Combat Anxiety By Embracing Your Emotions

Welcome everybody.

Please find a comfortable position to relax the body.

Either sitting up straight,

Gently crossing the legs,

Supporting the back by engaging your core,

Or feel free to lie down on your back and stretch out your legs.

Find a position that you can really relax into.

Inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale through the nose,

And exhale out your mouth.

Inhale through your nose,

And exhale out your mouth.

Allow the body to rise and fall naturally now.

Breathing normally,

Just allowing the body to completely relax.

Today we're going to be focusing on anxiety,

And how we can calm the central nervous system and worry that's unresolved,

Or anxiety kicks into hide here.

Keep engaging with your breath and with your body.

So often when we are experiencing symptoms of anxiety,

We start to breathe very shallow.

Our breath gets constricted in the chest,

And we forget to get oxygen down into the belly,

Into our second brains.

So ensuring that we practice that diaphragm breathing.

On the inhale,

Blow up your stomach like a balloon,

And on the exhale,

Constrict your diaphragm like you're at the sink,

Squeezing out a sponge and getting all that water out of that sponge.

Inhale in,

And deep exhale out.

Our anxiety is usually the result of situations that we're struggling to accept,

Or it can be part of our emotional experience that we're trying to deny or detach and get away from these uncomfortable feelings that trigger us to want to run instead of just slowing down,

Accepting the emotion,

And allowing us to process and work through it.

A lot of our anxiety is also generated through our belief systems or habitual thought patterns.

So often we'll start to experience the emotion of worry or anxiety.

Instead of breathing and allowing the body to relax and accepting physically what's happening within us,

We start to worry and we start to have anxiety for the physical symptoms that are manifesting within the body.

The more I worry about what's physically happening to me,

The more my breath becomes shallow and constricted,

The more my heart starts to race,

My mind starts to get fuzzy,

I can start to sweat,

Feel like I'm choking.

And so one of the best ways to combat anxiety is to actually accept whatever is happening physically in this moment.

Anxiety is like that rejection junkie.

The more we turn away or push away,

The more anxiety wants to pursue us,

Wants to get closer,

Wants to knock on that door until you open up and answer.

Anxiety has a really difficult time existing in an accepting environment.

So if we can find a way to normalize what's happening in the body,

Accept what's happening in the body,

And not judge whatever emotions are happening for us,

Then we can start to deal with anxiety in a different way.

Much of our worry and anxiety is actually trapped emotion.

So when we repress,

Depress,

Constrict,

Deny or detach our emotions,

The energy within the body starts to get revved up.

So we must remember the physical sensations trigger our thought ruminations.

Those thought ruminations trigger emotional reactions,

And then those emotional reactions simply strengthen the physical sensations within the body.

It's our belief and thought about the physical sensations that create this destructive feedback loop.

If we can focus in on the direct sensations in the body instead,

This turns up the volume on the body's messages and turns down the volume on our mental chatter.

We can then bring acceptance and normalization to the physical symptoms,

And this stops that feedback loop.

We can focus on what the body needs at this time by accepting the physical sensations as a human part of our experience,

So that we can create new response systems to the physical sensations,

The worry,

The anxiety,

Or the pain.

Pain diminishes with acceptance,

Just like anxiety diminishes with acceptance.

So as we breathe gently,

Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale.

Let's practice this acceptance.

I accept whatever emotions I have right now.

I accept whatever energy I'm experiencing.

No need to worry or dwell or overthink the physical sensations that are happening within my body right now.

And I can also bring gratitude to the feelings or physical sensations or deeper emotions that I might be experiencing.

Perhaps I can use my emotions as a compass.

And I can allow that compass to guide me in whatever direction I need to be moving in today.

Instead of worrying that my emotions or my feelings or these physical sensations are harmful to me,

I can try to shift my perspective.

And I can trust that I know how to emotionally regulate.

I know how to calm the body down.

I know how to work with the energy within me.

And I don't need to fear or worry.

Continue inhaling and exhaling.

And inhaling and exhaling.

I want you to use your imagination and think of a place that brings you much comfort,

Relaxation,

Joy and calm.

Where is this place?

What do you see?

Who are around you?

What do you smell?

What do you taste?

What does this place feel like?

Whatever you're thinking of,

Wherever you're thinking and with whomever you're thinking,

I want you to use your imagination and fantasize about being in a warm,

Protective,

Connected,

Safe,

Healthy and happy environment.

Let's go ahead and take a big,

Deep breath in.

In through the nose and out through the mouth.

Inhale through the nose and slow exhale,

Letting everything out.

So as we start to come out of today's meditation and we start to pull our focus back to this moment,

Remember a lot of the tools for dealing with our worry,

Our stress,

Our depression,

Our anxiety,

Our discomfort,

They already live within us.

If we can think of the worst case scenario,

We can think of the best case scenario.

And if we can detach and deny and diminish and run from our emotions,

Well then we can also turn,

Open the door,

And face whatever difficult feelings,

Emotions or sensations that we're experiencing.

And in doing so,

We start to create a different relationship with ourselves and with those emotions and with our thought processes and our belief systems and with our physical form as well.

Last big,

Deep breath in and let it all go.

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe and may you live with ease.

Namaste.