Some Good Yoga and Meditation Techniques for OCD, Anxiety and General Peace of Mind

Kundalini yoga works great for OCD and for just anxiety in general. I believe it works for other anxiety disorders, but I’m not sure it’s been documented well. The following Kundalini yoga technique has been documented well for OCD. I doubt if it’s all that useful if you don’t have the illness. Kundalini Yoga Therapy for OCD 1. Sit up very straight and tall. 2. Try to clear your mind. 3. Hold right nostril shut with a finger. 4. Breathe in slowly through left nostril for 15 seconds. All the way in, as deep as you can go. Fill your lungs completely to where they feel as if they will pop. 5. Hold breath for 15 seconds. No inhalation! 6. Release breath slowly for 30 seconds, continuing to hold right nostril shut. No inhalation! Release breath completely to where your lungs are utterly empty and you are almost starving for breath. or: 7. Release breath slowly for 15 seconds, continuing to hold right nostril shut. 8. Then hold breath after exhalation for 15 seconds, continuing to hold right nostril shut. This one is difficult because you’re basically out of breath for 15 seconds. Repeat. Good idea to do it for up to 30 minutes a day if you can. I wish there was something to add to it, but I can’t think of any. Notice that each breath takes a full one minute and that you are breathing in and out through only one nostril. Our average breath lasts only maybe 5 seconds or so. So you are breathing 20 times slower than you normally do. Kundalini Yoga Therapy for Anxiety 1. Sit up very straight and tall. 2. Try to clear your mind. 3. Hold right nostril shut with a finger. 4. Breathe in slowly through left nostril for 15 seconds. All the way in, as deep as you can go. Fill your lungs completely to where they feel as if they will pop. 5. Hold breath for 15 seconds. No inhalation! Continue to hold right nostril shut. 6. Switch finger to left nostril and now hold left nostril shut. Release breath slowly from the right nostril for 30 seconds, continuing to hold left nostril shut. No inhalation! Release breath completely to where your lungs are utterly empty and you are almost starving for breath. or: 7. Release breath slowly for 15 seconds, continuing to hold left nostril shut. 8. Then hold breath after exhalation for 15 seconds, continuing to hold left nostril shut. This one is difficult because you’re basically out of breath for 15 seconds. This is one is basically 30 seconds in with the left nostril, then 30 seconds out with the right nostril. This should work well for anyone who wants to calm down or mellow out. You don’t need to have a diagnosed anxiety disorder. There are some other parts of this therapy dealing with some weird concept called “chakras,” which I don’t understand, but I don’t think you need to deal with your “chakras” for this therapy to work. You can also do meditation. I prefer what I call Zen meditation. I have no idea if I am doing this correctly or not, but this is how I do it. You can do this any time, but I often do it at night before I go to sleep while lying in bed. It’s often said that you have to sit up straight to do this, but I don’t think that is necessary. Simply try to clear your mind of all things except for one thing. I use, “Om,” but you can use any mantra you like. “Om” is a mantra. You just try to fill your mind with “Om,” the thought of Om spreading out across your mind and consciousness and blottiong out all other things. You will find that other thoughts are constantly trying to invade your mind. There is probably no good reason to think about any of these thoughts at this time. So just try to dismiss them or push them towards the outside of your mind so they are smaller. Imagine that your thoughts are like a gigantic sunrise or sunset spreading across your entire mind from top to bottom and left to right. All of this should simply be “Om,” possibly lit up in some bright color or scenery. The other thoughts, as they come in, just push them to the periphery of this brilliant OM sunrise, to where they are smaller and less prominent. Just keep on moving away from them. Your mind will resist this on various levels. My mind is furious and insists that it has many important things to think about! Why waste time thinking about “Om” when I could be thinking of this or that (what or what?) and solving this or that problem (what or what problem?) or learning this or that? I figure that’s all nonsense. Most of my thinking seems to be a complete waste of time. I would call it mental masturbation, except that jerking off is a lot of fun. Most of my thinking is just stupid and pointless. It may as well not even be there. You learn nothing by thinking. You only gain knowledge via observation and input. With no input, there is no learning. By thinking, you can work with stuff you already know to try to make more sense of it, but you learn nothing at all. Sure, you can go over memories by thinking, but those memories will be there whether you think about them or not. Summary is that most thinking, at least the kind I do, is not only a waste of time. It’s actually harmful. Meditation is just about shutting off your mind your mind for a bit. I have found it very helpful for OCD. It also works great for concentration. When I meditate while listening to talk radio broadcasts, I follow the broadcast a lot better because my mind wanders less. Anyone could benefit from this. You don’t need to have an anxiety disorder diagnosis.

