another #anxiety post:
i‘ve never successfully sat through a guided meditation, let alone meditated by myself successfully. i always feel just as or more restless afterwards. maybe other people feel similarly, so i’m sharing the anti-meditation tricks that help me calm down:

Thought “recess:” when i find myself with spiraling thoughts, i set a 5-minute timer to “watch my thoughts.” the point is to let myself daydream or worry about anything. instead of disciplining each thought, i watch each thought run around in my brain. thoughts get tired.

“Feel the feelings:” when I am sad or angry, or when my thoughts are muddy, I tell myself to feel as sad or angry as possible. I cry or scream until my head hurts and I don’t have the energy to feel that feeling anymore.

“Scheduled worry time:” people with severe anxiety issues get tired of worrying about the same things over and over. Every morning and night, I set time to worry. When I catch myself worrying during the day, I write it down to worry about during the scheduled time.

TLDR: thoughts are like children. If they are not given attention, they scream for more attention. When they throw big tantrums, they get tired. For me, meditation suppresses the thoughts and doesn’t really help, although I keep trying. Curious to know how others feel.