Why Meditation for OCD Can Backfire (Unless You Do This)

Music. Hello and welcome to the OCD and Anxiety Podcast, where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders, taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears. Music.

Hello and welcome to episode 458 i hope that you're doing very well today wherever you are and if you are struggling with ocd or anxiety and you would like to get some support with that well you can by heading over to my website robertjamescoaching.com there you can book in directly for a free session or if you prefer you can send me a message and let me know about what you're struggling with.

Now in today's podcast we are going to be talking about meditation and of course you probably hear all the time that meditation can be great for things like OCD and anxiety but what if I told you that for some people it can actually make things worse.

Today I'm breaking down why meditation can actually be a game changer for for ocd and anxiety but only if you actually are doing it in the right way for you personally there isn't a some kind of blanket approach i think when it comes to meditation and ocd that works for everybody and it's really about experimenting a little bit and finding what works for you now if you would like to support the podcast it would be amazing if you could give us a review it really

does help and if you would like to follow along on instagram you can my instagram handle is at robert james coaching uk many thanks and if you have any questions at all about anything i speak about today do please let me know off we go.

Here's a quote by frank zapper to get us started one size does not fit all and i think this is very apt for the start of today's podcast where we're going to be discussing why meditation can be so beneficial for some and seemingly not for other people. When it comes to OCD and anxiety unfortunately meditation can actually really backfire.

When you sit down and you close your eyes and you try to focus on your breath for example as in mindfulness meditation people with ocd can often find that they get more intrusive thoughts maybe they get distressing images or things popping up into their consciousness that they uh they really don't want to be there and you know almost like an overly heavy or overly difficult exposure activity the meditation starts to become

too difficult it isn't something that is giving them peace or a break from their their incessant thinking quite quite the opposite. And this is obviously can be very detrimental if it's practiced in the long term. And, you know, you're just experiencing a lot of anxiety and you're, you know, you're finding yourself perhaps doing sneaky compulsions whilst you're meditating. That obviously isn't what you want to be doing in that situation.

And it might actually just be making the OCD worse over time. So it's really important that we recognize that, you know, there's so many great techniques out there for OCD and anxiety, but we do have to make sure that we tailor them to each person's specific needs. Of course, for some people, normal meditation is going to be absolutely fine. And I'm sure there's lots of people listening who think, well, I can meditate. I have OCD and actually I find it very beneficial.

I'm quite happy to do normal mindfulness meditation. and yeah of course that is going to be the case for for many people but for others normal mindful meditation as we were just talking about it's going to be really really difficult and other people might really struggle for example with a dual diagnosis of adhd and ocd at the same time and for those people maybe sitting still and just focusing on your breath is you know incredibly difficult to do.

I think it's very difficult for everybody but obviously if you have ADHD it may be even more difficult you know and there's there's all sorts of other reasons for why people might find normal sitting meditation to be to be very difficult. In my work as a coach and a Wim Hof instructor you know focused a lot on breath work and mindfulness I often find that teaching people different types of meditation, breath work, relaxation meditations, or body scan meditations, or even walking meditations.

All of these different types actually can be really helpful for people to learn. Because, you know, it may be if you do find it very hard to concentrate, then actually just sitting down for a long period of time isn't going to be the type of meditation that works for you. But actually the skill set that you get from meditation is really worth you kind of trying to find a type of meditation that does work for you.

And that's because actually the skill set of meditation is incredibly important when it comes to OCD and anxiety. Because what are we doing when we're sat there and we're trying to focus our attention in mindful meditation? Why is it so beneficial? Well, it's really the fact that whenever you get distracted by something, be that a thought.

Be that a sensation in your body or something else that pops up and starts dragging your focus away from the breath, the the object really is whenever you realize that you're doing that you simply try to remain calm and just bring your attention back to the breath and this is kind of one of the most important skills that you're training in meditation and it's actually also one of the most important skills that we train in acceptance commitment therapy and that we're kind of hopefully

training when we're learning to manage OCD better. The idea is that whenever you get distracted by an intrusive thought or anxiety or a difficult emotion, to acknowledge it but to bring your attention back to the present moment. Ideally to refocus back onto a value or to come back into the present moment in some way.

And actually that's the same skill set that you're developing when you're sat they're on the cushion and you're doing mindful meditation but it doesn't just have to be that old familiar i don't really want to say boring because for some people it may be you know a really nice way to meditate uh so i'm obviously not going to put it down it's it's really though making sure that you do find a type of meditation that really suits you and you know is is

going to help you to get the most out of meditation so you can get those skills as well you can actually train your mind so that when you do get distracted by things you've you've practiced you know how to come back to the present moment and that really is one of the most important skills when it comes to managing OCD and anxiety in the long term when I first came across the the Wim Hof method I started practicing the breath work,

I quickly realized that actually this was a kind of form of meditation and.

That is more suited to me personally because with the breath work well it's very active and I'm quite an active person I like to be outdoors I like to be doing a lot of sport and activities and so I like active things I find it really difficult to do normal mindfulness meditation I can do it I've kind of forced myself to learn how to do it over the years but often I like to do more active meditations or meditations that have a particular purpose or goal in mind

very much like the ones that i'm producing on youtube you know which which involve you know trying to move towards discomfort trying to feel difficult emotions trying to build a sense of gratitude or acceptance trying to build more self-compassion in the body using things like visualization these types of meditations I think can be a bit more helpful sometimes for people with OCD because they have a bit more of a clear purpose perhaps they're more guided with

more visualization in them and that can be quite helpful and beneficial but sometimes it's it's doing something like the the Wim Hof breath work which like I was just saying before is a very active form of breathing where you're really having to focus on breathing very.

Deeply down into your diaphragm and then up into the chest before letting go and starting again and it has a real rhythm and pace to it and I think for for people who who struggle to pay attention it can be a little bit easier because it's much more physical and it's a bit a bit more fast-paced another form of meditation that can be helpful can be walking meditations where maybe you're out in nature and you can really pay attention to what's going on around you or you can choose

to pay attention to the movement of your body. All those things like body scan meditations that, again, are very much focused on the body and kind of feeling the body, breathing deeply into different parts of the body, learning how to relax the body and the muscles. And all of these different types of meditations are things that, you know, you can explore yourself.

You can search on YouTube. You can go to my YouTube channel that I was just talking about earlier where I have a lot of meditations and that's going to be growing every week.

But there's there's a lot that you can do just by going online and going onto onto youtube you know you can discover all of these different types of meditation and i think it's so valuable and so important that you know that we do that because like i was saying before the the skill set that you get from from meditation is is really great and it's such a shame if you've had a negative experience with it because you were just

doing standard kind of mindfulness meditation and it didn't really resonate with you. It doesn't mean that it's never going to resonate with you, but perhaps you just need to find the right type of meditation for you. And then you'll be able to get a lot of these benefits, you know, that everybody talks about when it comes to mindfulness and meditation. So many thanks, guys. I really hope that you found that one helpful.

If you have any questions at all about anything I spoke about today, do please let me know. And I will see you next time.

Just a quick reminder that if you want to get a free session all you need to do to get that is to head over to my website www.robertjamescoaching.com and there you can leave me a message and we can arrange the free session and now just a quick reminder of my disclaimer any information that you view on my website instagram page facebook group or anywhere else online or any information that you listen to on the podcast is for informational purposes

only and is not intended to be a substitute for actual medical or mental health advice from a doctor, psychologist or any other medical or mental health professional. Music.