How To Manage & Care For Your Worry Monster

This meditation/visualization is a fun and creative way to think about and manage anxiety. It is inspired by a session with a patient. We imagined that her anxiety was a monster and that all of her worries were making it bigger and hungrier. Here, you will build your monster and then shrink it down with powerful monster reduction skills (e.g., thought stopping, breathwork, gratitude). Have fun with it and watch your creative self grow and your worry monster shrink.

Transcript

Hello,

My name is Catherine Cook-Coutone.

And this meditation is about how to comfort your worry monster.

I know it sounds like a meditation for children,

And it could be.

However,

This one is to help us think about anxiety in a new way,

And maybe thinking about it in this new way will be helpful.

Before I start,

Be sure you are seated in a comfortable position and feel well grounded.

See if you can engage your core,

Press into the earth,

Sit bones on your chair,

Lift up through your spine,

Reaching through the crown of your head,

And soften your shoulders.

Maybe even soften or close your eyes.

And now take a few deep breaths.

Allow your mind to settle and open up into listening,

Open up into the possibility,

The inquiry of this meditation for you.

Orient your awareness now to your breath as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

Really begin to deepen and lengthen your breaths a bit more each time,

Being sure to maintain your grounded seat and extended spine.

You might even add a noticing to your breathing,

Something like this.

Breathing in,

I know I am breathing in,

And breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

Breathing in,

I know I am breathing in,

And breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

Continue breathing in this way.

Now I'd like you to bring to mind your latest anxiety,

Something you've been thinking and worrying about,

Something that in your heart of hearts you know is okay or simply is what it is,

And yet you get anxious and worry about it.

Bring that to mind.

Breathe in.

Think of this latest anxiety.

Now get a sense of what this anxiety feels like in your body.

In your body,

Where is it?

Where do you feel it?

Maybe it's a sensation in your head.

The thoughts have a sense to them.

Where does that show up and what is it like?

Is it a big or a little feeling?

Is it one feeling or a bunch of feelings?

Is it sharp or soft?

Is it tingly or settled or deep?

If it had a shape,

What shape would it be?

Maybe it's a few shapes.

What would those shapes be?

What if it had a color?

What color would it be?

Would it be more than one color?

And if so,

What are they?

Here's a question.

If you could smell this anxiety,

What would it smell like?

How about this?

What sound might it make?

What would it feel like to touch it?

Breathe here and get the visual,

The sound,

The smell,

The felt sense of this anxiety.

Now here's the big transformation.

All of the visuals,

The color,

The shape,

All of that.

If this was a monster,

What would it look like?

As you breathe here,

Allow the anxiety,

The visual,

Its color,

Its shape,

Its texture,

All of it.

Let it morph into a monster.

I know it's a little bit silly,

But see if you can go with this.

Here considering this,

What might this monster look like?

What would its feet be like?

Its legs,

Its belly,

Its arms and hands,

Its fingers,

Claws maybe.

And what does its face look like?

Its mouth,

Its nose,

Its eyes,

Its teeth,

What do those all look like?

Get an image of this monster,

This anxiety monster.

Now can you smell this monster?

What does it smell like?

If you touched it,

What might it feel like?

Coarse,

Slimy,

What?

What is your anxiety monster like?

Get a whole sense of this anxiety monster.

See if you can visualize it here.

And then I wonder what it might say and how does it sound?

Imagine it speaking to you and give it a voice.

Breathe here.

Imagine looking at this anxiety monster,

Hearing what it has to say and what it sounds like.

Is it loud,

Is it quiet,

Is it demanding?

What's it like?

What's it saying to you?

You want to get a good sense of it so you can spot it whenever it comes around.

Now I want to tell you a little bit about anxiety monsters.

They're always hungry.

They need to be fed.

And what do they eat?

They thrive on anxious thoughts and ruminations.

Thoughts that you think over and over and over again and get you nowhere.

Anxiety monsters love them.

They eat them up.

And the more thoughts you give your anxiety monster,

The bigger and hungrier it gets.

Imagine that.

Now on the other hand,

If you do not feed an anxiety monster,

If you ignore them and focus on something else,

If you breathe deeply,

If you make a plan of actionable things that you can do,

These kinds of things,

Oh,

A good one,

Gratitude,

They start to shrink anxiety monsters.

They get a little bit smaller and smaller.

Right?

Sometimes they even run away to try to find someone else who will feed them.

And I've heard,

I've heard that if they can't find anyone to feed them,

They just go and turn on the news.

Right?

And wait for someone to join them.

And then snack on all the worries that are generated by the news.

