Bringing Support To Our Anxiety By Including What Is Simple

We can feel anchored even when we are experiencing anxiety when we engage in the generous practice of "both/and."
In this 17 minute rest we acknowledge our anxiety (could also be fear/challenges/discomfort or something else that might overwhelm you) instead of pretending or hiding from it, **without getting lost in it.**
We take our time to use our senses to gently orient to what is simple in such a way to bring regulation to our brain and nervous systems, and at the same time we don't deny or try to resist or push away anxiety that we might also be experiencing.
We connect with simple experiences as a way to anchor ourselves in a regulated way, and imagine returning to simple experiences throughout our day to help support our well-being.

Transcript

And then I'm going to invite you to keep your eyes open for a little bit longer and letting your eyes calibrate with the space that you're in. Wherever you are you've chosen it so it's probably somewhat okay and by okay I mean there's no imminent threat or danger and we're just going to verify that with the eyes. So taking a moment to look around your space wherever you are noticing that there is not imminent threat or danger in your close by proximity and we're just letting the eyes verify that in all directions. So looking behind you, Looking above you, Below you, Below you, And then very slowly around you so that your eyes can see there's solid walls around you, Solid floor under you, Solid ceiling above you and so even if you're feeling anxious inside which would be really normal a lot of days, A lot of moments, You might be feeling some anxiety inside of your body or in your thoughts so we're not trying to ignore that or make that not true or deny that. We're actually like yeah anxiety, Anxious thoughts or anxiety or anxious sensations or feelings like yep you might be here and I'm just going to verify there's no threat or danger in my immediacy. Your immediacy might be two feet, It might be 20 feet so we're just verifying in your context in your immediate context. No threat or danger that I can see. So there might be a both and, No danger outside of you and maybe there's an anxious feeling or something like that on the inside. They can coexist both and. We're going to continue to communicate to our sitting body that there's no imminent threat by looking at we're sitting on whether it's a couch or a bed or a chair or the floor. We're just noticing even if you were standing we're going to notice there's no imminent threat under us, Under our bodies. The floor is not rocking, The couch isn't The floor is not rocking, The couch isn't rocking. It's solid and that matters something to our nervous system. So we name it, We see it and then we're going to feel it. And so feel, You can have your eyes opened or closed, Feel under your tailbone or under your feet or under whatever is making contact with solidity that there is indeed some solidity here and we can feel it directly. This isn't a concept, It's a felt experience. We're experiencing in some way or another through some part of our body or body through parts or part of our body something solid that we're resting upon. None of us are floating in space. All of us are in the field of gravity supported by what we're literally being supported by in this moment in our own unique contexts. Again we can have eyes open or eyes closed but we're really, We're wanting to have the eyes closed if that allows us to really feel an experience through that mechanism, The sense mechanism, Solidity. But if we have our eyes open we can still see solidity. So there's something solid here that's simple and it's in this moment we're inviting us to know, Our experiential bodies to notice that, That simple floor, That simple couch, That simple softness or hardness of the pillow or chair. We can feel that through our bodies and again if our eyes are still open we might be seeing something simple but we're going to put more attention into our sensory mechanisms of experiencing through sensations of our body. Simplicity, Something is simple in this moment. Let your body find it. Maybe your toes find it, Maybe your heels find it, Maybe your hands find it. Maybe your skin finds it, Maybe it's air on your skin that's really simple and that's making contact. You can feel that contact of air touching skin. And so even if the insides of us are nervous or our thoughts are going there's still something simple, Still coexisting of simple and maybe not simple according to thoughts or including what's simple. And then we're going to include the breathing body. We're going to include being breathed and how we do that is just by noticing. Noticing breath is moving through us and we're going to invite our attention towards the simplest proof of that. So the nostrils might be the simplest of proof that we're being breathed. Or the diaphragm might be the simplest proof or the chest or the ribs or the pelvic floor. So there's lots of options here. Even the shoulders rising and falling are proof that we're being breathed. So we're just letting our attention select what's easiest in this experiential of being breathed. Sometimes our thoughts don't like simple or maybe are challenged by simple. So if you have an inner narrative that's arguing with simple that's okay, That's normal. Or if you have an inner narrative that's just busy that's really normal. If there's anxiousness any of that that is welcome here. We're not trying to get rid of that in this moment. The invitation is the same to just let your attention in some way or another find something that's not arguable or doesn't need to be argued with. So again for some of us that might mean the air moving in and out of our nostrils doesn't need to be argued with. That's just happening. We might notice there's air moving in the nostrils and out of our nostrils and we might notice temperatures that come with that or different sensations and we don't need to argue with the temperature or the sensations coming in and out of our nostrils. For others there might be other experientials. The rising and falling of the shoulders doesn't need to be argued or managed or something else. I'm just going to be quiet for a moment while your attention continues to include what's simple with your sitting and breathing body even if there's also anxiety or difficulty or challenge. I'm still going to maybe use some effort to include what is just so simple in this moment doesn't need to be argued or figured out even if there's other things that maybe do. I'm just going to be quiet for a little longer. There might be other simple experientials that you're experiencing like sound. When my voice is quiet you might notice simple sounds and that can be nice to include or maybe simple smells or tastes. So any of the sense mechanisms can recognize simple when we intentionally see what's simple here. So something simple of sitting, Simple sitting of breathing and maybe other simplicities. I'm going to be quiet again for your attention to notice what's simple. I'm going to invite you to have a little conversation with yourself that might go something like this. I'm recognizing that there's simplicity in the rising and falling of my shoulders and I'm going to invite myself. I'm speaking to myself. I'm going to invite myself to just notice I'm speaking to myself. I'm going to invite myself to just notice maybe that simplicity throughout the day today when I can because I know I'm always going to be breathing and my shoulders are going to be along for the ride. So I might just every once in a while come back to my shoulders to remind myself, My brain and my nervous system of something simple. Maybe your conversation is a little different. Maybe your conversation with yourself is just about anything like self. I want to remember something simple throughout my day and I'm going to check in periodically and see what's simple now. So it might be very open. It might be very specific. I want you to have that conversation with yourself for a few moments like an intention or maybe even a prayer of some sort, A calling forth or a desire in this way. I'm going to be quiet again and take some time to do that. We can also just take it a tiny bit further and make it into more of a conscious inclusion of that which is larger than our small self. And so it might sound something like God or spirit or highest self or whatever that word would be for us, Creation. I'd like to remember simplicity in my day today or help me to connect to simplicity in my day. Letting your words be yours. I'm going to be silent again as you connect in this way. And just as we come to an end to see how this might be anchored or is already anchoring this conversation with self, This conversation with higher self. How might it be anchoring in your experience right now that you might, That might be helpful or generative for you to notice? And just take a few moments to really feel that somatic anchoring, However, It's showing up for you. I don't know if it's supposed to or should. It's just something maybe very simple. And as you stay with that anchoring experience, Let your eyes slowly open, Letting your focus be soft. Maybe you come back to the candle or what you had identified earlier as simple in your space. And if there's something that you want to write down, Or yeah, Write down that has come in that you don't want to forget. Go ahead and do that. Maybe just a moment of gratitude for showing up to do this. Sometimes it's really hard to connect to a rest or do a rest when we're feeling nervous or anxious. And if that was you, Have gratitude for yourself for staying in as much as you were able to stay in. And then we'll come back to the screen. Okay, So we're going to go ahead and wrap this up and we're going to take a few moments to take a few moments to think about what you want to do next. And then we'll come back to the screen.