How To Interrupt Anxiety

Does anxiety blight your life? It can take hold like a weed and build momentum so easily. Today, I have a powerful anxiety interruption tool to share with you. Anxiety is like allowing what you don't want to grow and flourish in your mind and consequently, in your life. But it also gives you a clue about what you DO want! I'll bet what you want is the exact opposite of what you worry about, so here's the hack.

When you notice yourself worrying, stop and ask, 'What is it I want?' Now repeat what you want in the present tense as if it's actually happening. There's your mantra, and if you use it every time you worry, life will unfold differently.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noises.

Transcript

Hello gorgeous well-being family,

Lovely to be back with you again.

I've been thinking about the podcast over the last week.

This is how I,

This is actually my method for doing the podcast.

I spend the week in between each episode thinking about what's interesting to me,

Thinking about what I'm seeing in my work,

What I'm noticing in my own life,

And what has energy for me.

And so each time I come to record an episode I'm kind of bursting with excitement because I get to explore a little bit further with you,

The thoughts that are in my mind.

And I kind of work on the proposition that whatever interests me will interest my audience.

So today I'm excited and the reason is that I want to talk about anxiety but I I want to talk about it in a way that might be a little different from the way that we normally hear anxiety discussed.

So there's a lot to say about anxiety and I have a whole prepared webinar and I'm not going to go into enormous detail.

There's just this one point really that I want to make which is when we're worrying about something and and I want to say I worry right.

I am quite a worrier.

I can certainly worry.

I know what anxiety is like and I know how uncomfortable it can be right.

And so this is what I do with my own anxiety.

I'm not trying to ask you to do anything that that I haven't actually tried myself.

So when I get anxious now what I realize is that I'm allowing thoughts about what I don't want to happen to grow and fester and live in my mental space.

Does that make sense?

That anxiety is all about what I don't want right.

I'm anxious about it because I'm thinking about what I don't want.

So for example and I've got a lot of examples to give you today.

But when my kids were little like little tiny gorgeous little things and we lived in a house with stairs and I used to worry about them falling down the stairs right.

Now that's a real thing.

Kids fall downstairs.

Adults fall downstairs.

It's certainly a real thing to worry about.

But I tell you what it never happened and worrying about it when I allowed myself,

When I allowed that I'm gonna call it a meme.

It's like a thought meme that just wants to go round and round and round in my head.

When I allowed it to get out of control it really made me miserable.

It made me anxious and elevated and you know heart rate and the whole the whole deal.

So and what I was doing was allowing this idea about what I didn't want to really take root in my mind.

So here's the thing here is this is the antidote I think that I have found to to worry.

It's one of the many tools that you can use right because there's a number of tools and I think breathwork is probably the most important one of those to just calm the nervous system.

But this is where I would love you to intervene in the process of anxiety which is when you find yourself worrying and realizing that you're worrying about what you don't want to happen and therefore allowing what you don't want to grow in your mind.

What I'd love you to do is to interrupt that process and say to yourself,

Ask yourself what do I want?

What do I want to happen?

So in the example I gave before I could have said what I want to happen is that I want my children to be safe.

My children are safe.

My children are safe.

I do everything I can to make them safe.

I ensure their safety.

I work hard to make sure they are safe.

And can you hear the difference like even as I say that I can feel something inside me just letting go and relaxing and firming up right.

So it's like a turning away from what I don't want towards what I do want.

And then here's the mental hygiene piece right which is to start to build awareness and awareness is such a key piece here that we need to have awareness about when anxious thoughts are taking hold and actually ironically turn up the volume.

It's a bit like working with the inner critic.

Turn up the volume,

Listen in,

Really allow that voice to get louder so you can actually hear what it's saying and then choose to interrupt the process.

And I know that when I say choose some of you will say oh it's not a choice like you know I can't stop the anxious thoughts and I know that anxiety can develop enormous momentum.

I've experienced it in my own life.

I've seen it in my clients.

It builds momentum but whatever is allowed to go on and on in our minds will build momentum right.

So this is where you do start to have a choice even if you can only interrupt the process for a millisecond or a second or a few seconds or half a minute or then a minute.

The longer you can interrupt the process for the more you will start to build momentum in the direction that you actually want to go.

My children are safe.

My children are flourishing.

I do everything in my power to ensure their safety.

I have created a safe environment for my children right.

I have instructed them how to use the handrail.

It can be this kind of simple thing right.

So I wonder if you want to actually do a little process with me now where you might think about what is it that you get most anxious about at the moment.

What is the anxious thought that wants to take up residence in your mind.

So this is like allowing a weed to grow in your beautiful garden.

What is the anxious thought that wants to take up residence in your mind.

And I'm trying to think at the moment I'm actually pretty clear but I guess with all the changes that have been happening for me dropping my medical registration and starting to access my super and kind of going into a phase in my business where I'm looking less looking for clients less and just enjoying the work that I do and thinking about how I might enjoy my work in different ways.

I suppose the anxious thought that can come is you know it will all wind down and stop and there'll be nothing.

You'll be left in an abyss.

There'll be no work and nothing interesting to do right.

And actually even as I say that I'm smiling because I don't believe it right.

But I can feel that that's where the anxious thoughts in my mind would like to go right.

And I don't know just a little side piece here I don't know if you've ever had the experience of free-floating anxiety which is that there's just a certain amount of anxiety going on and it will attach itself to whatever thought it can find right.

