Meditation Practices For Worry

Dr. Martin Rossman - Photo Jerome freedman

Dr. Martin Rossman has outlined a set of mediation practices for worry in his book, The Worry Solution: Using Breakthrough Brain Science to Turn Stress and Anxiety Into Confidence and Happiness. These practices resulted from his many years practicing medicine, acupuncture and guided imagery. He is highly regarded as one of the pioneers of complementary medical practices.

The book distinguishes between “bad worry” and “good worry”. “Bad worry” is worrying over things that you can do nothing about. It gives rise to stress, anxiety and can result in all kinds of related diseases.

“Good worry” is used for problem solving or getting out of danger. “Good worry” starts in the imagination and produces just about everything that hasn’t been made by nature. This is the kind of worry where we can sit down and figure out a good solution and get busy doing what we can.

The Worry Solution - Dr. Martin Rossman

The Worry Solution goes into a series of five meditation practices for worry.

The first practice introduces the three keys to calmness: breath, muscle relaxation, and calming imagery. The breath process teaches you how to breathe deeply and from your belly. The muscle relaxation process teaches deep relaxation. Calming imagery evokes your memory or imagination of a relaxing place – one that you have been to or one you would like to go to.

The second process help you to classify your worries into those that you can possibly change, those you are not sure of and those the you cannot change.

The third practice is “inner wisdom meditation”. This process uses the keys to calmness to put you in touch with a wise inner adviser who can help you with solutions to worries that you can change. Your inner adviser can also give you suggestions on how you can drop the worries that you can do nothing about.

The fourth practice is the “positive worry imagery”. It helps  you to no longer dwell on bad worries by recognizing that they are simply thoughts and feeling.

The  fifth practice is “effective action planning”. Unlike the others, you must clarify your insight, generate options through brainstorming, choose the best option, affirm your choice, and write down you plan of action before you invoke the practice of imagery rehearsal.

A bonus process is included which is called “best quality imagery”. Dr. Rossman provides a list of qualities for you to choose as a focus in the imagery process.

Meditation Practices For Worry

From the introduction to The Worry Solution:

In this book, I will teach you how to stop creating unnecessary suffering for yourself and others, and how to use worry for its true purpose, which is to keep you and your loved ones safe from harm.

The Worry Solution‘s program will teach you how to clarify your worries, sort them into those you can and cannot do anything about, and use the wisdom hidden in the large silent areas of your brain to help you solve real problems creatively. You will learn effective ways to shift from negative worry states into more positive frames of mind. You will also learn how to stop hypnotizing yourself with scary thoughts, and concentrate instead on thoughts that bring you creativity, courage, calmness, and confidence.

I have experimented with most of these meditation practices for worry for many years. In fact, I have even taught the types of guide imagery sessions that are in The Worry Solution.

Remember Micah’s story? Imagery was the prime tool that Dr. Ruderman used to help Micah cure cancer. I felt very fortunate to have mastered these practices in order to prepare Micah for using them.

Update: Meditation Practices for Worry

The Worry Solution CD - Dr. Martin Rossman

Hi – Jerome here. I was reading through some of the most popular posts on the blog and I realized that I didn’t tell you about my favorite way to enjoy The Worry Solution.

Dr. Rossman has put together a wonderful CD of guided imagery experiences for you to use in a very simple way. There is too much to tell you about the CD on this page so click on the link below or the picture of the Guided Experiences on the left. You can learn more about it over there.

You can get The Worry Solution Guided Experiences, a CD with guided imagery processes recorded by Dr. Rossman, himself. His voice is very soothing and you may fall asleep! That is perfectly OK!

It will help you to stop “bad worry.”

How Are You Going to Use Imagery?

Have you ever had a guided imagery session? What was it like? Have you continued using it?

Did you know that Silva Mind Control is based on the principals of guided imagery?

Would you like me to train you to do these meditation practices for worry? Or for anything else for that matter? We can do it through Skype or at the Pine Street Clinic in San Anselmo. Contact me through the comment area below, social media, or the Contact Us link here or above.

What do you think? Will you please share this information or comment below?

Thanks for reading!