Anyone who has ever suffered from mild or severe anxiety knows how crippling it can be. Anxiety disorders are common worldwide and in the US only it is estimated that about 40 million adults have some kind of anxiety disorder. Worldwide approximately 7% of the population sufferes anxiety. You shouldn’t feel like you are the only person in the world who deals with anxiety, because as you can see you’re not alone.

Most crucial step dealing with anxiety is to understand it first. Only when we understand it, we can manage it. By knowing the situations what triggers anxiety and how anxiety operates in us we can understand it better. And this is where meditation comes in. Anxiety is a cognitive state connected to an inability to regulate emotions. But research shows that a consistent meditation practice reprograms neural pathways in the brain and, therefore, improves our ability to regulate emotions.

There are many self-help books that helps you to deal with anxiety. The most powerful is Tanya Peterson’s The Mindfulness Workbook for Anxiety. This workbook will change the lives of people struggling with anxiety. In the 8-week solution Peterson provides readers with a lucid understanding of anxiety and foundational mindfulness practices.

Through meditation we think ourselves in situations which causes anxiety. We familiarize ourselves with such thoughts and learn to recognize them, handle them and let them go. By doing this, we learn that thoughts don’t define us and thoughts aren’t real. With this new perspective, we are able to change our relationship with anxiety step by step.