No one likes to feel crappy, right?

Certain powerful sensations and emotions are simply uncomfortable, if not downright painful. For some people, feeling sadness or grief is nearly intolerable; others would rather cry for an hour than feel intense anxiety or fear. Having experienced some form of depression on and off since my teens (and having grown almost used to it), I’ve always fallen in the latter category. I’d rather bear those ills I know, if I have to bear any ills at all.

Interestingly enough, it was in experiencing some new ones that I learned something about the old ones, and stumbled across a more effective way of dealing with both.

Desolation
A Personal Story

A year and a half ago my money started to run out. It was January, my town was buried in several feet of snow, and I was unemployed and living in a dark one-room apartment. For the first time in my life, an overwhelming anxiety took possession of me — and, truly, it was like possession — along with something like agoraphobia. I remember standing inside the entrance of a Target superstore one day in late winter, enveloped in what I can only describe as existential terror. (Never mind the valid sociological argument that the proper human response to a Target superstore is existential terror. That’s fodder for a another post, another time!) The warehouse-sized building full of endless rows of merchandise seemed foreign, overwhelming, even somehow menacing. I wove uneasily among adjacent departments, avoiding the aisles like a frightened rabbit. I was unprepared and uncomprehending. What was happening to me?

I had never before experienced such protracted and uninterrupted periods of unmitigated fear. Every morning I woke up consumed with dread; all day long my exhausted adrenals pumped fight-or-flight hormones throughout my body. In the ensuing months, I had a bout of pneumonia; my upstairs neighbor (a drummer in a rock band) and his drunken buddies awakened me consistently most nights around four a.m., until I developed insomnia; I started a high-stress job as administrator for an organization that had only two paid full-time staff; and I packed up all my belongings and moved in with an acquaintance to escape my neighbor’s nightly after-parties, which no amount of negotiating and pleading had quieted.

I have never been quite the same since. The cumulative effect of all of this on my nervous system was such that no amount of herbal therapy, yoga, acupuncture, hot baths, or the conventional prescription and nonprescription drugs I tried without success could completely mitigate the aftershock. Even now I sleep lightly, and not infrequently with difficulty. I feel the vibrations of adjacent footfalls and bass lines in my bones. There is a tightness, an almost painful constriction in my chest that I can feel acutely when I become still and empty my busy mind. Oftentimes meditation and relaxation are synonymous with a greater awareness of this discomfort. Depending on its intensity, it can feel like anything from restlessness to outright panic. It increases under certain stressors, like when I’m faced with the necessity of moving again. A task such as packing can literally give me heart palpitations.
Thinking about Feelings

Certain thoughts about controlling these feelings just exacerbate them, too. Well-meaning converts to the Law of Attraction, who caution me that such “negativity” will create more of the same in my life, only help to increase the anxiety by turning up the volume on my own obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Step on a crack, break my mother’s back. Quick, don’t think a bad thing! Oh my God, I’ve done it now…

Note that I said certain thoughts about controlling these feelings. Ever the rationalist by nature (or more likely by nurture), my first instinct is to try to solve my discomfort by thinking even more about it. Despite years of evidence to the contrary, I seem to believe that ruminating endlessly upon the possible causes of my distress will somehow make it go away. Why am I feeling bad? Let’s dissect this from every possible angle! A good seventy percent of the therapy I underwent for a decade (for depression) involved an endless and often fruitless dissection of my past in an attempt to alleviate the pain in my present. But adding context did not necessarily create relief.

In fact, it frequently seemed that the more I obsessed about my perceived troubles and “issues,” the harder I tried to “fix” these intractable “problems” I had, the bigger and more solid they grew and the more frustrating they became. As if my constantly spinning thoughts were actually spinning them into a gigantic snowball. The story gained momentum with each retelling.

Last summer I picked up The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle for the first time, and at once something clicked. With incredibly lucid, unadorned prose, he describes exactly how we perpetuate our own suffering in our minds, keeping our pain and worry alive with our repetitive thoughts about past and future. We expend a great deal of energy this way creating problems for ourselves, and making ourselves a problem, when what would actually free us is a return to awareness of the present moment (the only moment that truly exists). Although I’d read something like this before in other books — usually by prominent Buddhist teachers — it hadn’t sunk in on more than an intellectual level. And I had certainly never known how to apply it in my day-to-day life.
Non-Resistance

The key word he used was nonresistance. Which meant neither running away from discomfort nor fighting it. Instead of immediately commencing the usual struggle, he recommended that we allow the feeling, and give it no more attention than nonjudgmental observation. I honestly didn’t know if I could I sit still and just be with an experience, even when the experience was wholly unpleasant, but it was worth a try. Could I refrain from jumping on the thought train and turning everything into a major issue? Could I break a lifelong, ingrained, unconscious habit?

