Stories about anxiety
6 Buddhist wisdom stories about anxiety from Buddhist teachers, each linked to the original talk.
- Adelaide anxiety — stroke it kindlyStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A bed-bound Adelaide University student with health anxiety learns the bodily feel of her attacks; Brahm has her massage the tension with kindness. Anxiety eases; she returns to…
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this lady over at Adelaide University so many years ago now I asked her how do you feel? I don't mean inside but on your body when you have an anxious anxiety attack. And she felt this tension in her chest. And over many weeks cuz she was bedbound said, "Now please find out how it really feels and tell me all about it. How it feels, where it feels, whether it grows, expands, she had to be so aware of it, she learned from it. And then once she learned what anxiety was for her and how it felt a manifestation on her body, I told her to get your hand and give it kindness, just to stroke your own body, to massage it as kindly as you possibly can. And that's when I would call her every few days. I was in Perth, she was in Adelaide. How does it feel? He said, "Oh, after I massaged it, the physical feeling went away." As it does, and what about the anxiety that went to It's a beautiful story, real story. And she was out of bed soon, back to university. I got her life back. I remember her. The nice parts of the story, they always have those beautiful endings. that then she called me again. She moved back to to Perth and she asked me said please I jump can you come to UWA I'm getting married there I want you to get the blessing married with kids having a wonderful time overcome her anxiety that way from being bed bound
- The patient who took off her oxygen maskStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A doctor tells Ajahn Brahm about a patient with severe anxiety who was on an oxygen mask after every treatment had been tried — except his. She taught the patient his approach:…
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Just like there was one doctor who came to see me on a Friday because she had a patient on a Thursday who had um really severe anxiety and she was uh this person with anxiety was on a on a um uh oxygen mask because you know just to breathe and this oh I didn't actually say about the Ronnie story but anyway the grumpy story but anyway she was on an oxy oxygen mask and every type of treatment had been um dried and so except for a brah's treatment. So she said anyway, so what the treatment was was when you're anxious, when you have a panic attack, understand it, feel it first of all. Where is it? And for her, it was on her chest and really get to know it. Don't fight it. Don't try and get rid of it. Get to know it. And once you get to that, that's actually it's a not the best title for a book, but you know, the Chinese art of war, know the enemy, know yourself. Thousand battles fought, thousand battles won. Just know the sickness, know the problem, know what's going on. Once you get to know it, then we taught her to be kind to it by giving a nice massage on the chest. Nice massage on the chest. to be kind, not to try and get rid of things, but to get to know it and be kind to it, make peace with it, be kind to that physical manifestation of anxiety. And she told me afterwards, the next day when she went to check on the ward, that patient had an oxygen mask off and said, "I'm okay now. Can I go home?"
- Two shopping bags — past and futureAnalogy · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Carry two heavy shopping bags: left = PAST, right = FUTURE (hopes, fears, anxiety). Feel the lean; lower the past bag to the ground — spiritual exhaustion comes from holding both.
