29 April 2015 - QA 1

My question is about anxiety. How to get rid of that past which was not so pleasant, with the help of yoga and meditation? The words are wonderful, but how to put them in practice?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

I think you have answered your own question. So it is not a question anymore!
See, with a few minutes of meditation, you are able to relax. And when you relax, you can handle problems in a much better way; unless you are being threatened with a gunpoint right at you. Then you can’t say, 'Wait a minute, I will close my eyes and meditate'. It is not possible.
But fortunately, when you are not in that extreme kind of situation, there are three things one can do:

1. Look back in life, and realize that you have had many such situations. It is not for the first time. Many stressful events have happened in your life, and you have overcome them all, and you are still alive. Somehow nature has helped you move. When you realize this then your perspective changes and you feel, 'Okay, let me take this challenge'.
So faith in yourself, or faith in the spirit, or faith in the divine can put your mind at rest

2. Invoking confidence within you.
Do you know the definition of stress? It is lack of confidence in yourself, lack of confidence in the people around you, and lack of confidence in your own abilities. These three things can give rise to anxiety

3. Meditation and breathing techniques. If you are a technical person who does not believe in anything, techniques do work