The answer turned out to be yes — when I’m paying attention! I’m a lot more conscious of my unconscious reactions now than I was, so when the intense anxiety possesses me, as it did when I was in the midst of packing for my latest move, I can sometimes catch myself in the act of resistance.

I was in the car with an old and dear friend, on the way to what I had hoped would be a lovely Sunday brunch, when it seized me, violently, like a blindsided hostage. I was seasick with dread; my stomach knotted and my heart raced. The downtown streets looked ugly, squalid, and hostile. At first I tried to fight the feeling, then despaired at the thought that our outing was ruined.

Suddenly I remembered Tolle’s words: resist nothing.

I relaxed into my discomfort. As if it were the most normal thing in the world. Okay, I decided, so I’m going to feel like this right now. I neither battled nor ignored the sensations, but simply allowed them to blow through my system like a minor typhoon, as my friend continued to tell me about her new house. By the time we were parking, they were already ebbing away. When we sat down at a table, it was hard for me to believe how I had felt only minutes before, and we did have a lovely brunch, after all.

Who woulda thought it? Certainly not me. But that’s the beauty of not thinking.
A Beautiful Meditation

A postscript for other anxiety and panic sufferers: in addition to surrender, I have found this breathing meditation, adapted from Thich Nhat Hanh (and borrowing a gesture from Kundalini yoga), very helpful. It can be done while lying down or sitting in your favorite meditation posture. Placing your right hand over your heart, breathe deeply from the belly while silently reciting each line with the appropriate inhalation or exhalation:

Breathing in, I calm my heart.
Breathing out, I smile at my heart.

Suspending each in-breath and out-breath for a few seconds will help slow your pulse.

沒(méi)人喜歡不適的感覺(jué)，對(duì)嗎？

這樣強(qiáng)烈的感覺(jué)和情緒，如果不是完全的痛苦，那只是簡(jiǎn)單的不適。對(duì)有些人來(lái)說(shuō)，感到悲傷或憂(yōu)愁，幾乎是不可忍受的；另一些人則情愿大哭一個(gè)小時(shí)，而不愿感受強(qiáng)烈的擔(dān)心或害怕。在我十幾歲的時(shí)候斷斷續(xù)續(xù)得過(guò)幾種抑郁癥（隨著我的成長(zhǎng)我?guī)缀趿?xí)慣了它的存在），我總是會(huì)患上最近的一個(gè)種類(lèi)的抑郁癥。如果我要完全承受任何病痛，我情愿承受我知道的那些病痛。

非常有趣的是，在我經(jīng)歷一些新的病痛時(shí)，我學(xué)到了一些與舊的病痛有關(guān)的東西，并且偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)治療兩者都更有效的方法。

Desolation

一個(gè)我自己的故事

一年半之前，我的錢(qián)快要用光了。那是在一月，我的家鄉(xiāng)被幾英寸厚的雪掩蓋，我失業(yè)在家，住在一個(gè)暗無(wú)天日的一室戶(hù)里。在我的人生中是第一次，一種極度的擔(dān)憂(yōu)占據(jù)我的內(nèi)心——事實(shí)上，它就像侵占——有點(diǎn)像是廣場(chǎng)恐懼癥。我記得在冬季的夜晚，我站在一個(gè)Target超市入口內(nèi)，被我一種感覺(jué)緊緊包圍，我只能將它形容為存在感的恐懼。(從沒(méi)注意有充分根據(jù)的社會(huì)評(píng)論說(shuō)特有的人對(duì)Target超市會(huì)感到存在感的恐懼。那是另一個(gè)地方，另一個(gè)時(shí)間的創(chuàng)作素材！) 像倉(cāng)庫(kù)一樣大的建筑物放滿(mǎn)了望不到盡頭的貨物，好象是國(guó)外生產(chǎn)的，勢(shì)如破竹，甚至是有點(diǎn)危險(xiǎn)的。我艱難的在相鄰的貨架之間穿梭，像是一只受驚的兔子避開(kāi)走道。我沒(méi)有準(zhǔn)備好也不懂。發(fā)生什么了？

