Anxiety Relief Technique, A 2-Step Process

Anxiety loops inside of us. The loop goes from thought to feeling and back again and draws us in so that we feel we ARE the loop, but that isn't the truth. This technique offers an off-ramp from that loop so you can access your deeper truth. May it provide space for your presence to arise, fellow peace seekers!

Music Credit: Letting Go by Christopher Lloyd Clarke, Enlightened Audio. Used with permission.
Photo Credit: pixabay lillolillolillo

Transcript

Let's do a technique to support you in releasing anxiety.

There's another audio that helps you release anxiety and is the first step.

We're going to include that step here and then add to it.

So if you'd like to go back and listen to that one,

You can.

Or you can just sit right here.

I'll guide you through the whole thing and then we'll add an additional step.

Let's start with our feet on the ground.

Let your shoulders relax.

Let your face relax.

You've been rubbing your eyes,

Rubbing the top of your head.

Hello,

You're here.

You made it.

Good job.

All right.

I'm rubbing the front of my body and my chest and my belly.

Oh,

Yes.

Sweeping my back,

Letting anything I don't need right now go.

Just let it go.

Just let it go.

You don't need it right now.

Okay.

This is your time.

This is your meditation time.

All right.

When you're ready,

You can close your eyes if that feels good.

Place a hand on your belly and place another hand on your heart.

And now I want you to focus on your breath and allow yourself to go inward to that world behind your eyes.

And as you do so,

You just keep focusing on your breath and your inner world.

I'm going to describe something.

And what I'm going to describe is the anxiety loop that we can find ourselves in.

Like,

Oops,

We get into it again,

Right?

Oops,

There it goes,

Like falling into a hole.

You're like,

Oops,

I fell into it.

Okay.

And it's where you have an anxious thought and it leads to an anxious feeling,

Which then leads to another anxious thought,

Which leads to another anxious feeling.

And this cycle loops and loops and loops.

And we know this well,

Right?

Okay.

So I want to offer a two-step technique to support you in releasing this cycle.

It's an off-ramp,

I call it,

From that cycle of the anxiety,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Toggling between each other.

The reality is it's trying to protect you from one perspective,

But when the anxiety gets so strong,

It's no longer helpful and it's more debilitating.

And so we want to gain practices and build muscles that help you release it.

Okay.

All right.

So what I want you to do,

Here you are with your eyes closed and you're breathing and just go ahead.

As you breathe and you're focusing on your breath,

Any thought that comes up,

I want you to just notice it.

And you'll notice it by simply saying hi to it.

Hi.

Maybe the next thought in your mind is I'm uncomfortable or this isn't going to work.

Or yeah,

Right.

Try and break my loop.

Mine's really strong.

Right?

I get it.

Whatever it is that comes up,

Just say hi to it.

Okay.

We're just going to say hi,

But then we're going to also offer it this really cool thing.

I want you to imagine that inside of you,

There's a light.

Go ahead and picture that now.

And I'll give you some ideas.

Maybe your light,

Maybe your inner light looks like a light bulb and you pull the string connected to it and it lights up.

Maybe it looks like the sun rays coming down through the clouds and it's like a sunbeam.

Maybe your light looks like a flashlight.

Maybe your light is like a disco ball light.

Maybe your light is like that yellowish color we often think of with light or maybe it's white or maybe it's another color.

Maybe your light today right now is a pink light or a teal light or a blue light or a green light.

Maybe your light changes colors or changes form.

Allow your imagination to show you your light today.

And then go ahead and shine your light just in a neutral light kind of way.

Light doesn't judge whether it wants to shine on something or not.

It just does or it doesn't.

It's either on or it's off.

So in that same neutral kind of way,

Just let the light fall onto that thought,

Whatever that thought was.

And you might have had a million,

You might have had three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight,

300 since the last time I asked you to think of that thought.

But bring that thought forward and shine the light on it.

And this is all happening in your visualization.

It's all happening in your imagination.

But where our attention goes,

Our energy flows.

And where our energy flows,

We have power.

So go ahead and shine your light on that thought and just say hi and it's neutral.

It's not like when you're going down a street and all of a sudden someone goes,

Hey,

And shines a flashlight onto you.

It's not that.

It's like,

Hi.

Oh,

I turned the light on.

It's like when I walk into a darker room where my kid is reading and I turn the light on for him.

I'm like,

Here you go.

Here's a light.

Here's a light.

Okay.

So I want you to just offer that light to that thought and say hi to it.

Okay.

And then I want you to do the same with your emotion or the feeling that comes up when you have that thought,

Or even just the feeling that you're feeling right now,

Whatever it is,

Just feel it.

Feel it and then notice it and say hi to it.

Hi,

Sadness or high anxiety or high fear or worry or high lateness or high curiosity or high anything,

Any feeling.

