). In the end I was so sleep deprived that I had trouble clenching my right hand .

I started meditating, as I suffer from social anxiety, and had read that mindfulness meditation would work wonders in that department. And it did. Within two weeks it had probably reduced my anxiety with 80%!

I may be one of those few people who are very receptive to meditation, as I didn't have any trouble sitting for 10-20 minutes without any thoughts appearing, and would often feel a great surge of energy and happiness after a completed meditation :2thumbsup:.

But still I found it hard to sleep.

I've thought about giving mantra meditation a go. I've read that mindfulness and mantra meditation (or transcendental meditation) respectively activate different parts of the brain. Therefore it might not impair my sleep. It's worth a try.

But how effective is it against social anxiety/nervousness? Have any of you tried it, and what were the effects?

Have a great weekend :cheers2:

 

Yes, simple reason being, extending the exhalation relieves anxiety.

 

Yes I tried mantra meditation. It is superb to control anxiety and nervousness. After mantra meditation I felt a great inner peace. It is also useful to increase patience and concentration power. Meditation is aimed at producing a state of deep calm which allows you to clear your mind of stressful thoughts and emotions. It can also help improve certain medical conditions. Meditation is a simple way to balance a person's physical, mental and emotional states.

 

How long are you meditating for? When are you meditating during the day? Are you sure you arent falling asleep during your meditation? Also, do you FEEL exhausted? I have been sleeping less as well when I have a great meditation session, but I still feel rested. It just seems as though I am more relaxed and my sleep is more restful.

 

I have social anxiety as well. I have been meditating recently but I haven't noticed the effects (or i don't think I could differentiate the effects between the meditation/yoga and the self-therapy I'm doing at the moment).

The only advice I can give is that maybe because your body is so used to expelling all its energy through anxiety, and now that you have cut that out considerably, it doesn't feel the need to sleep as long?

I would suggest getting some exercise. Maybe go get all sweaty doing whatever, then shower and meditate. Could be like a daily ritual.

If you're open to herbs then maybe valerian root, kava kava powder drink, or chamommile tea?

 

oh, hey op, looks like you haven't been on the forums for a while so I don't know if you will see this

so it sounds like the meditation was going great, except for the sleep issues

the best thing would probably be to talk to a meditation instructor

it sounds like you have an amazing talent for meditation so I hope there is a way that you could make it work out. sounds like you could go far

you might want to check out acupuncture. also a book called "curing insomnia with chinese medicine" available here www.bluepoppy.com

changing the time that you meditate (maybe just early morning) could influence the results

hope that this all works out!

 

Hi Dane0001
I do not know about reason of your sleeping only 5 hours a day but always a good start is to wake up early. Try to really wake up about 5 or 6 am regularly every day and start to do something, it could be meditation. By the way I did mantra meditation before I started mindfulness meditation. My experience I prefer mindfulness.
Take care
Ivana

 

I was profoundly influenced by mantra meditation - by Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi. I followed it as taught without adding any other teaching for 20 years. I always felt really fortunate to have found it. I believe that TM has a more ecstatic energy than simple shamatha. In TM we used to meditate in large groups, and I was part of the group of 8,000 that they had for a couple weeks back in the 80s. To describe the power of that meditation in that setting is impossible. The flow of inner silence was like perfection. Many meditators experience silence and quiscent states of mind, but few seem to have experienced silence flowing with imperturbable power. That energy is sometimes called shakti. Though TM I experienced much shakti and still do. It never leaves me. I recommend that technique though I don't really recommend all the Vedic stuff that is pushed along with it.

I mean, I don't dislike the Vedas by any means, but ultimately you'll find that it still subscribes to caste and creed beyond simple common sense and decency. And at that point ones creed becomes allied to politics and then ones ethics. Ultimately all that means life and death.

A meditation should be a simple thing and attainable. I do not recommend Maharishi's Sidhi's techniques. But mantra meditation has great value, especially today when there are so many distractions.

In fact, between TM, and the TM advanced techniques (of which I have seven), and chanting of various types - (I am now Tibetan Buddhist and not Hindu) that is a really great and transformational path which brings everything one needs.