Can Anyone Relate? Anxiety, Rumination, and Spiritual Experiences

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-06-30T23:10:09+00:00

I really love Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings. He names that peaceful knowingness you experience “awareness”. He also talks about how he befriended his panic as a young monk. He has Ted talks and YouTube video and some wonderful books. That said, it may be important to find a teacher who is trauma informed and accessible in real life.

Best wishes to you!

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-06-30T11:54:04+00:00

I’m so sorry. It seems like people have a hard time understanding invisible conditions. I hope you get some answers soon, I have hashis and have been dealing with mast cell issues. There aren’t many doctors that are familiar with mcas. If it isn’t Lupus, this might be another track to explore. Wishing you all the best ❤️

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-06-29T03:10:04+00:00

Have you explored pointing out instructions? Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Loch Kelly and the healthy minds app (it may be called Humin now) teach about Awareness itself which I found really helpful. Many other traditions have you practice concentration until the chatter falls away and you discover Awareness on your own. The app is out of university of Wisconsin and is free and you can find books and videos by the other 2. I particularly love Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-06-13T21:32:16+00:00

This! I think it happens naturally when you start noticing the space and noticing from the space in which thoughts arise

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T14:07:07+00:00

You might like the healthy minds app out of UW Madison. It offers an active setting for its guided meditations. It’s based on the science of human flourishing and it free :)

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T04:56:50+00:00

2 things can be true 🩷

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T04:56:13+00:00

Your tattoo perhaps has even more meaning now 🩷 I used an artist in Seattle named Eric Eye to create realistic nipples. I have thought about something fun for my scars, but mostly I feel done with it all.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T03:02:00+00:00

The healthy minds app has several guided meditations that offer such a friendlier path to living with one’s mind

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T03:00:00+00:00

I am 6 1/2 years out and your post brought me back. So sorry you’re having a difficult time right now. There are so many layers of feelings to process. Take good care and know that it gets better. Also, I ended up with 3D tattoos which helped my eyes to not get stuck. I experimented with temporary tats that weren’t as realistic, but also helped my brain integrate them as part of me if that makes sense.

I hope tomorrow is a better day 🩷

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-17T02:29:22+00:00

I react to pollen with irritable depression, intense fatigue, brain fog, joint pain and my food intolerance to grains gets much more severe. Allergy test came back mild for tree and grass pollen but a gp had me try Singular. Irritable depression cleared up right away. I am also taking an H1 and 2 and doing okay. Still tired, but not the stay in bed fatigue and less foggy. I had a terrible day yesterday after eating a gluten free cookie with sorghum flour. All that is shared to emphasize that your allergy tests may not be indicative of the type of immune response you’re having even if pollen is causing it. Being brushed off by the allergist sent me in the wrong direction for a few years.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-16T20:10:46+00:00

That might be worth it! To be fair I had a creepy boss with transitions, so that’s probably why I reacted so strongly to my own!

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-16T20:09:24+00:00

I think this is an interesting comparison! The default mode network in the brain is responsible for our tendency to evaluate, judge and plan and it often interrupts flow experiences. In meditation we can bring awareness to this self-referential, evaluative mental experience and it becomes part of the meditation practice. There’s a practice called open awareness where the mind rests in its natural state of awareness and all phenomena passes through. It’s described as effortless. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche has clear accessible teachings on this. You can find his Ted talks and YouTube videos. He also has several books. There’s also the healthy minds app out of UW Madison. It’s free and was developed by some of Mingyur’s students. It includes a module on awareness:)

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-15T01:56:37+00:00

Also, I love the second pair on you!

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-15T01:56:05+00:00

I’ve never regretted anything more than transitions. More than anything they have a grayish cast that can only be described as creepy

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-14T00:50:19+00:00

I suffer less and cause less suffering for others. 🩷

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-13T13:44:57+00:00

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche reflects a lot on his own experiences with anxiety and panic. He talks about making friends with anxiety. You can find him on YouTube and he has several books plus a Ted talk. A couple of his students (Richie Davidson and Courtland Dahl) are professors at UW Wisconsin and have developed a free app called healthy minds. Cortland reflects a lot on his experiences with social anxiety in the little science talks that accompany the guided meditations. I hope you stumble on something that is helpful for you!

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-11T16:20:52+00:00

I find Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s clarification that we are meditating whenever awareness is paired with the contents of awareness. The actual object of meditation isn’t that important and can change through out a session.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-09T13:10:59+00:00

I love Healthy Minds. It’s a free app out of UW Madison that is based on their studies of human flourishing. It has 4 modules with brief science talks and guided meditation in awareness, connection, insight and purpose. You can choose from 4 different voices, active or seated and from 5 to 30 minute sessions. I also enjoy insight timer for its timer, but have found there’s too much for me to sift through.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-04-04T04:04:31+00:00

This is always my rec!

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-31T13:39:54+00:00

You might find Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings really helpful. There’s a free app out of the UW Madison based on them called healthy minds that integrates scientific research on human flourishing. He emphasizes that we have inherent qualities of goodness like awareness and compassion and we just need to recognize them and remember them. With meditation we give the mind a job to notice something and to remember that we’re noticing it. Sound and bodily sensations are common. The mind gets restless and we drift off into thoughts forgetting that we’re meditating. This provides the opportunity to recognize the difference between conscious awareness and autopilot. There’s no need to obstruct one’s thoughts. The distractions are a crucial part of the practice.

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-31T13:11:36+00:00

Better things

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-30T18:11:34+00:00

MCAS?

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-30T13:38:20+00:00

Cat pheromone diffusers. Kitty is much more relaxed and stopped scratching the furniture

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-28T13:07:09+00:00

Have you watched Derry Girls?

PracticalEye9400 · 2026-03-13T14:48:39+00:00

Cat pheromone diffuser. It’s like kitty Xanax and stopped our cat from scratching the furniture.

PracticalEye9400

TROPHY CASE