How to deal with anxiety associated with surroundings/environment?
Upvote:1
Anxiety can arise due to external circumstance.
Ven. Sariputta taught:
DN34:1.5.2: What four things are helpful?
DN34:1.5.3: Four situations:
DN34:1.5.4: living in a suitable region, relying on good people, being rightly resolved in oneself, and past merit.
Living in a bad neighborhood is indeed stressful. If the neighborhood is a given and you cannot move, find and rely on good people. If good people are not available, live ethically to be worth of the company of good people.
Anxiety can also arise internally:
MN22:18.2: “Sir, can there be anxiety about what doesn’t exist externally?” MN22:18.3: “There can, mendicant,” said the Buddha.
MN22:18.4: “It’s when someone thinks,
MN22:18.5: ‘Oh, but it used to be mine, and it is mine no more.
MN22:18.6: Oh, but it could be mine, and I will get it no more.’
The remedies for internal anxiety are explained further in MN22:
MN22:19.1: “But can there be no anxiety about what doesn’t exist externally?”
MN22:19.2: “There can, mendicant,” said the Buddha.
MN22:19.3: “It’s when someone doesn’t think,
MN22:19.4: ‘Oh, but it used to be mine, and it is mine no more.
MN22:19.5: Oh, but it could be mine, and I will get it no more.’
MN22 is quite extensive and discusses other such cases, and may therefore be of some help in your situation.
A key point to understand in MN22 is that possessiveness (i.e., "mine") is a trigger for anxiety. For example, if we miss the pleasant neighbors from our old neighborhood, we might grow sad and feel helpless. Therefore, focusing on the loss causes anxiety.
However, if we focus on being a nice neighbor, then our new neighborhood now has a nice neighbor. We become that nice neighbor and bake cookies for our neighbors and say "hello!".
And that is the essence of practicing unlimited love, compassion, rejoicing and equanimity. We can look inside ourselves and let that light shine forth to brighten the world.
So it is not a matter of denial. It is a matter of affirmation and giving. It is about sensing a lack and giving what is needed.
Upvote:1
You say that your anxiety arises from ...
... incidents that get reported in the area everyday.
So one more suggestion is, don't just beware of the incidents but beware of the reports.
I mean, some people for example watch the news on television, or maybe they read social media, and get upset because the news is bad. One of the remedies for that is to stop paying much attention to the news.
Beware that "news reports" is usually bad by definition no matter where you are -- because everything that isn't "an incident" isn't ever "reported" in that way -- and so "the reports" always give a one-sided and sometimes overly-pessimistic view of reality.
To beware of what (sense-inputs) you pay attention to and become passionate about in some way, might be called guarding the sense doors. It's usually used to warn against superficially-attractive objects but I think it's applicable to any sense-input that you might be attached to, including ones which evoke fear.
Upvote:4
Good neighborhood, living in areas where wrong view doesn't domain, is actually a prerequisite for good practice (one of the first greatest blessings/protection), good householder, so which attachments keeps him not from seeking to dwell on good, better, place? Once understanding is firm, of course, it wouldn't matter that much any more, still, even Arahats dwell there where it's pleasing to dwell. So one fear needs to win over another. Good situation to find out the cause of inflexibility and feeling bond.
- To reside in a suitable location... is the highest blessing
- Countries to leave & counties to go
- 6. Sevanāsuttaṁ-That should be followed after
(ps: don't take the unqualified commentaries of rude and ignorant neighbors here to serious if desiring to resist here...)
More post
- 📝 Miracles of Gautama Buddha
- 📝 What is the difference between 'Witnessing the thoughts' vs 'Mindfulness of the thoughts'?
- 📝 If a Buddhist believes lay life is not ideal for the practice, why does he or she continue?
- 📝 Are the four characteristics -- production, abiding, change and destruction -- empty, conceptual constructions?
- 📝 How compatible are the beliefs of atheists and Buddhism?
- 📝 Can the mind be trained to maintain equanimity in the face of compulsive urges/cravings (without giving in / acting out)?
- 📝 Enlightenment vs nibbana/nirvana
- 📝 Telepathic Communication, do Buddhists Believe in it?
- 📝 Attending my first Buddhist Retreat
- 📝 What should be a Buddhist's response to derogatory depictions of Buddhism?
- 📝 The arising of arrogance
- 📝 How to understand lay equanimity from MN 137?
- 📝 What is the difference between transcendental state of mind and Nirvana?
- 📝 "No trace" conceptual origins and term
- 📝 My parents want me to get married, should I honor their request if I'm not interested in marriage?
- 📝 Gautama Buddha and Hindu divinities
- 📝 What exactly is rebirth?
- 📝 The eternal universe
- 📝 irrational fear of hell and damnation and spiralling, please help me?
- 📝 Did the Buddha speak the Mahanidana Sutta in the Digha Nikaya?
- 📝 Before Buddhism, was there a way to escape from samsara?
- 📝 How many monks required to ordain or create new Sangha?
- 📝 What makes a great a spiritual leader? Is it nature or nurture or something else?
- 📝 Stabilizing the counterpart sign
- 📝 What are the correct "transformation targets" for greed (lobha), hate (dosa) and delusion (moha)?
- 📝 Advice for Buddhist meditation for OCD
- 📝 Is this desire, to not be friendless anymore, healthy?
- 📝 how do we know about parts of Buddha's life where he was clearly alone?
- 📝 How did this teleportation happen in DN 16?
- 📝 Are we taught to try to understand our fears?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How to deal with anxiety associated with surroundings/environment?
- 📝 Health anxiety - how to deal with it?
- 📝 How to deal with people and handle rude language?
- 📝 How to deal with bad past karma that makes my current life miserable?
- 📝 How to deal with body pain during meditation?
- 📝 How do I deal with Buddhist teaching's complexity?
- 📝 How to deal with criticism?
- 📝 Is it helpful, how is it possible, to deal with anger by 'accepting' it with equanimity?
- 📝 How to deal with suffering and losing faith?
- 📝 How to deal with immense guilt over past acts of cruelty? Is sincere repentance and striving really enough?
- 📝 How to deal with our aversions & judgements?
- 📝 Where are the Eight Worldly Winds and how to deal with them described?
- 📝 How to deal with sore hips during sitting?
- 📝 How did Buddha deal with people that were sexually attracted to him?
- 📝 How to deal with being ignored?
- 📝 How to deal with obstacles (with Sutta reference)
- 📝 How do I deal with Aversion?
- 📝 How should Buddhists deal with Loneliness
- 📝 How to deal with people and colleagues who are angry, complaining or seeking attention?
- 📝 How to deal with mediocrity
- 📝 How to deal with loved ones who don't support you?
- 📝 How is a mindstream associated with human forms?
- 📝 Suttas which explain how to deal with unwholesome habits
- 📝 How does teaching of Buddhism deal with waste? How does teaching of Buddhism deal with acceptance even it causes unhappiness?
- 📝 How to deal with insults?
- 📝 How to deal with distractions during meditation?
- 📝 How to deal with fixation towards an old relationship?
- 📝 How does Buddhism deal with failure?
- 📝 How do you identify the 5 factors associated with Jhana?
- 📝 How to deal with people giving reviews to the teaching?