Letting Go of Fears and Worries
By Learning and Practicing Buddhist Meditation
How breathing meditations can prevent negative emotions from controlling our lives by helping us learn to live in the present moment
Suffering future pain
Stop for a moment and think about fear. Why are we afraid? Normally we’re afraid because something we don’t want to happen might happen. We’re afraid we might get sick, we might die; we might lose our job, or our partners, our house, our possessions. What all these fears have in common is that we are fearing something that might happen in the future.
Think of the most frightening thing that could happen. If someone came into the room right now and pointed a gun at our head, if we have time to think, we become scared. Why? Because he might pull the trigger – in the future – and we might suffer or die – in the future.
The benefits of living in the present
But when emergencies or bad things do arise, most people say they suddenly have clarity and act calmly and rationally. That is because at those moments the mind is only working in the present tense and there is no room for what awful thing might happen. There is only now. Why is it we seem not to be able to have that kind of clarity in our day to day lives?
When our mind is constantly focused on the future or the past, there is no way to rationally affect a change in our present condition.
Live in the present by practicing breathing meditation
To change this pattern of our mind, from always thinking about and fearing future or past actions, sit calmly for five minutes a day and practice breathing mediation. By doing this, we learn to focus strictly on the present, by focusing solely on the sensation of the breath as it enters and exits our body. And when a thought does arise, instead of allowing it to lead us out of the present moment, to the next task at hand, or next moment of worry about something yet to come, as we do now, gently bless the thought and let it go, without following it. Then, return our concentration to what is happening right now - the sensation of our breath as it enters and exits our body.
Learn how to live without fear by living in the present
The purpose of Buddhist breathing meditation is to allow us to find the beauty, joy and simplicity of living life right now in the present moment. By properly practicing breathing meditation we will quickly become aware as soon as our mind slips backwards into the past or begin to think about what might happen in the future. Once we are aware of this, we can gently bring our mind back into the present moment; by practicing in this way, we learn not to be led by fears of what might happen tomorrow or even awful things that happened in our past.
We can even eliminate basic nervousness, which is another form of fear or worry. If for example we have a job interview, or a presentation, by doing a breathing meditation prior to it, we stop projecting our fears into the future, which only serve to make us nervous. Instead, the meditation puts us back in the present and allows us to present our best, most confident side to our potential employer or our audience.
By training our minds in this way, we learn not to let our fears of the future or past have any power over us. Instead, we focus on the now. Eventually, we will find great calm and peace in living in the present moment. When we are completely present in the moment and work from that moment, we can use all the energy we used to expend in worry and fear to improve the quality of our life every moment of every day. For now is all we truly have.
References: The Zen Commandments - by Dean Sluyler
