Hello - Discussion
Hello and welcome! 
A technique I've had a lot of success with is negative visualization. Basically, you imagine scenes where you need to encounter problems (or even scenes from the past where you've handled things badly) and monitor your emotional reactions. When you notice your habitual reaction come up, like a little flare of anxiety of guilt or shame, you stop the suppression mechanism and let it happen. You can even think to yourself, "I don't need this reaction anymore. I can accept this feeling because I don't need to be afraid of it." Then try again with the same thing until the reaction doesn't arise and you can allow yourself to think about things that would normally bother you without the associated reaction.
An example might be, imagine yourself going into a social situation and making a really bad joke that no one laughs at. You might feel like you're actually there and it's actually happening. As it happens, allow yourself to look and feel foolish. You might even say to yourself, "I am such a fool, but that's okay! I can allow myself to act foolish sometimes. I can allow people to judge me - even see me as disgusting or stupid!" I've found that training myself to accept what I fear the most is very freeing. It does work to cure these problems too. I've had some OCD habits for a long time - usually they involve avoiding certain surfaces that I feel are dirty. So I spend some time imagining myself getting very dirty and ruining all my clothes, and then I intentionally got my hands sticky and didn't wash them for a while. I also used to be very afraid of spiders, so I imagined them crawling on me and watched some youtube videos of people handling spiders. Now I actually kind of like them. I just leave them alone when I see them in my house.
The point to realize is that you can actually change the feelings associated with these things. It isn't just learning to tolerate what you fear, but rather removing the fear itself through confrontation and desensitization. This can be a good way to start a meditation session, too, since it's more active, so you won't feel bored, and making peace with problems puts the mind in a very accepting state, which is good for meditation.
A technique I've had a lot of success with is negative visualization. Basically, you imagine scenes where you need to encounter problems (or even scenes from the past where you've handled things badly) and monitor your emotional reactions. When you notice your habitual reaction come up, like a little flare of anxiety of guilt or shame, you stop the suppression mechanism and let it happen. You can even think to yourself, "I don't need this reaction anymore. I can accept this feeling because I don't need to be afraid of it." Then try again with the same thing until the reaction doesn't arise and you can allow yourself to think about things that would normally bother you without the associated reaction.
An example might be, imagine yourself going into a social situation and making a really bad joke that no one laughs at. You might feel like you're actually there and it's actually happening. As it happens, allow yourself to look and feel foolish. You might even say to yourself, "I am such a fool, but that's okay! I can allow myself to act foolish sometimes. I can allow people to judge me - even see me as disgusting or stupid!" I've found that training myself to accept what I fear the most is very freeing. It does work to cure these problems too. I've had some OCD habits for a long time - usually they involve avoiding certain surfaces that I feel are dirty. So I spend some time imagining myself getting very dirty and ruining all my clothes, and then I intentionally got my hands sticky and didn't wash them for a while. I also used to be very afraid of spiders, so I imagined them crawling on me and watched some youtube videos of people handling spiders. Now I actually kind of like them. I just leave them alone when I see them in my house.
The point to realize is that you can actually change the feelings associated with these things. It isn't just learning to tolerate what you fear, but rather removing the fear itself through confrontation and desensitization. This can be a good way to start a meditation session, too, since it's more active, so you won't feel bored, and making peace with problems puts the mind in a very accepting state, which is good for meditation.
Hi, welcome MZG.
I'm also a fan of body-based stuff. If you meditate enough to hit the A&P, and then become Dark Night unstable and body-based/kundalini unstable you're in for a rough ride. Best advice I've found from Hyatt and Willis: make haste slowly. Reichian exercises tend to be pleasureable at first when superficial stress is being relieved. Later, if you persevere, your more fundamental 'character armor' will begin to dissolve and that is often a painful, disintegrative process. A similar statement can be made about hardcore meditation.
That said, I have a couple suggestions that you may find helpful (resources available here). Cultivate relaxation first of all. Use the physical techniques to help yourself relax manually (preferably w/ a helper), then consciously feel through your body releasing tensions, and then add on visualization (see the Regardie book in that thread; don't discount for its simplicity). Feeling and breathing come after relaxation. Proper breathing is described in the Willis book, but forcing yourself to breathe that way from the beginning isn't productive. Instead, relax, release tensions via awareness, passively but precisely observe the feelings in the body, and try to allow the breath to deepen naturally. Kriyas (spontaneous shaking or jerking) will develop naturally if you allow it; just observe in a passive, precise, ordinary way. Do this a few times a week, and then add on regular grounding leg/ankle/hip exercises from the Lowen book (Willis doesn't cover grounding). Finally, add on eye, forehead, face stuff (Willis/Hyatt) and exercises (Willis/Hyatt/Lowen) for whatever else is persistently tense or whatever seems like fun.
I've been at it several months now, so those are the best tips I've gathered. If you heed the disclaimer and make haste slowly, you'll begin to notice gradual changes in your feelings, posture, beliefs, behavior, etc. These change don't necessarily require conscious choice or deliberation, which never fails to impress me. I also wouldn't recommend neglecting the cognitive aspect of 'psychotherapy', nor the technical aspects of meditation. Good luck and have fun
I'm also a fan of body-based stuff. If you meditate enough to hit the A&P, and then become Dark Night unstable and body-based/kundalini unstable you're in for a rough ride. Best advice I've found from Hyatt and Willis: make haste slowly. Reichian exercises tend to be pleasureable at first when superficial stress is being relieved. Later, if you persevere, your more fundamental 'character armor' will begin to dissolve and that is often a painful, disintegrative process. A similar statement can be made about hardcore meditation.
That said, I have a couple suggestions that you may find helpful (resources available here). Cultivate relaxation first of all. Use the physical techniques to help yourself relax manually (preferably w/ a helper), then consciously feel through your body releasing tensions, and then add on visualization (see the Regardie book in that thread; don't discount for its simplicity). Feeling and breathing come after relaxation. Proper breathing is described in the Willis book, but forcing yourself to breathe that way from the beginning isn't productive. Instead, relax, release tensions via awareness, passively but precisely observe the feelings in the body, and try to allow the breath to deepen naturally. Kriyas (spontaneous shaking or jerking) will develop naturally if you allow it; just observe in a passive, precise, ordinary way. Do this a few times a week, and then add on regular grounding leg/ankle/hip exercises from the Lowen book (Willis doesn't cover grounding). Finally, add on eye, forehead, face stuff (Willis/Hyatt) and exercises (Willis/Hyatt/Lowen) for whatever else is persistently tense or whatever seems like fun.
I've been at it several months now, so those are the best tips I've gathered. If you heed the disclaimer and make haste slowly, you'll begin to notice gradual changes in your feelings, posture, beliefs, behavior, etc. These change don't necessarily require conscious choice or deliberation, which never fails to impress me. I also wouldn't recommend neglecting the cognitive aspect of 'psychotherapy', nor the technical aspects of meditation. Good luck and have fun