HOW TO USE MINDFULNESS WHEN FEELING ANXIOUS
DID YOU KNOW?
Mindfulness has been shown
To reduce stress,
To relax our systems,
To increase creativity and openness to learning,
Improve sleep
Increase happiness
and to just LOVE being at home in your own body
What happens when we worry?
The chances are you are safe right now? Otherwise safety is your first priority of course! The role of anxiety is to warn you and prepare you for danger - BUT —— there is probably no danger right now and you may be still feeling anxious.
When you worry the subconscious part of your mind believes you are in trouble and brings up chemicals (hormones) to save you from a supposed danger - a tiger in the room perhaps. With these chemicals in our body preparing us to take action, we feel hyper-vigilant and ‘on edge’, and we often don’t know the reason. We consciously know there is no tiger in the room, but our subconscious mind is still back in the jungle when we needed to be super alert and full of energy to run or fight.
Our subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between an imagined danger and a real danger - it relies on your thoughts and and senses and past experiences to decide if you are safe, and then to produce the hormones it believes you need right now.
If you have experienced a threatening environment in your past, the subconscious mind has recorded the image - and when you are near anything that resembles the past danger it reacts as if you are still there.
Step 1
Observe that anxious feeling and name it - out loud if you can - or write down the feeling and describe it - even this simple act reduces the severity of the emotion because it requires use of a different part of your brain.
Can you face the feeling with more curiosity and less fear? Notice what part of the body the emotion of anxiety is affecting - (often it sits around our chest, gut or throat) - notice how large is it - how you would describe the feeling - how you would paint it as an abstract painting - would it be sharp or heavy - what colour - notice the parts of the body that aren’t affected by the feeling - your feet and hands perhaps?
Step 2
While you observe an emotion it cannot take you over - you have it pinned!!
You are in charge.
Try not to think about the feeling - try not to judge it as good or bad - remind yourself that your body is producing these emotions because it thinks you are in danger - it produces chemicals to make the body stronger to fight or run away from a lion perhaps - your subconscious mind cannot see through your eyes that you are safe right now - it’s reacting to your thoughts and maybe triggers around you and connects them to past experiences, a time perhaps when you were in real danger.
Step 3
As well as noticing the emotion, can you notice your breathing?
Did you know that inhaling increases the energy for action, while exhaling is a sign to the subconscious or parasympathetic system to allow body to relax - so focusing on a longer exhalation signals the subconscious mind the message that you are safe.
Counting during inhalation and exhalation also gives the thinking mind more to do than panic and helps you be in charge! Breathe in for 5 - out for 9 perhaps, or whatever suits you - just keeping that out-breath count longer than the in-breath
While you breathe can you imagine breathing around and through the sensation of anxiety without feeling frightened of the feeling - when we are frightened of our own feelings we add another layer of emotion so you can see how anxiety can spiral into panic.
Step 4
Being kind to you is so important. Emotions are messages which arise from the hurt parts of yourself - parts of yourself that may be stuck in the past.
Give yourself reassurance as you would to a child or friend who is hurting - ‘you are safe now’ -- ‘I’ll look after to you’ - ‘I care about you’ etc.
Cross you arms and rub your forearms as if you’re giving yourself a hug.
Hugging actually does trigger ‘happy hormones’ like oxytocin dopamine, and serotonin.
Congratulate yourself!!