This is then transferred over into every day life as a Mindfulness based cognitive technique. Part of the reason why people can't relax is that they are too frightened to let go of their overall need to be in control. Or as people do begin to relax they become fearful of the sensations of their body relaxing. The meditation technique we use is specifically designed for people with an anxiety disorder and assists people in being able to learn to let go of the control and to learn to accept the sensations of their body relaxing with out fear. Most other relaxation techniques focus on relaxing the body first.
Meditation focuses on the mind and the body relaxes naturally as a result.
Other cognitive techniques, while being very effective, don't emphasise the ongoing awareness of thought patterns in the way a mindfulness technique does. Using a mindfulness technique means we can begin to see how it is not just our obvious thoughts, 'what if I have a heart attack, go insane, lose control, make a fool of myself' etc that are creating our anxiety and panic. Mindfulness shows us how our low self esteem also impacts on us and how our thoughts about ourselves and the way we interact with other people also perpetuates our anxiety and panic. It helps us become aware of how we constantly get hooked into feeling guilty about 1001 different situations, how our perfectionist behaviour impacts in our lives. How our need to be 'all things to all people' creates so much of our underlying anxiety.