Hi my dear friend,
Welcome to our today's practice and today you will learn a technique of how to work with anxiety.
I believe it is an essential topic to cover while working with your states and improving the quality of your life.
It is not just a meditation that will help you to ease this hard feeling at the moment but a practical tool that you will be able to use and master any time.
There will be a few parts combined and you might need a pen and a paper to take the notes but please not digital notes.
So please take your time to prepare it now and let go of any expectations or control and relax and trust in the present moment.
Traditionally take a comfortable seat either on a chair with your feet on the floor or on a sofa or yoga mat with your legs crossed or however is comfortable for you but I recommend sitting and not lying down for this practice.
Take a deep breath in through your nose and a gentle breath out and close your eyes.
Feel where your breath is present the most at this moment your belly or chest area or you feel the movement of air under your nose.
Set an intention to dive now into the presence of your inner world.
Take another comfortably deep breath into your belly and exhale through your mouth with a sigh letting go of the outer world and let's do it the last time.
Inhaling presence and exhaling time and any control.
Embrace with your attention your whole body from the tips of your toes to your crown.
Feel this space between your feet and your knees,
Space between your hips,
Feel your belly and chest area,
The space within your whole torso,
The space between your shoulders,
Between your ears,
Your eyes,
Your temples and feel the space within your whole body.
Place your gentle focus inside of your head.
Check your mental state.
Are there many thoughts?
A few?
What is their quality in general?
Now spend a few minutes identifying each thought.
You can see them in your mind's eye in some shape or color or simply as an abstract thought.
And now label each one of your thoughts as anxiety.
Each and every single one.
Let's do it.
Oh I got this thought about the deadline.
Label it anxiety.
I thought about breakfast.
Anxiety.
I thought about this weird smell.
Anxiety.
I thought about this weird task we are doing.
Anxiety.
These are just examples.
Continue with your thoughts whatever they are and label them as anxiety.
If a thought that you label isn't anxiety,
You won't feel anything.
But if it really is,
Your body will give you a sign that it is anxiety indeed.
Keep labeling each thought as anxiety and the ones that your body tells you are anxiety,
Note them shortly on a paper.
Great!
Keep noticing your thoughts without forcing anything or trying to change them.
You're doing so well.
Our goal now is to find out the specific topics you get anxious about.
Keep noticing and labeling your thoughts for a couple of more minutes.
Great!
Now you can look at your list and go through the topics that your body signaled you it was anxiety.
There might be as many as you have.
There is no better answer.
These are your anxiety.
The rest of your thoughts are not and it is already a big ease to know.
You can work with these specific topics later on your own or in therapy.
But for now close your eyes and feel the emotions that stand behind your anxiety.
Anxiety in general.
What emotions are awakened by this anxiety?
It might be aggression,
Hatred,
Jealousy,
Shame.
We won't go there now but in the heart of it all,
Behind all these layers of uncomfortable emotions is a desire.
And you can work with this pure and powerful desire later and make it come true.
For now let's come back to working with anxiety.
To tell you the truth,
Anxiety doesn't help anything and I believe you know this.
And that is why it is so important to learn how to work with it.
So you can release all these blocked energy and focus it on something truly valuable.
Feel the anxiety that is present now in your body.
Maybe not all of it,
Just the amount of anxiety that is pretty comfortable for you now.
That will help us a lot to work further.
In your mind's eye imagine yourself walking outside on a street and suddenly you start experiencing your anxiety.
What would happen to you there?
What would you do?
Imagine it in detail,
Realizing it's only your imagination now helping you during this practice.
Feel safe seeing all the images that are coming to you.
How would you act?
What would you do?
As an example,
For me I would probably just start crying,
Sit on my knees,
Cover my face with my hands and I wouldn't even pay attention to the people around me but make all the wild sounds while I'm crying.
And what happens to you?
And now there on the street you see a calm and relaxed person in front of you.
This person is not a saint,
Just an ordinary person.
Is it he or she?
This person lives their life without even thinking about anxiety.
They are at that level when they don't normally experience it.
Envision this person and feel what this person feels.
What emotional states does he or she live in?
What sensation does their body experience?
What vibrations does their body emanate?
You can describe it with colors,
Texture,
Smells or sound,
However you perceive the state of this person.
Imagine this person helping you in that situation on the street when you felt anxious.
You walk together to a bench and spend some time together.
You don't talk,
You just are together.
Now let this state of that person,
Their sensations fill your body.
Breathe this color in.
Soak in these textures,
Smells or sounds.
So it becomes the beginning of your new state.
This will become your new normal.
This state will replace your anxiety in the future.
Spend here as much time as you need to fill yourself with this new experience.
You can even pause the audio if you need a bit more time.
When he or she feels that all is well,
They say you are ready for today.
It is enough.
I can go now.
You are now sitting on this bench alone and you find yourself with a new feeling,
New emotion,
New state.
You don't want to be anxious anymore today.
And even if anxiety comes,
You'll be able to recognize it immediately.
You have the whole day for that.
Look at it as it is a game.
Today you are allowed not to think about tomorrow.
Today you realized as much as you needed.
You took from this experience as much as necessary.
You got so many realizations as never before.
You did great.
Spend a few more moments in this state,
Breathing in and out.
This is a new experience that was planted inside of you today and it will forever stay with you.
The same color,
Shape or texture that you saw in that person.
Be happy and feel grateful that you have it now.
The biggest problem with anxiety is that we don't have a strong foundation inside.
Another emotion,
Feeling or experience that could help us differentiate.
Okay,
This is anxiety and this is not.
Another strong feeling that could be an alternative to anxiety.
Today you realize your anxiety.
You have now a tool to change it.
You have a new foundation inside and it is in your power to make it strong.
You experienced another possible state of how you want to feel and now your task is to nurture this planted seed.
Push that switch every time you experience anxiety and switch to something better for yourself.
It is a matter of habit,
A tough and dedicated work but it'll get easier because at any given moment we can experience only one state and now it became a choice for you.
You can choose for yourself now.
With the time you will feel more powerful over your emotional states and more confident in everyday life.
We are getting closer to the end of our today's practice.
Bring your attention back to your body and rest your focus on your breath.
If you would like to get more personalized techniques and a custom set of tools that will help you significantly improve the quality of your life,
I'm happy to invite you to my coaching and therapy sessions.
Don't hesitate to reach out and for now keep discovering this amazing course.
I'll see you next time.
