How to Remove Anxiety

How to Remove Anxiety
Sri Swami Jyotirmayananda

Anxiety is a disease of the mind. It is like a worm that eats into the vitals of one’s per­sonality. Suppose a person were to slap his own face with his right hand and then soothe it with his left. So, it is with anxiety. On one side, the mind develops an expectation, a desire for something to happen. Then, on the other side, it contradicts and opposes itself, and develops a sense of fear and insecurity. This is how anxiety creates a tremendous feeling of turmoil.

When the will is weak and insight poor, the whole mind gradually becomes cloudy. It becomes perplexed and feels steeped in sadness and grief. Thus, anxiety, worry, and grief go together.

In order to remove anxiety, you need to free yourself of exaggerated wants in life. Realize that, if you have many wants and needs, you will be subject to manifold anxieties. But if your needs are few, the mind becomes free of anxiety. Realize, as well, that most needs in human life are exaggerated. In other words, you don’t really need them. Things that are necessary for a healthy and happy life are actually very few and counted.

Personalities that have developed in a complex culture exaggerate their needs. They need to wear big bracelets and earrings, and rings on all five fingers, each having an ounce of some precious stone. If you exaggerate your needs, you then be­come vulnerable to anxiety. You can’t live in peace. Therefore, keep your mind geared to simplicity, for it is through simple living and high thinking that you calm the exaggerated sense of desiring and the resulting anxiety.

In order to do away with the threat that anxiety presents, first gain insight into the workings of the unconscious – where the habit of anxiety gradually develops. If this anxiety becomes intense, it is very difficult to dispense with and becomes part of your nature. It saps all your vitality. Therefore, the mind that could have been used to explore greater things now uses all its energy in vain anxiety.

Moreover, anxiety does not make things better; it makes them worse. Suppose you are on a train and overanxious to reach your destination. No matter how anxious you are, the train will only get there in its own course. Your anxiety does not hasten matters, but only puts you in a disbalanced and tense state.

In Yoga, you learn the art of surrendering to the Divine Self. Allowing the mind to be free of all egoistic problems, if only for a short time, is a wonder­ful skill to be keenly promoted by an aspirant. Keep the mind vacant, as it were. This is the idea that led the Buddhistic school to meditate on the Void. But the Void is not as essenceless as it sounds. Letting your mind face nothing but zero, even for a moment, is quite a task.

Each time you try to relax your mind, you find that it has secretly clung to some little problem or nagging thought. It is much like a child who has been asked to go to bed, but has secretly stolen a lollypop, stealthily putting it under his blanket and enthusiastically eating away. Everyone thinks he is sleeping. However, he is very busy!

Similarly, when you ask yourself to quiet the mind, you suddenly realize it has secretly clung to some little problem or nagging thought. And it continues to harp on it. Whether you succeed at first or not, the effort towards success should be maintained day by day.

When you are able to free your mind of its petty preoccupations and touch upon the deeper Univer­sal Self, consider that an act of surrender. During that time, you develop an immense will and a new vision to face your problems. Your mind will then not develop the habit of anxiety.

Rather, you will recall great teachings, such as those of Jesus: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself,” and “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” In other words, everything is provided for in the Divine Plan.

The worrying habit has developed due to igno­rance and if you observe nature, you will notice that it is peculiar only to Man, the most evolved animal. It does not affect any other. Animals do not sit down and worry; only humans have the worrying habit, the habit that shuts out the possibility of a human being becoming Divine.

There was a parable about a great and pow­erful king in the 17th century, Shivaji. At that time, the Mohammedans were hostile to the Hindu religion. Fighting the Mohammedans, Shivaji preserved the Hindu race and religion from their barbaric attacks and onslaughts.

At the outset of his rule, Shivaji worried, so much so that he became emaciated and sickly. One day, his Guru, a great Saint, asked what was the matter: “As a fighter and a warrior, you were so relaxed. But now, since you have become king, you are so worried.” The king explained that his subjects were suffering and did not have all the requirements of life. As an ideal king, it was his duty to help them. But this subjected him to immense, all-consuming worry.

One day, his Guru took him to a mountainside and asked him to break a little rock. He did so and a frog emerged. The Guru asked him if he had taken care of that frog, or if he knew anyone else who had cared for it, hidden as it was inside the rock. “Who maintains that order? Who presents its food and looks after the realities of that frog? Don’t you think that Majestic Being is looking after the realities and problems of your subjects also? Why carry all the problems on your head? Don’t you realize there is a Divine Plan behind things?” The king understood the message.

Although you need to do your duty, you should not allow your mind to be filled with worry and anxiety. If you do, you will not be able to perform your duties well. Develop an overpowering under­standing that the world is not your project, but a Divine Project. You need only perform your role with the utmost sincerity you can command. The rest is left in God’s hands.

The mind must be free. When a swan wants to fly, it simply flutters its wings, throwing off every drop of water and then soars high. So too, although you are swimming in the lake of the world, cultivate the ability to flutter your wings, throw off all worldly problems and cares, and then fly beyond the world. If you do that just once a day, you will enjoy it immensely, as you are not just swimming, but soaring beyond the lake of the world-process.

An illustration is given of an ideal devotee. Once, in the heavenly world, the gods be­gan to gossip about the mortal world and raised the question, “Who was the best devotee?” They talked of many devotees, but Brahma the Creator said there was a farmer who, though not so well-known, was the best devotee of the Lord. Narada became upset, saying the farmer could not be the best devotee, for he had never seen him perform any religious practice. Because Brahma’s words could not be false, Narada went after the farmer like a detective to determine the facts.

