Meditation ideas?

[cyberchondriaguy]

Meditation has done a lot to help my anxiety. I'm curious - what are meditation techniques/breathing exercises that work for people here?

[Panic sufferer]

I find body scan type meditations to be good, because they enable you to focus on a particular thing, which can help you to "switch off" listening to / monitoring palpitations / heart rate, etc. They have a focus on breathing too which I find relaxing.

[Clydesdale Epona]

I do many meditation techniques(and i tend to do at least two different ones twice a day which is my goal) when i wake up in the morning i like to do basic yoga with stomach breathing, one i like to do a lot is where you sit down and for 5 minutes just visualize yourself wherever you want to be, i.e on a beach, and then slowly add details in, i do that twice a day and tend to do it for about 10 minutes the second time,
another one i like to do is where you stop thinking about anything and just notice things(like grounding but longer) whether you're walking or just sitting down notice the sights, what you're smelling, tastes, sounds, it helps your brain to just work like normal, no anxieties just notice things, have a child moment, notice how awesome that train looks! haha
i have a book of meditation techniques, i haven't read it for a while so i can send you some more after i dig through later if you'd like x

[cyberchondriaguy]

Thanks for the ideas! I've found body scan meditation techniques to be helpful as well. I haven't tried yoga but perhaps it's worth a try.

I might as well share a breathing exercise I do myself: I breathe in for 1 second, hold it for 1 second, and then breathe out for a count of 1 second. Then, I increase these counts to 2 seconds. I keep increasing until I hit a point in which it's uncomfortable, and then decrease the count by one. For me, that's usually about a 12 second inhale, 12 second hold, and 12 second exhale. I continue at this count for about 10 minutes, ensuring that my stomach is expanding with each deep breath.