Reddit reviews A New Earth (Oprah #61): Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

Hey, if you dont wanna see a therapist, or atleast not right now, you could message me as someone who has gone through every aspect of anxiety you could imagine over the last few years, and is just now coming out of it and could honestly say its by far and wide the best thing thats ever happened to me. I was so stuck in my head prior to really going thru it starting a few years ago, and man is life getting good now. Ive seen therapists, and read books on it as well and learnt a shit ton about myself and how the human brain works. Feel free to ask about any feelings that you feel, thoughts that worry you and how you started developing these problems in the first place.

To get over your anxiety youve got to understand it first. Some here have already done a good job explaining it, particularly /u/ShavingApples. Anxiety is your built in defense mechanism, you have fear of your defense mechanism, prompting that defense mechanism to be alerted more, leaving you in a never ending cycle of anxiety! Essentially this is all in your head, there is no real danger, it is made up, and therefore theres nothing to be solved!

So what you have to do is completely bypass this vicious cycle, and simply stop reacting to the anxiety/how you feel. However you feel, however much anxiety you have, as scared as you are, dont panic. dont question. just completely accept it, embrace it, have fun with it. Its all in how you react to your anxiety, when you have panic attacks or just feel shitty, thats your body asking you if you should be worried or not, when you give in to the feelings, try to escape the situation your in, start panicking, you confirm to your body that there is a threat. Imagine what would happen if you didn't do that? Imagine you accepted these feelings, and went about your day without even thinking about them for a second? The defense mechanism would stop working! It doesnt need to do anything anymore, as you have confirmed to yourself that there is no more threat! Your anxiety is now gone.

Its really as simple as that. You just have to apply this perspective just one time in a fearful situation like say, driving to your mma gym and working out. If you can get through it without giving in to the anxiety, you'll feel enlightened and empowered, as if youve figured out the secret to life. From that point its just a matter of consistently pushing yourself, meditating and learning about yourself, so that you dont get stuck in your head and keep moving forward (Even if you do get stuck in the future, it will never half as bad as what you're experiencing now, now you live under massive fear, when you take the fear out and realize the result of it, you'll never fully go back to your old ways again).

Another thing you might realize is that when you are completely in the moment, like how you are right now reading this comment, it is impossible to suffer. If you ever find yourself in a scary situation and you just cant accept how you feel, focus on your breath and never stop, take deep breaths through your nose all the way down to your balls, and never stop focusing on your breath. (you could try this now too). The reason you cant feel the anxiety in the moment i.e. suffering, is because fear only exists in the mind, when you are in the moment, you are not thinking, i.e. not using your mind.

Heres some books that really helped me out:

http://www.amazon.com/At-Last-Life-Paul-David-ebook/dp/B007MEMDOS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Life-Beyond-Paul-David-ebook/dp/B01494XZCM

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Now-Guide-Spiritual-Enlightenment-ebook/dp/B002361MLA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

http://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Oprah-61-Awakening-ebook/dp/B000PC0S5K/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

So I suggest going to the gym as soon as you can with these new points of view, and try to push through it! Once youve dropped your overall fear of what youre going through, which again, can literally happen instantly, youve unlocked a whole nother world, previously un-visited due to fear. You'll still have anxiety, but its different, its like you dont care about the anxiety anymore and are so numb to its tricks that it doesnt affect you at all anymore, you dont associate yourself with it anymore, you know who you are now. Ive been in this phase for a couple months now, ive had so many moments that have gone from massive fear and anxiety to pure joy that the anxiety just doesnt bother me anymore. Ive seen what its like when you completely accept it, and live in the moment. The only reason im not totally anxiety free is because i havent been living in the moment recently, because ive been overthinking plans and goals ive set for myself and stressing myself out over them. This is inherently a good thing because I wouldnt have set any of these goals in the first place if I still was in fear, but im just now learning to stop thinking and stressing myself out and just getting things done. Youre essentially on the cusp of being at the same point, you just need to stop worrying about how you feel.

Good luck!

This is a good place to start: Eckhart Tolle - A New Earth. I read this book a few years ago when I started my awakening journey. There is also an audiobook if you prefer.

If you would like to read more, here are some personal book recommendations.

These are NOT referral links

Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness by Itzhak Bentov

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
Note: Please preview the audiobook of this one before purchasing. The narrator sounds very pretentious and personally it was distracting.

Sorry to hear you're struggling. I have found a lot of helpful direction in books such as The Power of Now and A New Earth. These two books are written by Eckhart Tolle, but follow many of the precepts of Buddhism. The goal in these books and similar is to show that thinking (and over thinking) are objects of consciousness, just like any object you perceive outside yourself. You can escape these thoughts, quieting them and appreciating the present moment (the only time that truly exists). Past relationships, friends leaving, current relationships, trust, abandonment etc. are vividly acute but are only products of thought and don't exist in the present moment.... I find these ideas comforting as they allow me a pathway to break from the endless and incessant clutter of thinking, thinking, thinking....