Hello everyone,

I’ve just joined this forum. Been lurking here for a very long time, and have found the material here very useful. A big thank you to all of you. The material here has been very useful and transformative for my practice.

Anyways, I’d like to get your thoughts on how one deals with anxiety/obsessive compulsive disorders.

Does one mindfully carry out one’s compulsion? Does one delay carrying out the compulsion as far as possible? If anyone has dealt with this in this forum, I’d love to hear from you!

My own approach is the following: For a long time, I would try to avoid carrying out the compulsion, and try to suppress the obsession. It failed miserably. I would try to 'logically' explain the obsession away. Finally, I decided to carry out the compulsion as many times as I would like. However, that doesn't seem to be working either, and seems to be leading to all kinds of new compulsions.

Anyways, over the last 2 days, I'm employing a slightly different approach. I just pay attention to whatever arises. Kind of like Shikantaza, except it has to be done 24/7 in my case. I don't prescribe to any one approach - saying that I will carry out my compulsions or not. I am trying to pay attention to whatever arises and see where that leads me.