Hi,

Numb.

Hi,

Nothing.

Hi,

Hi.

And you shine the light and let your really and truly let your visualization abilities move with this.

Your mind,

Your being,

Your intuition can visualize and you're working that muscle now.

Okay.

So as you do that and you neutrally see your thoughts and see your feelings and shine the light.

Okay.

What that's doing is it's creating space.

One of the things about the anxiety loop is that we feel completely enmeshed in it.

We get completely,

It's like,

It is us.

There's nothing other than that when we're deep in the throes of it.

And that's understandable.

It can be very overwhelming.

What this exercise does is it helps you build a muscle to create a space between you and the anxious thoughts and feelings.

Because the truth is they aren't you.

They aren't all of you.

They're a thought and a feeling that you're having.

That doesn't mean they're not important,

But they don't get to be all of you.

You get to observe them.

You get to see them.

You get to shine a light on them and just say hi.

Okay.

And then I want to take this one step further.

The next thing you can do if it feels available.

And again,

This is like a muscle that you build over time.

So come back to this over and over.

I've been doing this practice for a really long time and it's really helpful and it gets stronger with practice and it gets stronger with time and attention.

So I want to offer you the next step.

I just thought of it this morning.

I'm like,

Oh yeah,

That's what I do.

After I say hi to the thought and the feeling,

I do this other thing and I don't know how you'll feel about it.

So just,

Just listen and see what you think.

After I offer the light and I say hi and I feel that space.

And honestly,

When I feel that space,

I often take a deep breath like,

Oh,

Hi.

Hi.

And then I don't know what to do with myself.

Cause I'm like,

Okay.

And this is just me,

But you can see how this resonates for you.

I'm like,

Okay,

What do I do now?

I see you.

I'm putting a light on you.

What do I do now?

And my insides want like a direction.

And I just know that the space is helpful in and of itself.

But let me give you a next step.

If this resonates for you is I then offer that thought and that feeling because it's essentially just energy and energy is neutral,

Right?

And I'm having a painful experience with this energy right now.

And so I do something that offers it another option than to be in the form of something painful.

I offer it love is what I do next.

So I see it,

I shine the light on it,

And then I offer it something that for me in that moment symbolizes me offering it love.

And so I actually picture something loving and I feel loving.

I don't feel loving toward the pain that it's providing or offering to me or that I'm feeling with it.

I don't offer the pain,

The love.

I offer that energy of that thought and feeling.

I offer like at its core,

In its core,

I see that it's neutral energy.

And I love energy.

I love neutral energy.

It's a very powerful thing.

And I love it.

And I offer that love to that thought and that feeling.

And so you can see just as I mentioned this,

What comes up for you,

Maybe you're not up for it.

That's totally fine.

Maybe you are willing to try it.

So if you're willing to try,

Here's what I like to do is I'll notice how my love is showing up in that moment for that thing.

And my imagination has kind of a field day with this.

I might picture it in all different ways.

Often it's like clouds and they're kind of pink.

So like these pink clouds will kind of come to that thought or that feeling.

It'll sort of envelop it a little bit.

And it's just,

It's not smothering.

It's not,

And it's not like full of agenda.

It's just like,

Here,

Here's some love.

Okay.

So ask yourself,

If you were to offer something that you love,

Some love,

What might it look like?

What color might it be?

Would it be like light?

Would it be like a red or a pink or a green light?

Would it be like a cloud?

Like how mine sometimes shows up?

Would it be a cloud with a color?

Again,

Pink or red or green or rose colored or anything?

How might it show up?

There's so many different ways.

There's infinite ways that you might access your love and then just offer it.

And even,

And if you're struggling with this,

Think of something or someone who you love.

And when you think of that being,

That person or that thing,

Then think of like what that feeling feels like in you.

And imagine offering that feeling to those thoughts,

Those anxious thoughts and feelings.

And if that feeling of love comes in a symbolic form,

Right?

My brain loves to make visuals.

So I have these visuals that come,

Like I said,

They'll be like a cloud or a beam,

Or sometimes it's like just this really soft thing.

Sometimes it's like a picture of a tree that I love.

It just symbolizes that love.

It encapsulates that love.

So let yourself do that to those particular anxious thoughts and feelings and just offer it a little love while you have that neutral light gaze on it.

Okay?

And that's your practice.

That's your practice.

And again,

The purpose here is to create some space.

Create a little space between you and those anxious thoughts and feelings.

Because they're not all of you.

You are so much.

You are so much more.

And this exercise helps you tap into that.

I hope.

It certainly helps me.

I hope that it's been at least a little bit interesting for you,

If not fully helpful.

But also,

Like I said,

It gets to be a practice and you get to build the muscle,

If you so choose.

Thank you for being here with me.

I'll see you next time.

Take care.