Now back to your anxiety monster.

Look at your anxiety monster again.

What is it saying?

What does it want?

And then press your feet into the ground.

Have a solid sense of your core and take a deep breath and tell your anxiety monster that you are not going to feed it today.

Say to this monster,

No,

I have fed you and fed you and fed you.

And all you do is get bigger and bother me more.

You haven't fixed anything.

You don't make anything better.

In fact,

You bother me so much.

Sometimes I can't even hear myself think.

I can't enjoy dinner.

I can't be in the here and now.

I can't be with the people I love.

You're too loud.

I'm not feeding you.

I'm done.

Ground your feet,

Find your core and take another deep breath.

Now imagine the monster mad.

Anxiety monsters do not like it when you set limits.

And sometimes it makes them yell even louder.

It makes them demand things that are even more extreme and scarier than before.

They think if they get bigger and they demand more worries that you'll deliver,

You have in the past to be fair.

But not this time,

Not you.

You will not succumb to the worry monster.

And now you're going to engage some big monster reduction techniques.

First,

You deliver a powerful monster reduction technique and that is,

Again,

You look at the monster and say,

You're done.

You say stop.

You say go on now.

Right?

Next,

You ground your feet,

Press them into the earth,

Take a deep breath and as you do,

You can feel,

You can see the anxiety monster shrinking.

In fact,

Each breath you take,

The monster gets smaller and smaller and smaller.

And because this is so powerful,

You keep grounding your feet and you keep breathing.

Nice,

Slow,

Deep monster reduction breaths.

Then you pull out the next technique.

You make a small list of actionable things you can do right now.

Maybe you get going on a project.

Maybe you write down taking care of something that's been on your mind.

Maybe you put on your list that you're going to tell someone you care about you love them.

You might add that you'll take your dog for a walk.

You might do something like be creative.

You might paint,

Journal,

Draw,

Meditate.

Now monsters do not like any of this stuff.

Your monster,

Much smaller now due to the stopping and the breathing,

Right?

And the list making is getting weaker and smaller and smaller.

It maybe looks up at you with these little eyes,

Right?

Then you get out the most powerful technique.

The most powerful of all,

Gratitude.

You start thinking of all the people in your life that you're thankful for.

And maybe like your favorite person,

Right?

Think of that person and be really grateful.

You might be thankful for your pets.

You might be thankful for something in nature.

I especially am thankful for sea lions.

I'm not sure why,

But they make me happy.

Maybe a flower.

Maybe your favorite tree.

Maybe your favorite musical instrument.

Your favorite art.

The food you love.

A game you love to play.

A place you love to nap.

Each thing you say you are thankful for,

The anxiety monster gets even smaller.

After all of that,

You stop and pause and look at your little monster.

You realize how all along this monster was just a little scared being.

And then maybe you let it walk right onto your hand and you comfort it.

And tell your anxiety monster that you understand.

Maybe you use your other hand to pet its little head,

Maybe even cuddle it in with a handkerchief or a napkin.

Maybe rock it gently back and forth,

Reminding this little guy that everything will be okay.

And then as you look,

You see that this little guy isn't so hungry after all.

It just needed a little comforting.

Imagine that you tuck your little monster into bed and let it get some rest.

And you,

You can get going on your day.

Maybe tackle your list.

Or maybe you'd like to get some rest yourself.

You can choose exactly what's right for you right now.

Now I want to give you a little guidance.

Any monsters,

They can take a while to tame.

It's important that you are very consistent and follow the steps each time.

You may even begin to notice that the things that get your monster going,

Right,

That come into your life and get it getting bigger and get it stronger and hungrier,

That you notice what those are and you can do a little bit of breathing,

Maybe some gratitude and maybe some comforting for your monster before it gets all wound up and big and hungry.

It's preventative anxiety monster caretaking.

And there you go.

The care and keeping of your anxiety monster.

Take a few breaths here and allow this meditation to settle.

Begin to deepen and lengthen your breaths.

Make sure to maintain your grounded seat and extend your spine.

You might even add a noticing of your breath,

Breathing in,

I know I am breathing in and breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

Breathing in,

I know I am breathing in and breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

You might want to take a few moments and just breathe and consider what this meditation means to you and for you.

You may even want to journal about your anxiety monster,

Maybe even draw your monster.

Perhaps you want to meditate further on something you might have noticed or consider.

For now,

Thank yourself for taking a few moments to listen and to wonder and to center.

And I thank you so much for listening.

Reviews

Thank you, this was very helpful.

Thanks for sharing this meditation that, in a very light way, deals with the horrible monster of anxienty.