Narada pursued him from morning till night and saw that, for the whole day, he did nothing but talk to his oxen, plow the fields and tend to his many duties. However, every night, he did one more thing: he gave a big sigh of relief, saying, “Hey Ram!” and went off into a deep sleep. It was because of this he was recognized as the best devotee! In a moment, he was able to throw off all his cares.

People find this hard to do, even with all their mantra repetition and meditation. The message, though, is not to stop repeating your mantra or start sighing like the farmer. The farmer’s personality was so integrated and so deeply absorbed in his duty that, at the end of the day, he was able to throw off all his cares. If you can do that, then, within a moment, you can face the eternal principle in your personality, the Divine Self.

To develop that art, try to keep the mind free of all cares, if for only a short time. Allow yourself to come in touch with the eternal principle, not your ego-principle. That is, you should not be clinging to anything that your ego has fabricated, such as your bank balance, relationships, promises of tomorrow, expectations; nothing of this nature should support you. On the path of Yoga, you train yourself to un­derstand that there is nothing secure in this world. Even the very ground you stand on is supported by the “Thousand-headed Cobra” spoken of in the Puranas, mystically symbolizing the universal principle of change.

In the beginning, this may seem painful, because no one likes to face the insecurity of things that seem to support him. So, do not wait until you are disillusioned. That brings frustration. Rather, allow your mind to understand that your money’s support is illusory, a relative’s love for you is illusory, your friend’s support is illusory, your parents’ love for you is illusory. Nothing around you can really be a support. Just for a while, discard them all and cling to the Divine Self. That art has to be promoted.

The next point in overcoming anxiety is to not keep to yourself mired in your anxiety. Learn to flow out of yourself. When fearful and anxious, most people shut their doors and will not talk to anyone. Their negative nature wants them involved in negativity. When you swing to the nega­tive, the negativity within you overpowers you. It is much like a frog that is close to the mouth of a snake – the frog realizes the snake is going to grab it, but somehow it becomes fascinated by its eyes and moves closer and closer. So too, whenever the mind tends to be a little negative, your whole nature takes up the project of supporting that negativity and plunges into it with great involvement. This grave error must be avoided.

Consequently, during such times, try to come out of yourself and perform some selfless service. And smile, even if it is artificial. Do not communicate your anxieties to others. To do so is another error that puts you into double trouble. Firstly, you are already reaping some negative karma, and secondly, by communicat­ing your negativity, you are making others negative and increasing your negative karma. In other words, anxiety is like a disease. A person catches a cold and if he is not careful, he infects others.

So, do not be like those who carry anxious thoughts and communicate them to others. If you tell your neighbor, “Didn’t you read that a killer is loose?” The neighbor, then, becomes intensely frightened and burdened with great anxiety. Beware of creating that bad association and communicating anxiety to others. Rather, keep your anxiety to yourself and dissipate your negativity by becoming involved in some form of creative work, preferably selfless action.

Four principles of Yoga to be remembered are selfless service, good association, study of scriptures and following a righteous path. If you take recourse to these, your mental energy becomes so involved that you have no room for anxiety.

Also, develop the ability to see things in their right proportion. Don’t exaggerate. A story is told about a poor person who was without shoes. Sorrowfully entering a temple with the idea of praying to God to give him shoes, he immediately noticed a person rapt in meditation – without legs! He then realized that all he lacked were shoes. Here is someone who lacks his very legs.

So, why should he make such a fuss about such a little need? He should be pleased with his shoe­less legs? Seeing things in proportion and realizing you are more fortunate than many allows you to appreciate what you have been given in the Divine Plan. In this way, you do not allow your mind to enter into vain anxiety.

Along these same lines, Raja Yoga says that Prakriti (Nature) flows, implying that as you evolve, your very ego changes. Certain things that are not known to you now, certain capacities, talents, and qualities, will evolve. Qualify yourself for it and certain powers unknown to you will emerge from your inner personality. As you flow on, nature is ready to supply you with many wondrous things. So, do not worry about the future; the future will take care of itself.

Also, realize that certain things that are now distressing to your ego will not be as distressing tomorrow. Instead of allowing your mind to be vexed with the future, learn the art of living your daily life with fullness and perfect balance. As time passes, those things that were the cause of worry disappear and you realize that you face a totally different pre­dicament and circumstances.

So, through the movement of Integral Yoga, the practice of Jnana Yoga (enquiry), Bhakti Yoga (devotion), Raja Yoga (meditation) and Karma Yoga (selfless action), you are preparing your mind to face the eternal, universal life. When you learn this art, ego and its restlessness fade. No matter how anxious your mind or how agitated your ego, once you have opened up to the eternal life and have asserted you are not a little personality, but the Eternal Self, all those causes of anxiety will melt away.

In short, to overcome anxiety, simplify your life; do not multiply your wants; do not rehearse a calam­ity (for it is invariably much less severe than what was rehearsed). See things in proportion; develop the spirit of faith and surrender, and balance and integrate your personality day by day. Also, take recourse to good association and keep busy; do not keep yourself confined to your ego – flow out of yourself.

Finally, develop insight into the structure of the subconscious and gradually change that worrying habit. Fill your mind with positive impressions so that each time nature creates a situation for anxiety, immediately your intellect brushes it aside. You have nothing to be anxious about, so train your mind to see clearly and not be overwhelmed by petty things. Transcend them. And understand the qualities con­trary to anxiety: calmness of mind, cheerfulness, open-heartedness, joyousness, courage, and hope. Promote them all. If you free yourself of anxiety, your mind will become a garden of spiritual quali­ties, a citadel of the Divine Self.

“International Yoga Guide”, Vol. 56, NO. 8, April 2019

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