How to Manage Anxiety in the Tao
Transforming Negative Emotions and Managing Stress
The key to manage stress, anxiety and an over-stimulated nervous system is to keep things very simple. The Tao is a Chinese system that can do just this with the five elements to transform negative emotions meditation. The following teaches the basic posture for meditation, the five elements practice specific to anxiety and nervousness and will also offer simple yet effective advice to manage stress and anxiety.
Before engaging in any relaxation or meditative practice, it is helpful to relieve anxiety in the moment by placing a straw between the lips and breathing through it. Make the out-breath slightly longer than the in-breath. Do this until the heart rate slows and breathing becomes lighter.
Then go outside and stamp on a solid floor with ‘heavy legs.’ Do this until the feet tingle and become warmer. This may sound strange – but this simple exercise has powerfully relaxing results and grounds anxious energy very quickly in order to benefit from the following practice.
The Meditation Posture
Before beginning the practice itself, assume the usual meditation posture as follows:
- Sit on an upright chair (dining chair is good) with feet firmly on the floor, spine straight, head upright, jaw relaxed and hands should be placed palms-down on top of the legs.
- Imagine a gold cord supporting from the top of the head; this ensures that an upright posture is maintained, without it being too tense.
- Imagine growing roots down through the soles of the feet, deep into the ground. This ensures one remains centred and not too aware of the cord on the top of the head.
- The tip of the tongue should be lightly touching the top palette, just behind the front teeth.
The Five Elements Practice for Nervous Excitement/Anxiety
Immediately following on from the simple meditation above, the practice to transform anxiety and nervousness is carried out:
- Take the mind and attention into the physical heart and small intestine (see diagram).
- Imagine a red colour.
- Breathe this into the physical heart and small intestine filling them with red.
- On the out-breath, guide this down the body and imagine you are breathing it out and down, via those roots.
- Reminder - Envision a red wave moving into the heart and small intestine, down and out.
How Often to do This Meditation
Just a few minutes every other day is enough, preferably in a morning. As one becomes more familiar with the practice sensations in the body will become obvious. These will include: tingling, cold rushes, heat, tightness and sometimes a ‘floaty’ feeling. Feeling emotional is also a good indication that the practice is working. It is normal for the colour to change on the out-breath and also to feel tearful.
Remember that the out-breath releases anxiety and nervous excitement. The red that is breathed in contains contentment and equanimity.
Don’t worry too much about the actual emotions to begin with, just keep it simple with the colour being used – red.
Emphasis on the grounding techniques is important and will help in keeping centred and assist in not avoiding what is.
How this Meditation Works
Everything has an energy. Therefore emotions resonate at a certain level with energy. If a resonance is troubling us, it makes sense to bring in another vibration that will help to transform that lower vibration. Here we use colour to do this. The colour brings in the opposite of the negative emotion and therefore aids in transforming it.
Be aware that the process of transformation does involve experiencing the emotion as it is released and transformed – it isn’t a quick fix or a distraction. The practice is accumulative and the benefits will increase over time and the effects will last longer.
Resources
- Chia, Mantak and Maneewan, Fusion of The Five Elements, Healing Tao Books, New York 1989.
Disclaimer - The author nor Suite101 can be held responsible for any adverse effects arising or perceived to arise from this article or the practices. It should not be attempted by individuals with a mental health condition. You are encouraged to seek practitioner advice first.
Envision Waves of Red Traveling Through the Organs
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