I wake up many mornings with an anxious feeling. Sometimes I have something specific to worry about, sometimes I just feel anxious. Although I don’t enjoy this feeling, it doesn’t bother me like it used to. I used to believe it. It used to last through my day. It was that feeling that prompted me to begin my meditation practice.
Now, when I wake up with a feeling of anxiety, I check the time. If it is 2 or 3 am I may get up and meditate for half an hour. Usually after I meditate I fall right back asleep. If it is 5 am or later, I will get up and begin my day. I may do some light exercise then meditate for half an hour, or just meditate. My anxiety rarely lasts more that a few minutes into my meditation.
When I see my anxiety dissolve so consistently, I learn not to believe in it. It is a feeling of generalized or specific fear. I can’t think it away, but when I sit with it, it leaves. Nothing to fear.