我之前從沒(méi)有經(jīng)歷過(guò)，在如此漫長(zhǎng)的、停止不了的一段時(shí)間里，感到徹頭徹尾的害怕。每天早上我醒來(lái)的時(shí)候都被恐懼弄得身心疲憊；整整一天我?guī)捉�枯竭的腎上腺素遍布我的全身。隨后的幾個(gè)月，我在和肺炎作斗爭(zhēng)；我樓上的鄰居（一個(gè)搖滾樂(lè)隊(duì)的鼓手）和他那些喝醉的朋友，持續(xù)地在幾乎每個(gè)晚上，大概凌晨四點(diǎn)吵醒我，直到我患了失眠；我開(kāi)始一個(gè)壓力很大的工作，是一個(gè)只有兩個(gè)全職全薪員工的組織的管理者；我打包了所有的東西，搬去和一個(gè)朋友一起住，以此來(lái)逃避我鄰居的午夜派對(duì)，沒(méi)有任何談判和爭(zhēng)辯，安靜了下來(lái)。

在這件事發(fā)生之前，我從來(lái)沒(méi)有如此安靜過(guò)。這對(duì)我的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)累積的作用是，任何劑量的中藥、瑜伽、針灸、熱浴，或是傳統(tǒng)的處方或非處方藥我都試過(guò)，都不能完全緩和后遺癥。直到現(xiàn)在我仍然睡得很淺，并且偶爾會(huì)睡不著。我感覺(jué)得到隔壁走路的振動(dòng)和我骨頭里低沉的聲音。當(dāng)我靜下來(lái)并且拋開(kāi)繁忙的思緒時(shí)，我強(qiáng)烈的感到有一個(gè)密不透風(fēng)的、幾乎令我痛苦的阻塞物在我的胸口。沉思和放松與更強(qiáng)烈地感到這種不適時(shí)常相生相伴。由于不同的強(qiáng)度，我會(huì)產(chǎn)生各種情緒，從煩躁不安到徹底的恐慌。這些情緒在一定的刺激下會(huì)增強(qiáng)，比如當(dāng)我面對(duì)必須再次搬家的問(wèn)題的時(shí)候。一項(xiàng)工作，像是打包，簡(jiǎn)直會(huì)使我心悸。
回想感受

想要控制這些感覺(jué)的想法也只會(huì)加重它們。善意的行為轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)槲�引力法則（Law of Attraction），這個(gè)法則提醒我這樣的“否定性”會(huì)在生活中產(chǎn)生出一樣的情緒，提高嗓門(mén)只會(huì)加重我自己對(duì)強(qiáng)迫觀念與行為的趨勢(shì)的擔(dān)心。踩上去一聲響，弄傷我媽媽的背了�？�，不要想不好的事情！哦，天吶，我現(xiàn)在就在想……

注意，我說(shuō)的是一定的回想能控制這些感覺(jué). 即使是天生的理性主義者（或者應(yīng)該算天生的），我試著緩解我的不適的第一直覺(jué)是更多地回想它. 盡管這些年都在做南轅北轍的事，我似乎相信，無(wú)休止地反復(fù)思考可能造成我的煩惱的原因，會(huì)以某種方式解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。我為什么覺(jué)得難受？讓我們從每一個(gè)可能的角度剖析它！十年來(lái)，我嘗試的治療中，至少百分之七十（令人失望地）采用無(wú)休止地，并且一般是無(wú)意義地剖析我的過(guò)去的方法，企圖以此來(lái)緩解我現(xiàn)在的痛苦。但是要產(chǎn)生放松情緒，制造相應(yīng)環(huán)境不是必需的。

事實(shí)上，看來(lái)往往我對(duì)之前的麻煩和“問(wèn)題”糾結(jié)得越多，我越加牢牢的“盯住”這些難對(duì)付的“問(wèn)題”，他們變得更大、更頑固，于是他們變得更消極。如果我不斷地圍繞這些問(wèn)題回想，事實(shí)上他們會(huì)越滾越大，變成一個(gè)巨大的雪球。這個(gè)故事從復(fù)述中得到了推進(jìn)力。

