Working With Worry And Fear

Worry is often paired with fear and anger. In this short practice, we notice what is actually here right now and check whether the urgency in our bodies matches it. We take a few cyclic sighing breaths and soften our forehead and eyebrows. Then we work with worry images by putting a frame around them and noticing the space around the frame. We finish with kindness toward ourselves. We are naturally moved by what is happening in the world AND we don't have to be captured by catastrophic thoughts and worry.
Please note that this content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.

Transcript

Along with worry, There's anger and some outrage and lots of stuff going on. We are in a very particular time right now. U. S. Midterms. I live in Canada. There's been an ongoing threat. And one thing that I noticed for myself was that it was bringing back memories of times where I couldn't afford our basic groceries at times. I was a single mother during those years. One of the things that we can do is notice as we look around the space that we're in. Now we listen. What is your sense of urgency in your body and then does that match with what's here in this moment? Part of what happens when we're working with worry and catastrophic thinking is that it's not impossible. It's just, Is it likely? Is it something I need to attend to right now? As you're looking around, If there's nothing that you can do in the moment and have to do in the moment to protect your body, That would be good to know. And then as you're looking around, You might also look around for things that are nourishing or that help you to feel safer. I can see pictures of people I love. I can see some art. What can you see that helps you to feel safer, More nourished, More connected? Let's take a couple of cyclic sighing breaths. It's a deep double inhale through the nose. And then breathe out through pursed lips like you're breathing through a straw. Inhale. Again, And then long, Slow exhale. And as you're breathing out, Let your whole body soften. Literally the first breath I take like that I notice my shoulders really Now let's work with some thoughts in the mind. Relaxing our forehead and worrying. You know, In the last little while I've been worried about whatever that is for you. Bring your awareness to your forehead and eyebrows. And if you're frowning or worried like that, Lift your eyebrows up. And then let them soften. So we're just going to work with softening our forehead and paying attention to thoughts. Especially where you have to. As you're inhaling, Just keep your attention on your forehead. As you're exhaling, Let your forehead soften. After a while, We just keep our awareness on our forehead as we breathe in. Notice the continuity of the breath as well, And let your forehead and eyebrows soften as you breathe out. And it gets more subtle. Breathing out, It's a little bit softer. And keeping your awareness on softening your forehead and eyebrows. Bring in one of your worries. Breathing in, Keep your awareness on your forehead. Breathing out, Let it soften a little bit more. Each time you breathe out, Let your forehead soften. Each time you notice a worry. Let it be more in the back of your mind. Don't let your focus be on the wording. Keep your focus on softening your forehead and eyebrows. Our brain might override practice. Though this is way more important than softening my forehead. You might find that you've got thoughts in your mind about what you're worrying about. Let's work directly with the thoughts. Is it words? Is it images? Whatever that image is. Just let that come to mind as an image. Images or colors and shapes. And as you're looking at the images, Just see if you can look at them as an image. Whatever the image is, Are you looking at it out of your own eyes? If you are, It feels a lot more real than if you can put yourself in the picture. So you can see I'm actually looking at an image of myself. And then the next step is actually that hasn't happened. Possible it could happen to anybody, But it hasn't happened. For sure it's not happening right now. I'm looking at an image of something that's alarming me. So as you're doing that, See if you can keep your breath smooth. We just need to do something that will help our brain know that that's an image I'm looking at. With your eyes open, Put the image on the other side of the room. Put a frame around the image. So notice what are the colors and shapes in the image. Now I'm looking at a frame around the image. There's a distance between me and the image, And there's also empty space on the outside of the frame. Let your eyes move around that empty space, Go from the top or on the sides, A couple times in each direction, Letting your eyes go around the empty space. And then bring your attention right into the image again. Sometimes the colors will get more washed out. Sometimes the image will go away. Is the same level of intensity there. You might want to do that a few times. There's all kinds of ways that we can bring in some support for ourselves and to be kind with ourselves and to not expect perfection. We are moved by the world around us. We're moved by our own fears and other people's fears and other people's sorrows and struggles and that's You know, We have a heart and it's natural for us to be engaged. I hope this has been helpful and that we can walk out into our day with a little bit more stability and a little bit more hopefulness too. Like we could really engage with people who help you to feel like you're not alone in this and that we can handle what's happening in our world. Even though it's really hard.