What To Do With Worry

06/24/21 • 36 min

Our Mindful Nature: Meditations Inspired by Nature to Soothe the Overwhelmed Mind and Ease Anxiety

Worry is such an interesting paradox isn’t it? It feels truly terrible when we are in the throes of it. Our bodies, our hearts, and minds can feel overwhelmed or suffocated by worry. And yet, worry only happens because we care deeply about someone or something; it feels like something that we must accept as an unavoidable experience in life.

Our meditation practice can offer an alternative to this seemingly unavoidable paradox. Certainly with deep, sustained practice we might arrive in a place where we are able to be equanimous in all moments and unphased by the seemingly stressful or worrisome moments in life, but what about right now? What about those of us that are meditating but still get swept up in worry or fear?

Let’s start with rule number one: stop saying “Don’t Worry.”

Seriously. Does that phrase even mean anything? Does it do anything for the person worrying? If you could just stop, wouldn’t you have already done so?

Trying to ignore worry only makes it worse. When we ignore what we are feeling, it is simply lurking underneath all our thoughts and actions, very likely flaring up in displays of anxiety or anger instead.

That underlying worry, and overt anxiety/anger, can lead to unhealthy numbing behaviors like TV binging or addictive shopping, eating, drinking, drug use, etc.

So, let’s just let go of the “don’t worry” adage, and instead, what if we brave up, admit what we are actually feeling, and face it head on?

Worry has its roots in fear, and that overwhelming, suffocating feeling often comes from trying to ignore what it is we fear most in a particular situation... So our first step in moments of worry is to create and nurture a sense of safety for ourselves.

Join me for today’s talk and guided meditation designed to nurture a sense of safety within moments of worry.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation to support the growth of this labor of love. Your monthly donation will aid in keeping this show sponsor-free, employing additional small businesses AND funding the ongoing creative growth I invest in.

Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute

You can learn more about my:

*Shoreline: my new meditation app

*Live, virtual meditation classes with me

*Upcoming events

All by visiting merylarnett.com.

You can also grab my FREE Meditation Starter Kit on my website merylarnett.com. It is full of my favorite tips, stories and ideas for starting and maintaining a daily meditation practice. Grab your copy today! --> http://bit.ly/meditationstarterkit ***

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/

#meditatewithmeryl

Let’s start with rule number one: stop saying “Don’t Worry.”

Seriously. Does that phrase even mean anything? Does it do anything for the person worrying? If you could just stop, wouldn’t you have already done so?

That underlying worry, and overt anxiety/anger, can lead to unhealthy numbing behaviors like TV binging or addictive shopping, eating, drinking, drug use, etc.

So, let’s just let go of the “don’t worry” adage, and instead, what if we brave up, admit what we are actually feeling, and face it head on?

Join me for today’s talk and guided meditation designed to nurture a sense of safety within moments of worry.

Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute

You can learn more about my:

*Shoreline: my new meditation app

*Live, virtual meditation classes with me

*Upcoming events

All by visiting merylarnett.com.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/

#meditatewithmeryl

Previous Episode

Summer Solstice Replay

**This episode is a replay of the 2020 Summer Solstice. Enjoy!**

{From 2020} June 20th was the Summer Solstice, and it is the first solstice in many years that I didn’t teach a special meditation event. I usually host something extra special to harness the power of these reflective times, and yet, this year, even though I had already mapped up what I wanted to share and reflect on, I just kept delaying until the day was upon us and it was too late...

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year; the most light we see in a 24 hour period.

When we meditate, we are in essence harnessing the light of awareness and shining it inside. This light allows us to look deeper inside, to see more, to clear out the cobwebs.

Turning on the lights is brave. It is powerful. It is enlivening.

And yet, if we haven’t done the work to shore up the foundation, to clear the path leading deeper in, turning on the light can serve as a shock.

If you’ve been in the dark a long time and you step out into the brightness of daylight, it can be blinding, can’t it?

We shield our eyes; perhaps we run back inside for sunglasses, something to protect ourselves from the glare....

If we haven’t done the work to be with little discomforts, how might it feel to face bigger discomforts? It can send us running for the hills, abandoning our meditation practice with the seemingly innocent excuse of “I just don’t feel like it” right now. I’ve caught this at play in myself lately {hence the lack of a Solstice event this year}.

My invitation today is to let go of the need to “think” through this natural play of events. Instead of analyzing, how can you choose to move with each moment as a moment of transformation?

How to do this? Well, step one is ‘don’t skip your meditation practice even when you want to...’ Step two is ‘anchor more deeply into your heart.’

The practices of meditation, while they start out working with the mind and the thoughts, are always gently guiding us into the heart.

Not in a sappy way; not in a hippy-dippy way. In a clean, clear trajectory towards deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. Every meditation text, every meditation guru from millenia before, guides us here.

It is from here that we can gain steady traction, firm footing, and gather courage to bring what is needed from the darkness into the light.

We start to trust the images, the thoughts, the threads of connection that are revealed to us.

We start to be more curious about the responses we have to the daily moments in our lives.

We start to explore the freedom of choice.

Today’s meditation is a practice of shining the light. Let’s get to it.

Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute

You can learn more about my:

*Shoreline: my new meditation app

*Live, virtual meditation classes with me

*Upcoming events

All by visiting merylarnett.com.

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/

#meditatewithmeryl

Next Episode

Mini Meditation: When Worry Happens

When we worry, it is only because we care deeply about someone or something, and there is something that feels threatening or unsafe to the person or thing we care so much about.

Worry has its roots in fear, and that overwhelming, suffocating feeling often comes from trying to ignore what it is we fear most in this situation... So our first step in moments of worry, is to create and nurture a sense of safety for ourselves.

I know some of you are thinking, “but that sounds a little selfish to put myself first when someone else might be struggling or suffering...” I know we’ve been taught this is the case. We should be helping! Doing something! Staring at the phone anxiously awaiting an update!

If/and/but, I am doing all that while spiraling out of control on the inside, I can’t actually be there to help when or if it is needed. I can’t show up as my best if I’m an emotional basket case. So, let’s take a few minutes to settle down and create a sense of safety for ourselves so that we can show up how we need to for the moments ahead.

These mini meditations are meant to support a daily home practice. Tune in every Monday to find your practice for the week! Full episodes are released every Thursday for a longer, deeper practice.

You can learn more about my:

*Shoreline: my new meditation app

*Live, virtual meditation classes with me

*Upcoming events

All by visiting merylarnett.com.

Donate here: https://www.merylarnett.com/support-the-mindful-minute

Connect with me on Instagram {@merylarnett} to get bonus meditation tips, mini-meditations, and the occasional baby spam: https://www.instagram.com/merylarnett/

#meditatewithmeryl