And as soon as that is proven to not be a problem it will just attach itself to the next thing.

That is definitely a thing free-floating anxiety.

So it feels like my anxiety levels are actually pretty low at the moment and there's a reason for that right.

I'm exercising regularly.

I'm doing the yoga.

I'm actively seeking things that bring me joy.

I'm having lots of connection with people that I enjoy being with.

I've got an adventure planned.

You know there are all these reasons that anxiety has kind of calmed for me.

But when anxiety wants to rise up,

So in your example what have you found?

What have you come up with?

What is the anxious thought that wants to take place?

And now I want you to think what is the opposite of that?

What would you like to be happening?

What would you like to be happening?

So I'll take a like a great example for many mothers is worry about their children.

Worry about their children's futures.

Worry about whether they've got friends or not.

Whether they're able to cope at school and in the world and so forth.

And it's a real worry.

Like I get it.

I've certainly had my share of worrying in that way.

And so to turn that around,

To turn towards the opposite of what you would like to be happening would be something like this.

And somebody said this to me the other day,

My boys are flourishing.

Just let that sink in.

My children are flourishing.

Because here's the thing,

And it doesn't really matter how how kind of woo you are,

How much you believe in the new age,

But thoughts become things.

Thoughts become reality.

And there's this kind of cycle that you can go through if you want to be logical about it.

But thoughts that we think over and over turn into beliefs.

And those beliefs shape our experience.

And that experience is the behavior.

It then shapes further behavior which shapes our thoughts.

So there's this cycle of thoughts turning into physical things.

And you can hack that cycle,

Right?

So that's what I'm inviting you to do is not only to decrease your anxiety and make yourself feel better,

But also to hack that cycle so that instead of worrying about things you don't want and then giving lots of space to those things that you want,

Don't want,

So that they become a reality.

If you take a moment and actually stop.

Stop that momentum and think about what you do want.

And speak about it as if it is in the present and it is happening now.

I guarantee you that those things will start to happen.

And I have a great example of this,

That when I went to live in France many,

Many years ago,

I think it was 1992,

I went to live in France and I wanted to learn French.

I'd enrolled at the University.

I really couldn't speak much French at all.

I was pretty lost.

And I arrived in this beautiful town in the south and with my boyfriend we had three lovely glorious weeks in September.

The sun was shining.

It was lovely.

And then he left to go and do his thing.

And I was alone in the south of France,

Unable to speak the language.

Nowhere to live.

You know,

I really had to get myself organized.

And I started looking for a place to live.

And it was quite difficult finding somewhere.

And for some reason I just somehow intrinsically started thinking,

I am gonna find really good people.

I'm gonna find great friends.

I'm gonna find a wonderful place.

And I just thought it over and over in my mind.

It became my mantra.

So do you see what I did there?

Instead of worrying about,

I'm never gonna find a place.

It's so hard to find a place.

There's no places.

I can't speak the language.

This is crazy.

When did I think this was a good idea?

I turned my mind to what I wanted to create.

And hey,

I ended up finding this amazing,

Amazing flat in an 18th century beautiful kind of mansion building in a little square in the center of town with a church in the middle.

The bells were a bit of a problem.

With a bunch of foreign students and a couple of French people.

And I am still in contact with some of those people today.

30 years later I am still in contact with them.

Because they became really good friends.

And they were really instrumental in my journey in France.

And I created that.

Like I have no doubt that I created that with my thoughts.

So I want you to think about that.

And I want to leave you with this other thought that has been growing in my mind.

And there might be a podcast about this next week.

That the true meaning of abundance is not about having stuff,

Right?

It's not about having millions of dollars.

Or millions of houses.

Or millions of boats.

Or millions of children.

Abundance is a mindset.

Abundance is this mindset that the world is bountiful.

That wherever I go I'll be okay.

That,

You know,

Can you hear that?

Like it's so exciting,

Right?

And I know that I've lived my life so much from a mindset of lack.

There isn't enough.

There's not enough friends.

There's not enough money.

There's not enough opportunity.

There's not enough health.

There's not enough whatever.

And I'm beginning to realize that the most important thing I can cultivate is my abundant mindset.

This sense of abundance that the universe is always giving.

That apples will grow on an apple tree.

That if I plant a seed in the ground it will grow.

And that,

I think,

That's actually something that needs to be explored more because I think it's really super exciting.

So I will leave you.

Have a great week.

And as always I love to hear your thoughts.

So let me know what you think.

Let me know how it goes when you try to turn around your anxiety and search for what you want.

Make it your mantra.

See you next time.

Reviews

Thank you Lelia! This was a transformative practice/talk. the timing is perfect for where I’m at, and it was just what I needed. I listened to it a few times and found it to be so helpful. I absolutely love the idea of flipping to the opposite of whatever my anxiety is and shifting my mindset.
One thing that brings me anxiety is my relationship. So I’m shifting my mindset to. I am flourishing in my relationship with my partner. I am safe and I am always taking care of by the universe.
I am practicing shifting my mindful set going forward. I will definitely be coming back to this practice for gentle reminders.💞✨💞

Such a great idea to ask yourself what you DO want and put it in present tense when you're in the middle of anxiety.

This is very helpful for me hear. Thank you and Blessings 🌻🙏

Loved it! I’m going to try interrupting my anxiety right now! My favourite part was the comment about abundance!🙏🙏❤️