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20 thoughts on “Some Good Yoga and Meditation Techniques for OCD, Anxiety and General Peace of Mind”

    1. I only listen to leftwing radio. They are just talking about leftwing this or that, or interviewing someone, but I understand a lot of more of the dialogue when I meditate while listening. Otherwise, my mind wanders off and I don’t listen to the show all that much.

      1. OK I was picturing a meditating Robert Lindsay listening to Rush Limbaugh or something, allowing the voice of Rush Limbaugh to guide one into a state of inner bliss

      2. I’ve tried to meditate, and it does nothing for me most of the time. Maybe I’ll try listening to talk radio or podcasts while meditating. I’m sure that would be an abomination to most meditation enthusiasts and teachers I’ve encountered, but it might work for me.

  1. Zen meditation is based around mindfulness. Basically the goal is the opposite of the mantra-based meditation you described: a relaxed attentiveness to everything. This means you notice all of your thoughts, sensations, and emotions but without attaching any meaning to them. The idea is that eventually this state will extend to the other parts of your life, so that you’re aware enough to choose how you respond to events.
    I prefer mindfulness as an approach, myself, but I took a yoga class once where we learned the techniques you described and they’re powerful ones.
    Chakras are “energy centers” which, as I understand it, do roughly correspond to major nerve bundles. The use of terms like “energy” can seem unscientific and put people off, but I think they’re actually very useful for describing the subjective experience of meditation(and non-meditation, for that matter). It’s interesting to note that this system is similar to the ones found in Chinese mysticism, Sufism, Kabbalism, etc.
    I want to clarify that I don’t think any of this is grounded in the “supernatural,” whatever that would be. These are essentially exercises for the nervous system.

  2. Your point about most thinking being pointless is true IMO. I used to think that I could tune in on other people’s thoughts. Sounds crazy I know, but I still half believe it because the stuff that I heard seemed to come from outside, but was so much like my own “monkey mind” internal dialogue that it seemed like it really could be the garbage cycling through someone else’s head. Never once did I get told anything important, like that the members of the British Royal family were reptilian aliens or that I was the Chosen One.

  3. Hey. Yeah I used to do yoga stuff which induced a sort of out of body experience which I thought was just a different kind of lucid dream. I don’t even know what I did. I think it was some nostril stuff and imagining chakras but I was just messing around and it happened on accident. One meditation technique I like is the four foundations of mindfulness. You note everything in your awareness not just sitting but all throughout the day and get sort of detached in a way and it can kind of improve your mood. Another meditation techique is to simply non-verbally watch thoughts till they slow down which I learned from reading Jiddu Krishamurti’s talks. A silent lumination technique which would be zen is to be aware of all your bodily sensations as you sit at once. It’s more of a concentration thing. Koans which you probably know about are an intense thing in zen which are hua-tuos in chinese chan. You focus on a question non-stop and try to build up doubt all day long non-stop till your brain explodes and you get a satori. it’s sort of like reminds me of non-ocders imitating what ocd is like. trying to answer something that has no answer but can only be intuitively grasped.

  4. Hey! I have alot of issues with OCD. So this exercise is breathing out and in with you left nostril ONLY? In 15 sec, hold 15 sec and out 30 sec always through the left one?

  5. Hey!
    I’ve started the ocd protocol from Shannahoff-Khalsa a few days ago.
    I can asure you: there arent many people who can just start the breathing technique with 15 seconds. Most beginners will do 5 or 6 seconds and keep this up for about 11 minutes. Later on you can expand.
    The recipe is: close right nostril
    Inhale 15 seconds
    Hold 15 seconds
    Exhale 15 seconds
    Hold out 15 seconds.
    So you could start with 7 seconds and do more rounds instead of one round per minute like the recipe.
    In the beginning 10 seconds seems manageble, but you’ll get tired of it quite soon and maybe pause for a little to catch your breath.
    For me it isnt working yet, but Im planning to expand to 10 seconds and keep that up for 31 days.

  6. Since 6th grade I had the compulsion to record events in My Life and constantly go back to check. I accomplished a lot in life, but this compulsion is becoming quite a burden now I am nearing 70. How can I deal with this and achieve Pease Of Mind?

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