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Anxiety bytes #3

It is well over thirty years since I mastered anxiety and began to know what life was like without the constant presence of unsettling and sometimes terrifying symptoms, severely limiting and distressing my life.

When I took courage and told my success story all those years ago, I also emphasised that the key to my deliverance from the clutches of anxiety was a particular concept of meditation.  In this blog I want to re-emphasise that the elements of this meditative concept involve mental rest – the unique teaching of Ainslie Meares M.D.   This is a stress relief therapy now recognized as SMT® and one that I have authentically adhered to for many years within my work at the SMT Centre in Melbourne.

I’m stating this clearly here because in the last ten years or so it’s become quite popular, if not ‘trendy’, to ‘learn to meditate’.  But, not all roads lead to Rome.  If your aim is the relief of anxiety, stress and associated symptoms, off-the shelf meditation, or quick-fix apps, will not give you the long lasting relief you are seeking.  Yes, you might feel a little more relaxed briefly, but I don’t believe you will ever capture sufficient mental rest by cutting corners such as ‘learning to meditate’, ‘trying this or that style’

Anxiety brings with it obstinate threads of power.  Think about that.  Good intentions, even determination and willpower, are often not enough without the personal support and encouragement of a qualified practitioner.

Sunrise IMG_0663 PMcKSMT is a tried and true therapeutic program.  And if you want to follow my lead, then the key to positive change lies in four specific areas:

  1. Your own commitment to the desire for positive change
  2. A supportive working relationship between yourself and an SMT practitioner
  3. An SMT program where mental rest is experienced deeply and regularly
  4. The monitoring of those results

Those who commit to the SMT therapeutic program at our Centre, experience on average a 54% reduction of their symptoms.  For example, if someone rates their anxiety level at 8 or 9 out of 10, at the commencement of the program, by the time they complete the 16 sessions, and with regular home practice, their anxiety level is likely to be down to 4 or 5.  What would that mean for you?  How would your life be different if that was your experience?

Please don’t mistakenly think that all meditation is the same.

To read what some of our clients have said about their SMT experience, please follow this link: https://stillnessmeditation.com.au/success-stories/

Pauline McKinnon ©
April 2016

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