Relief From Health Anxiety

Begin with simple mindfulness, and then shift to witnessing your classic health anxiety spiral "from above". Practice creating space from the health anxiety spiral and learning where recovery can begin.

Transcript

Hello and welcome back. Thank you for coming. Today we're going to be focusing on a quick and simple meditation for those with health anxiety. So this is a meditation we can do when we're in that sensitized state and we're just totally convinced that we are in imminent danger, Something's wrong with our body. Okay. . . I. . . I invite you to. . . Begin by starting all at once. Let's arrive immediately. Arriving here in the session. Settling in, You can think about all the things you have to worry about in about 10 minutes. So arriving all at once. Begin by noticing the breath. Noticing the sensation of your what it feels like in the seat. Feeling your feet on the ground. Your back and your sit bones on the seat. And then bringing your attention to the rising and the falling of your chest. Just feeling the rising and the falling of your chest. Hearing sounds in your environment. Any sounds that come across your consciousness, Just noticing sounds. And as you breathe deeply focusing on your breath. Listening to sounds. Sort of arriving in the session. You might notice that there are thoughts flying across. Your consciousness. Take a minute and just. . . Witness some of these thoughts. Noticing how these thoughts. We can witness them, Just kind of watch them. Coming and going. Some of them are kind of weird or kind of random. Maybe some of them are a little bit. Compulsive or maybe they're trying to take us back to something that scares us. Thinking about the future, Thinking about the past, Thinking about what you're gonna have for dinner, Whatever. Keep breathing. Witnessing these thoughts. Now, As you notice, These random flurries of thoughts. The reason why we're doing this is so that you can begin noticing. That if I witness something, It can't quite be me. So we're noticing some separation. So there's me sitting here and oh, There's a thought. Huh, And there it's gone. Thoughts come and go and. . . They don't stay. As you continue to breathe. Hear sounds and witnessing thoughts. I want you to bring to mind intentionally the anxious health anxiety thoughts, The cycle of health anxiety thoughts that have just been eating your lunch the last couple of days. There's all kinds of classic health anxiety stuff that we have. For some of us, It's cardiac stuff. For some of us, It's cognitive stuff. You know, It could be a million things. I just want you to. . . With that flavor of noticing and witnessing random thoughts. I want you to bring those anxious health thoughts to your mind and I want you to Witness them from above. Maybe it was yesterday they were really getting you down. Earlier today. Don't bring those health anxiety thoughts to mind, But witness them from above. Almost, You're looking down on them from a. . . Being in the sky and they're down there and you're looking at them. Most of us, There's sort of a beginning of the cycle. It's a strange sensation in our body. Oh, I feel something in my chest or my leg or my arms or my head. There's some sensation, And as soon as we feel that sensation in our body, We go, Oh no. And then there's a fearful thought. I'm gonna die, Something's wrong, Oh no. And we get afraid and we. . . Catastrophize oh there's a feeling in my body and I'm gonna die and then my family's gonna be upset and down and down and down and down we go into the spiral. What is that spiral for you? Don't bring that to mind the best you can. And again witness it from above. As we're doing this, We're continuing to breathe deeply. Kind of being in our body, Being in our sea. Hearing sounds, But also witnessing that health anxiety spiral from above. This is the spiral that brought us here today. I like to think of it as somatic hypervigilance. Our anxious thoughts pull our attention into our body. We're scanning, Scanning, Scanning. Am I okay? Am I okay? Am I okay? Now, As we continue to witness this cycle from above, Breathing deeply, Being in our body, We're safe right now, Right now we're safe. We're just witnessing this, We're investigating this. But right now, In this session here, We're safe in our body. Just an experiment. Now. Crucial point here as we think about that anxiety cycle for us, We have to start thinking about where can I intervene, Where can I do a bit better next time to Maybe not. Cycle down into this anxiety spiral and kind of ruin my day and hurt my own feelings. Where can I go? To intervene. And just for the purposes of today's session. Where we can go to intervene in the future is that space between noticing a sensation in our body and going immediately to worst case scenario. So think about that space. Continue to keep breathing. Safe in our body, Safe in the session. Now envisioning that space between the trigger and our body. And then the, Oh, I'm going to die, Or everything's bad, Or everything's going to go. Horribly wrong. The practice for us today. Is to interject when that comes up later today. You go, Oh, Something's wrong. We're going to place a hand on our heart. We're going to say something along the lines of. . . I trust my body. I trust my mind. I trust that I'm safe. And I'm going to continue doing what non-anxious me would do. So what would I be doing? If I wasn't. Anxious right now. Maybe I go wash the dishes, Maybe I. . . Talk to my husband or wife, Maybe I focus on my work. Can I do that for five minutes? Can I turn my attention to something that matters to me for the next five minutes? And you know what? If it's a red hot emergency in five minutes, We'll come back to it. So again, Envisioning the space between the feeling and the catastrophizing thought. Recognizing that perhaps maybe just for today we're safe in our body. In turning our attention to the thing that's in front of us, The next indicated thing. And we'll make an agreement with ourselves that if in five minutes or 10 minutes, If it's a red hot emergency, We'll handle it then. This is the practice for the rest of the day. This is the takeaway message. It's not going to be easy right away, It's going to be difficult. But I believe you can do it. Okay, So. . . There's your homework for the day. Remember to be kind to yourself. But remember, There's a razor's edge between being kind and compassionate to ourselves and allowing ourselves to avoid things that are actually safe. So we want to be kind and compassionate, But we also want to be brave. We don't want to shrink our life through avoidance. We want to have small, Brave baby steps to engage with things that scare us. Alright, Thanks for coming. I hope this was helpful. Have a good day.