Buddhist Approaches to Dealing with Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common forms of suffering in the modern world. Characterized by worry, fear, and a sense of impending threat, anxiety can be both deeply uncomfortable and profoundly disabling. The Buddhist tradition offers time-tested practices that can help us understand and work skillfully with anxious states of mind.

From a Buddhist perspective, anxiety often arises from our relationship with impermanence and uncertainty. We want things to be stable and predictable, and when they are not — when the future is uncertain, when things we value are threatened — we experience fear. The mind generates anxious thoughts in an attempt to control what is fundamentally uncontrollable.

One of the most powerful Buddhist teachings for working with anxiety is the practice of turning toward, rather than away from, the experience of anxiety. Rather than trying to suppress or escape the anxious feeling, we can investigate it with curious, compassionate attention: Where is it in the body? What does it feel like? Does it have a color or shape? What thoughts are associated with it?

The practice of mindfulness is particularly helpful for anxiety because it interrupts the habitual chain of anxious thinking. When we notice that we are caught in a cycle of worry, we can gently redirect attention to the present moment — to the breath, the body, the sounds around us. This does not make the anxiety disappear, but it prevents us from adding fuel to the fire through continued rumination.

Loving-kindness meditation can also be a powerful antidote to anxiety. Anxiety often involves a contracted, self-focused quality of attention. By deliberately expanding our circle of care to include others — by wishing others well, by recognizing that suffering is a shared human experience — we can soften the intensity of our own distress.

If you are struggling with anxiety, be gentle with yourself. Begin with very small practices — a few mindful breaths, a moment of self-compassion, a brief loving-kindness meditation. Over time, these small practices accumulate and can create a significant shift in how you relate to anxiety and to the uncertainties of life.