I’ve suffered from acute anxiety, social and general, all my life. It has hindered me in the pursuit of my dreams and sabotaged my attempts to achieve my goals. The only thing I’ve found that is effective at treating it is meditation. A few years ago, while I was in school, I was able to entirely eliminate my anxiety from my life after 6 months of daily, consistent meditation. Not only was I no longer anxious, but I had found a confidence in myself and immense joy that I had never felt before. Unfortunately, because of extenuating circumstances I was unable to continue my practice and so my anxiety returned in full force.
At this time in my life, I luckily can meditate; but because I am living the post-grad struggle to survive, I am bombarded with stress, negative thoughts, and persistent anxiety. This cloud of negativity has made the results of my practice significantly less fruitful than they were when I was a student. And the fact that I live in an incredibly noisy major city means that I can only meditate once in the morning before all audible hell breaks loose. I know that if I had several months to myself away from the pressures of my life to simply meditate in solitude, I would acquire the peace and equanimity I had years ago and a solid spiritual foundation from which I could pursue my goals.
From my reading, I have noticed that many of those who teach meditation have had the opportunity to hone their practice through extended periods of times living in spiritual communities of some kind or other often training with a spiritual teacher. I am not necessarily in pursuit of a “guru” but simply a place in solitude among the company of spiritually-minded people where I can dedicate myself to meditation for at the very least 6 months, but a year or more if possible. I’m willing to travel outside of the United States, where I currently reside, if necessary–anything that I can do to find the peace again I once had. Any guidance and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
