Anxiety Relief Through Meditation

Sometimes, when sitting in my room meditating, my mind gets restless. Anxiety leads to emotions and feelings appearing to get the better of reason. It's as though I have two minds.

When of two minds, it's as though the heart battles with reason.

Once I've calmed down, I let the heart-mind exercise compassion.

How do I calm down? I start by concentrating on my breathing. Within a minute, my heart slows down. At this point in my meditation, I let my thoughts come and go without following any of them. Since the object of the meditation is to collect my thoughts, I find that letting go of them leads to a calm mind.

When one lets go of thought, thoughts are free to dissipate.

Through single-minded concentration it is possible to rein in the heart through the use of reason. This requires no effort on my part, except to breathe and to observe my mind carefully.

If anxiety starts to rise, then I return to my breathing by "thinking breathing."

After a short while the mind is calm, all anxiety forgotten. As a result, I feel positive and self-assured. When the mind is calm, and the rational mind is once again in control, the heart-mind is free to exercise compassion.

At this point in my meditation, I start to generate good thoughts to ensure the positive frame of mind in which there is no room for negativity.

Then the meditation is over and I'm ready to handle the day.

Kokoro / Heart-mind: One heart, two-minds

心が思いやりを象徴するので、心臓心が感情を感じている。

合理的心臓が理性と制御を象徴するので、我々は愚かになるといけないので、それは、心を支配するようべきである。

Romaji transliteration:
Kokoro ga omoiyari o shōchō surunode, shinzō kokoro ga kanjō o kanjite iru.

Gōri-teki shinzō ga risei to seigyo o shōchō surunode, wareware wa oroka ni naruto ikenainode, soreha, kokoro o shihai suru yōbekidearu.
English translation:
Because the heart symbolizes compassion, the heart mind feels emotion.

Because the rational mind symbolizes reason and control, it ought to dominate the heart, lest we become mindless.

What this means is the heart symbolizes emotions and feelings; and the rational mind, reason and control. This is the essence of the original concept of "one heart and two minds" (一つの心、二心 / hitotsu no kokoro, futagokoro).