I have used a step-by-step approach to investigating anxieties in the morning, developed by Jody Cohen and based on Scott Kiloby’s living inquiries.
I take five deep breaths while noticing the warmth of my body and the sensations of the sheets.
I notice there is no threat in the room I am.
I cannot find any threat in the word anxiety or panic.
I cannot find any threat in the (scary, anxiety producing) images.
I cannot find any threat in the sensations that goes along with the anxiety.
Investigating in this way, I cannot find any threat. There is clearly no threat in the images or sensations. And yet, I have lived my whole life as if there is. It’s a bit baffling.
And as I continue with this investigation, it sinks in a bit more each time. It becomes more of a living noticing for me.
I am here because of the Rumi poem you posted on sorrow and joy…then I pulled that amazing tag that says “pull” above, and followed it to this post.
Thank you for what you’ve put into the world, including that quote from Rumi.
I’ve been reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying because my older brother just died unexpectedly(…this is why I was interested in the Rumi quote).
The author of that book explains that in the bardo of dying, in the bardo of luminosity and in the bardo of becoming, anxiety plays a key role…that is, for all living beings except those born completely enlightened, we take individual shape to allay anxiety (or pursue desire, or possibly because of apathy).
According to what I’ve been reading, threat comes from imagining that we are someone or something to which harm can occur…that we are an individual. This is one of the most common illusions, that in realizing this separateness through our living forms, we believe that isolation to be true. but the isolated forms pass–in death, so they can’t be ultimately true.
Maybe you’ve already heard all of this before?