Being an atheist now, I seriously doubt that prayers work, it never did before. But I felt like its something imprinted in my mind from back then when I was extremely religious, praying was a daily everyday thing. Now everytimes I get anxious,nervous, scared, worried, or something horrible happened -which it does happen quite often with all of it together- I find myself having urges to pray because it brought comfort before, it was a temporary escape from reality. I refuse to do it now because it felt wrong, wont bring me comfort. I dont believe in it anymore, but now I find it hard dealing with my stress, over-worrying, paranoid and anxiety problem, it makes me feel like throwing up sometimes. Actually I dont know how to make myself feel like everything is going to be okay.

Do you have a physical activity that you enjoy??

Running, Walking, going to the Gym, Punching the fuck out of a boxing bag??

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What of your buddhist detachment??

(February 2, 2012 at 12:58 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote: Do you have a physical activity that you enjoy??

Running, Walking, going to the Gym, Punching the fuck out of a boxing bag??

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What of your buddhist detachment??

Well I enjoy walking and jogging. I felt like my mind is the clearest when I walk or jog. Used to be in track, though I rarely have time now. School then work take up the whole day. One thing that help me sometimes is counting in my head but then I cant concentrate on anything else.

Sorry I did not understand what you were asking about With buddhist detachment.

Is not Zen about detaching from the event that is causing the grief?? Looking at it and asking the mind WHY are we worried about this?? Sometimes "mind-talk" get us into distressed states and mind talk can get us out of the stress.

There is no way to incorporate walking or jogging into your daily routine??

(February 2, 2012 at 1:11 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote: Is not Zen about detaching from the event that is causing the grief?? Looking at it and asking the mind WHY are we worried about this??

There is no way to incorporate walking or jogging into your daily routine??

Lol Im noy a Zen Buddhist anymore neither do I practice it. It has something to do with understanding/realizing the source of suffering..yes.. though in a lot of cases, the cause of my anxiety is about my family or people who are close to me, not myself. I feel like something horrible will happen to them, and it feels so real.

I do walk or jog alot when Im free. It is just a little hard when I freaked out badly and have a bad case of worrying at times like at school or work...which dominate my schedule.

(February 2, 2012 at 12:55 am)passionatefool Wrote: Being an atheist now, I seriously doubt that prayers work, it never did before. But I felt like its something imprinted in my mind from back then when I was extremely religious, praying was a daily everyday thing. Now everytimes I get anxious,nervous, scared, worried, or something horrible happened -which it does happen quite often with all of it together- I find myself having urges to pray because it brought comfort before, it was a temporary escape from reality. I refuse to do it now because it felt wrong, wont bring me comfort. I dont believe in it anymore, but now I find it hard dealing with my stress, over-worrying, paranoid and anxiety problem, it makes me feel like throwing up sometimes. Actually I dont know how to make myself feel like everything is going to be okay.

Talk to yourself...fuck what anyone else thinks. Say it out loud.

"Calm down ...Ive got to calm down"

count to ten always helps me too

Pick up your guitar and thrash some hard core raw shit

Take a rock and smash someones head in....er...maybe you shouldnt do that.

Try to think of something funny.

Try to think of someone worse off than you...hey, it might be bad, but at least you arent living in Saudi Arabi where they cut peoples heads off in the local shopping mall parking lot. Or at least you arent in ethiopia starving, or suffering from some fucked up disease.

There are so many ways.... I would suggest building up your sense of humor.

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When Im at work and people get mad or frustrated on the job I tell them to go to the shit house and calm down before they say something they will later regret.

Passionate Wrote:the cause of my anxiety is about my family or people who are close to me, not myself. I feel like something horrible will happen to them, and it feels so real.

Why should you feel this way?? Do you feel guilt that there may have been something you could do to stop them being hurt??Just what is this something that can happen to them?? There is also the concept that they are individuals who will not thank you for your concern if it stops them doing as they would like to. Welcome to the REAL world honey....there is ALOT that one person is incapable of... good grief look what has happened to the Buddha.

And I don't care what you say you still practice Zen to a certain albeit non-religious level.

(February 2, 2012 at 1:24 am)reverendjeremiah Wrote: Talk to yourself...fuck what anyone else thinks. Say it out loud.

"Calm down ...Ive got to calm down"
count to ten always helps me too

Pick up your guitar and thrash some hard core raw shit

Take a rock and smash someones head in....er...maybe you shouldnt do that.

Try to think of something funny.

Try to think of someone worse off than you...hey, it might be bad, but at least you arent living in Saudi Arabi where they cut peoples heads off in the local shopping mall parking lot. Or at least you arent in ethiopia starving, or suffering from some fucked up disease.

There are so many ways.... I would suggest building up your sense of humor.

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When Im at work and people get mad or frustrated on the job I tell them to go to the shit house and calm down before they say something they will later regret.

Haha alright thand i will try to think of something really funny..or really terrible and sad next time. Shouldnt be hard lol....

(February 2, 2012 at 1:31 am)KichigaiNeko Wrote:

Passionate Wrote:the cause of my anxiety is about my family or people who are close to me, not myself. I feel like something horrible will happen to them, and it feels so real.

Why should you feel this way?? Do you feel guilt that there may have been something you could do to stop them being hurt??Just what is this something that can happen to them?? There is also the concept that they are individuals who will not thank you for your concern if it stops them doing as they would like to. Welcome to the REAL world honey....there is ALOT that one person is incapable of... good grief look what has happened to the Buddha.

And I don't care what you say you still practice Zen to a certain albeit non-religious level.

It isnt guilt or anything. I just have this really bad thought process that always end up with me feeling like they are going to be hurted not necessary because of what they do or if they care about my concern or not, but something out of their control, which is why praying used to work so well before. This is just one of the reason why i often freak out. I freak out over random things alot for no reason. Or something little will turn into a deadly issue for me because I get paranoid a little. lol and it nags at me and make me feel likes there is a tight knot. ... really uncomfortable. Sorry if I sound crazy and stupid but you know what I mean.

Before I was practicing chinese Zen called Chan which was more religious and does involve praying, much more religious than japanese Zen. I gave that up. So I dont know in which way am I practicig Zen nonreligiously now other than I meditate sometimes.

Thank you for the help and suggestion though.

I suggest the Japanese Zen because of the focus of Mu. Once there, think of what plans you can make to help or not help those you love, what you can do or not do. This has helped my Autistic son. By doing this lessens the anxiety and has developed a pattern for contingency planning. He is now 22 years old and doing very well ...I am thinking it is a case of YOU taking control of your thought processes and not letting them control you. Biologically, having your thoughts control you .... this is detrimental to ones health and something that say buddhism was striving to counter.

If anyone feels the need to prey they can prey to me.
I'm not omnipresent so I probably won't hear it.
I'm not omnipotent so I may not be able to answer it with action.
But I do exist and that is a major plus.