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simile of the two shopping bags. You imagine yourself carrying these two shopping bags in the left is a shopping bag which contains your past. See even got those four letters on the outside of the shopping bag. P A S T past. It's really heavy. And in the right hand you have the future. all your hopes and dreams and fears, anxieties. Those people who suffer from anxiety at this time, you know that that shopping bag in your right hand is so incredibly heavy. If you think of all the things which might go wrong and under those things which might go wrong, there's a few things there which may go right, but whatever is heavy. So having felt the weight of those two bags, you start with the bag in your left hand, the past. You've been holding it for such a long time. That is why we get tired and depressed and lose our resilience because we're spiritually exhausted. So take that bag, feel it, and imagine your back leaning to the left as you lower that bag to the ground. When the bag containing all of your pa
- Walking into the DMZStory · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: During the brief Trump–Kim thaw, Ajahn Brahm joins a peace conference in South Korea. The senior monks are to lead a fast three-hour meditation walk into the demilitarised zone;…
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the last time I saw this monk that was in the demilitarized zone. I mentioned that story a couple of years ago. I went to Korea, South Korea and was having a peace movement at the time. That was a time when you may remember it over a year and a half ago when Donald Trump and Kim Jong- fell in love. That's what it said on the newspapers. Anyway, [laughter] so anyway, so they wanted to move on that and just have this the big peace conference up there. So I went there to join in and I thought it was a really worthwhile thing to do. But then they had these big senior monks. I was one of the senior monks. They wanted us to go on this walk, meditation walk inside the deulatory zone. Wow. The senior monk. No, he couldn't go because he was busy. Ajan Ganha, he was sick. So that left your own aan. Yay. Would you have allowed me to do that? It was a three-hour walk really fast. No rest b leading oh 6,000 uh jogj yeah yeah jog jj buddhists over into the de DMC demilitarized zone walking yeah so off I went just doing that had a wonderful time could you do that would you be anxious no I wasn't anxious at all but I must admit I did mention at the time There was a lot of shooting in there. There was I can't lie to you. I was shot a few times. Actually, many times click. Click. Photographed and videoed and stuff.
- “What if a tree did not fall when we were underneath it?”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: Walking home from Rabbit's house through a storm, little Piglet freezes as trees crash around them: “What would happen if a tree fell down when we were underneath it?” After a…
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So Winnie-the-Pooh was with his friend, Piglet. And Piglet was a very small being. Very kind. Very loyal. But being very small, was usually subject to a lot of fear. And then one day, they were walking back from Rabbit's house in a storm like we had today and yesterday. And as they were walking through the forest, trees were coming down around them, branches were crashing to the floor and even whole trees were being ripped off and smashing around them. That was very dangerous. So dangerous, so scary, that little Piglet could stand it no longer. He froze and he looked at his best friend, Winnie-the-Pooh, and said these words: "I can't go on any longer. I just can't. What would happen? What would happen if a tree fell down when we were underneath it?" And that was a possibility. And for a second, but only a second, the great philosopher and enlightened bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, was afraid, but only for a second. And then his wisdom kicked in and he looked at his terrified friend and replied with these reassuring words: "What would happen if a tree did not fall when we were underneath it? And that was also possible. In fact, even more possible. And that was the key to overcoming little Piglet's fear so he could move on with the thought, "What would happen if a tree did not fall when we were underneath it?" And that's exactly what happened, so he could go back safely.
- “Whatever those monks are on, I want some”Story · Ajahn Brahm
In brief: A past president of the Buddhist Society, Rachel Green, first came only to learn meditation for panic attacks and anxiety. Seeing the Armadale group's monks always peaceful and…
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There's - one of our past presidents, she is not here this evening, so she was here about two or three weeks ago, that's Rachel Green. She won't mind me telling her name, because she wrote a little book about, her spiritual story. And the part which I like, well, I got to be honest, it was about me. And it's actually really about how she became a Buddhist. She was suffering from panic disorders and anxiety attacks. Like many of you know, if you actually come and do some meditation, it really helps overcome anxiety disorders and panic attacks. Meditation is a beautiful method of overcoming that. And many people know that, many people actually are sent by their GPs to places like this to learn meditation, so they can overcome their anxiety disorders and panic attacks - and it works very well. But anyway, she came along, just to learn some meditation to overcome her anxiety disorders, and then she saw these monks, and this is the Armadale group, always seem to be peaceful and happy. She wrote in her book, that when she first saw these guys, she thought they're just acting. Just a face you put on in public, and behind the scenes, you know you're just like anybody else - you know, grumpy, arrogant, selfish. So actually, she decided to try and visit our monasteries, and "check us out", to see whether this was real, or whether we're just faking it. And of course, now I really try hard to make everybody open, so you can come and see as many times, see us y'know, when we're off-guard, not in public, and hopefully, I think you'll probably see that as you see us now, is actually as we are at all times. When she saw that, she realized, "I don't know what those monks are on, but whatever they're on, I want some of it."