Thanks for joining me for this havening exercise for high anxiety relief and rewiring.
This is truly the ideal activity to do when your anxiety is high.
Maybe it's a 7 out of 10,
Or an 8 out of 10,
9,
Or even 10 out of 10.
So anxiety is not just a state of emotional and psychological distress.
It also creates a physiological and biochemical cascade of stress hormones and neurotransmitters in your brain and body that can make it very difficult to break free from anxiety.
Havening is the ideal way to relieve your high anxiety because havening touch has been shown to physiologically soothe and downregulate deep parts of your brain and limbic system so you can experience a significant decrease in anxious thoughts and feelings.
And when done regularly,
Havening can actually help you rewire the pathways of stress and anxiety in your brain for greater peace.
So let's begin.
To do havening touch,
There are three ways that you can do it.
One is rubbing your palms together.
So rubbing your palms together with a speed and a pressure that feels soothing to you.
Just rubbing your palms together.
You can also rub downwards on your arms from shoulder to elbow,
Shoulder to elbow,
Shoulder to elbow,
Just going down.
And the third way to do havening touch is to do havening on your face,
Cheeks,
Or forehead.
So you can use your fingertips or you can use your palms and do any type of touch that is soothing to your face,
Cheeks,
Or forehead.
And again,
This soothing touch will send signals to the deep parts of your brain that it's okay.
That you're safe.
In fact,
It only takes five to seven minutes to create a biochemical shift in your brain.
So continue for this entire meditation to do the havening touch in one of those three ways.
Palm to palm,
Down your arms,
Or on your face,
Cheeks,
And forehead.
And you can move through those different areas of the body just intuitively and in whatever way feels good to you.
We want this to be soothing.
So if any of those feel uncomfortable to you,
Just skip them and do what is comfortable for you.
So as you do the havening touch,
We're just going to start by feeling the anxiety in your body for only about a half a minute.
We don't want you to feel it too much,
But this does help identify the areas in your brain that need the soothing.
So go ahead and begin to feel the anxiety in your body.
Where do you notice it the most?
Is it more on the right or the left,
Or maybe it's both sides or everywhere?
Is it more deep or superficial,
Or both or neither?
Is it moving or still?
What color is it?
Does it have a texture or a shape or a temperature?
Just noticing whatever you notice about this anxiety in your body and continue to do the havening touch.
Now as you feel into your anxiety,
Rate it on a scale of zero to ten.
Zero being no anxiety at all,
Ten being maximum anxiety.
Where does it fall on the scale right now?
Now that you've felt the anxiety,
We want to distract your brain from your anxious thoughts and feelings.
So continuing to do the havening touch,
I'm going to guide you through a few distractions.
So first I'm going to speak every letter of the alphabet slowly,
And for every letter of the alphabet,
Go ahead and name several places on the planet.
It could be cities,
States,
National parks,
Continents,
Whatever you can think of.
And everybody will go at a different pace.
So maybe you'll only be able to name one thing for every letter of the alphabet,
Or maybe you'll be able to name multiple things.
But there's no way to do this wrong.
It's not a competition.
We're just trying to distract your brain.
So naming a location on the planet for every letter of the alphabet,
Starting with A,
B,
C,
D,
E,
F,
G,
H,
I,
J,
K,
L,
M,
N,
O,
P,
Q,
R,
S,
T,
G,
U,
V,
W,
X,
Y,
And Z.
Great.
Now breathing,
Continuing to do the havening touch,
Think of your full name,
And then starting with the last letter of your last name,
Spell your name backwards.
Again,
It doesn't matter if you get it right or wrong.
We're just trying to distract your brain.
Now continuing to do the havening touch on your palms,
Your upper arms,
Or your face,
Go ahead and think of a really happy memory or your favorite place in nature.
And as you think of this happy memory or your favorite place in nature,
Begin to let your imagination transport you back to that memory or to that place in nature.
And as you're transported back with your imagination,
While continuing to do the havening touch,
Just begin to take in that memory or that place in nature with all of your senses.
So looking around in that memory,
What colors do you see?
Can you identify six different colors that you notice?
What's the lighting like in this memory?
Is there a breeze on your skin?
Or maybe the air is still?
What's the temperature like?
Is there a smell in the air?
As you're transported back to this memory even more,
What sounds do you hear?
What's the sound that's closest to you that you can hear?
What's your posture like in this memory?
How about your breath?
How are you breathing?
Just noticing your favorite parts of this memory and acknowledging why they're your favorite parts.
What do you appreciate about them?
What made you so happy?
Noticing and feeling that in your heart,
In your posture,
In your breath,
In your senses.
Taking three or four more breaths in this memory or in this favorite place in nature.
Now gently bringing your awareness out of that memory and back into your body right here and right now,
Feeling the havening touch.
I'm going to guide you through a short set of instructions and just follow these instructions very gently and without any force or effort.
So opening your eyes if they were closed,
Look down and to the right with your eyes very gently,
Taking a breath,
Bringing your eyes back to center and taking a breath,
Looking down to the left very gently,
Eyes back to center and take a breath.
Now roll your eyes in two circles up and to the right all the way around very gently,
Letting your eyes rest in the center,
Taking a breath,
Gently rolling your eyes in two circles up and to the left,
Eyes back to center and taking a breath.
Now counting up from one to five,
Counting down from five to one.
And now just take 20 seconds and hum along with the background music.
Great.
Now letting all of that go but continuing to do the havening touch,
Go ahead and notice your anxiety in your body again.
What feels different now that you've done this havening touch with these distractions?
What feels different about your anxiety in your body?
What feels different emotionally?
And what looks different about your anxiety?
How has your perception shifted?
Now as we bring this to a close,
Rate your anxiety again on the scale from zero to 10,
With zero being no anxiety and 10 being maximum anxiety.
Where do you fall now?
Taking a few breaths.
Give yourself some gratitude and validation for showing up and doing this exercise today to decrease your high anxiety.
Letting the havening touch go whenever you're ready.
If your anxiety is still higher than you like,
You can start this meditation over and do it again.
Bring it down even more.
Thank you again for joining me today.
Great work.