去年夏天，我第一次讀了Eckhart Tolle寫(xiě)的《當(dāng)下的力量》（The Power of Now），并且當(dāng)即收到了一些啟發(fā)。通過(guò)不可置信的清晰的、不加渲染的散文形式，他精確地描述了我們?nèi)绾我恢弊屪约菏苤�自己的思想的折磨，重�?fù)回想過(guò)去和將來(lái)讓我們的痛苦和擔(dān)憂(yōu)一直持續(xù)著。我們花很大的精力通過(guò)這種方式為自己制造問(wèn)題，并且把自己變成一個(gè)問(wèn)題。此時(shí)，真正能夠解放我們的是回到感受當(dāng)下的狀態(tài)（只是真正存在的這一刻）。雖然我以前也在其他書(shū)里讀到過(guò)類(lèi)似的東西——一般是杰出的佛學(xué)家寫(xiě)的——它沒(méi)有滲入到比智力水平更深的層面。當(dāng)然，我從不知道怎么把它運(yùn)用到我的日常生活中去。

沒(méi)有反抗行為

他用的關(guān)鍵詞是沒(méi)有反抗行為。意思是既不逃避煩悶也不與它作斗爭(zhēng)。他建議我們縱容那種感覺(jué)，而不是立即著手與它斗爭(zhēng)，并且給與它更多的關(guān)注而不是無(wú)關(guān)緊要的觀察。我真的不知道，如果我安靜地坐著，并且只是感受著，甚至當(dāng)這種感受是徹頭徹尾地令人不快時(shí)，會(huì)是怎樣，不過(guò)這值得一試。我能控制自己，不因沉思而跳腳并且把所有問(wèn)題都變成主要問(wèn)題嗎？我能打破一個(gè)終身養(yǎng)成的、根深蒂固的、毫無(wú)意識(shí)的習(xí)慣嗎？

當(dāng)我開(kāi)始注意它時(shí)，答案揭曉，我能——我現(xiàn)在對(duì)我的無(wú)意識(shí)反應(yīng)比以前有意識(shí)多了，因此當(dāng)強(qiáng)烈的擔(dān)憂(yōu)占據(jù)我，就像我覺(jué)得我是在我最后一次搬家的時(shí)候，我有時(shí)能夠在反抗的行為中控制我自己。

我和我的一個(gè)親密的老朋友在車(chē)上，前往我希望會(huì)是一個(gè)快樂(lè)的周日早午餐的地方，煩悶情緒猛烈襲來(lái)，我就像一個(gè)無(wú)意識(shí)的人質(zhì)。我因害怕而暈眩；我的胃翻滾著，我的心臟狂跳。市中心的街道看上去丑陋、骯臟、充滿(mǎn)敵意。一開(kāi)始我試著抵抗這種感覺(jué)，然后失望地認(rèn)為我們的出行被毀了。

突然我記起Tolle的話(huà)：不抵抗任何東西。

我在我的煩悶中放松了下來(lái)。就像這是世界上再正常不過(guò)的事。好， 我決定了，我現(xiàn)在開(kāi)始這樣去想.當(dāng)我的朋友一直在和我說(shuō)她的新房子時(shí)，我既不和這種感覺(jué)斗爭(zhēng)也不忽略它，而只是讓它們像一個(gè)小型臺(tái)風(fēng)一樣吹過(guò)我的神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)。當(dāng)我們停車(chē)的時(shí)候，它們已經(jīng)褪去了。當(dāng)我在桌邊坐下，我很難相信僅僅幾分鐘前我所感覺(jué)到的。并且在那之后我們確實(shí)愉快的享用了早午餐。

誰(shuí)會(huì)再去想它？肯定不是我。但是這是不去想的魅力。
一種極好的沉思

給其他被憂(yōu)慮和恐慌折磨的人附言：除了放棄之外，我發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)呼吸沉思法，改編自Thich Nhat Hanh（并且從生命力瑜伽<Kundalini yoga>中借用了一個(gè)姿勢(shì)），非常有幫助。它可以或躺或坐著進(jìn)行，以你最喜歡的沉思姿勢(shì)就可以。把你的右手放在心臟部位，腹式深呼吸，同時(shí)伴隨適當(dāng)?shù)暮魵饣蛭鼩馄届o地閱讀下面兩行字：

吸氣，我的心平靜了。
呼氣，我會(huì)心地微笑。

每一次吸氣和呼氣保持幾秒時(shí)間會(huì)幫助減緩你的心跳。