Calming Fear In Our Body In Turbulent Times

Look around the room.

I just let my eyes take it in.

I don't need to respond immediately to anything right now.

There's nothing dangerous.

It's an immediate threat.

So there's all kinds of danger in the world.

Something could happen,

You know,

Could be an earthquake or something like that.

And that happens sometimes,

But it's not something that would generally happen.

So when we're feeling this ongoing anxiousness,

This anxiety or fear or we have a compulsive mind.

While we're holding our breath.

All of those things contribute to this feeling of there's something wrong and I need to take some kind of action.

And actually,

What we don't need to do is to maintain that high level of hypervigilance.

It is true that something could happen.

And it's also true that it's unlikely something will happen in this half hour that you need to move into fight or flight.

But our nervous system and our brain and our whole physiology is set up better safe than sorry.

Well,

What if something does happen?

And then am I ready?

So if I'm laying back and I'm relaxed and I'm breathing.

How am I going to jump into action?

The irony here is that we actually are better able to jump into action from a position of relaxation.

If we're breathing,

We have more oxygen in our tissues and in our brain.

The calmer we are,

The more likely we are to be able to notice a threat.

If we're in a freeze response,

We're kind of dull and unaware.

We're not as observant,

We don't respond as quickly.

And if we're in a hypervigilant response,

Too much sympathetic nervous system action,

We're responding to every little thing that's actually not a threat.

So coming into nervous system regulation is the answer,

Is the theme song for me and my teaching and my life.

Over the years,

The decades now,

I've really worked with some of the obvious things.

I don't have inner critic,

I don't shame myself,

I don't have catastrophic thinking.

All of those patterns have calmed and settled for me.

And if anything starts to creep in,

I'm like,

I notice it right away because it's not the water I swim in all the time anymore.

For anyone who's just starting out or who's feeling really trapped by catastrophic thinking or anxious thoughts or holding your breath or anything like that,

These practices,

This awareness really works.

And it's kind of like a time release vitamin.

It's not like a vitamin B shot where all of a sudden,

Woo,

I feel great.

It's more we do these practices,

We bring this awareness in,

Our nervous system starts to experience more safety.

And that's what starts to heal the pattern of catastrophic thinking and all of that.

There's so many different ways that we can do this.

Breeze shake dance is one that we do every Saturday.

Focus on the breath.

We do some shaking,

Shaking like qigong,

Shaking the tree.

Breath awareness is a standard practice.

But even before we can apply the practices,

We need to know what's going on.

Let's work a little bit with that.

How is it that we're assessing our safety or danger right now?

Then what do we do?

If we have a dysregulated nervous system,

Which we all do at times,

I've been doing this a long time,

And I'm not perfectly regulated all the time,

But I'm steadier than I used to be,

And I notice when I'm not,

So I come back into awareness.

That's really helpful.

It doesn't get a chance to get going,

Like catastrophic thinking.

I used to be,

I'm sure 90% of my thoughts were some kind of anxiety about the future,

Or I was really ruminating about the past.

This wasn't fair.

I want to say this thing and I don't have a chance.

Or all of the compulsions in our mind that really create so much suffering.

They all come back to what's happening in our nervous system.

And then there's a lot of other nuances too.

Sometimes I need to set a boundary or maybe I need to understand a pattern or what's going on.

You know,

There's all kinds of nuances.

But to me,

This foundation of nervous system regulation,

Awareness of my nervous system.

Awareness of breath.

So as you're looking around the space you're in now,

Notice that.

Is there any danger here?

Let your eyes take that in.

There might be sounds.

I know that that's not some danger.

It alerts me.

So that's one thing that we can really count on.

Our nervous system is always watching.

We assess visually.

We assess through our hearing.

Or there's other people around,

We suss through the energy or the vibe.

We have a gut sense often if something's off.

And so we don't have to encourage the nervous system to pay attention.

It's always paying attention.

That is its only job.

Is there danger?

How am I going to be safe?

So if you're looking around and you're noticing,

Well,

There might be some potential.

But is there anything happening right now?

Is my body safe right now?

And you can look behind you too.

Sometimes it's helpful to just notice,

Is there anything behind me?

That could leap out at me.

Often when we have the tight shoulders and upper back,

It's because we're bracing ourselves.

If we don't need to brace ourselves,

Could we afford to let our shoulders relax?

Let's take a few breaths.

On the inhale,

If you want,

You could bring your shoulders up.

You could let them release and just kind of move up and down.

So inhaling,

Bringing them up.

Exhale,

Exhaling down.

You can open your mouth and breathe out like you're breathing out through a straw.

Let your exhalation extend.

You can make a sound.

Exhale,

Hum,

Or any sound you like.

Might be a sound of frustration.

What's your body telling you that would be helpful right now?

It's okay right now to let our guard down.

There isn't actually any immediate danger that we need to respond to.

And we might notice that we're still holding our breath or we've got a tight upper back.

Inhale,

Bring your shoulders up.

And then really move around.

You might bring your arms up as well.

Bring your arms up and stretch open.

Your ribcage open.

Move around,

You might shake a little.

So this is interesting because when we feel like we're in danger,

Our body's in danger,

Then it's helpful for us to give a signal that in fact we're not.

What we do when we're in danger,

It's a physical threat,

We get very still,

We hold our breath,

We don't make a noise,

Even the breathing sound might be something that gives our position away.

So we want to counterbalance that.

We let our body know that we're safe partly because we do the opposite.

So when we're moving our shoulders up,

We're helping the muscles,

But we're also moving our body,

Which is a signal that the nervous system's picking up on.

When we're making a noise,

Then that's another signal.

Well,

I must be safe enough if I'm making this smooth sound as I breathe out.

So we could allow our body to soften.

And then a lot of the key to this is to catch this nervous system alarm earlier.

Last 20,

30 years has been a lot on mindfulness and now it's more on somatic mindfulness.

Somatic is the body.

So what's happening in my body?

A lot of meditation traditions really watch thoughts.

We witness thoughts.

We notice what are the thoughts in my mind?

What is the energy of thought?

Is that contributing to the sense of fear and anxiety that I have?

Keep the breathing going,

Keep the awareness of your body going in the background if you like.

And let's notice for a minute,

Thought.

So if you were to just think over the last while,

Just generally,

Are there thoughts in your mind that are alarming?

Do you have like a regular pattern?

And often these are something that we care about deeply.

There's a lot of environmental concern and distress.

So if that's something that's on your mind and in your heart,

Some of your thoughts are probably going to be about that.

If you have a lot of concern about your financial situation,

Am I going to lose my job to AI?

How am I gonna afford a place to live?

A lot of people are feeling the pinch right now with finances.

Groceries are going up so much.

If you have a lot of people depending on you,

Or if you're depending on yourself,

If you're single like I am,

How am I going to manage that?

Cutting back perhaps,

And we're doing some practical things.

Again,

It's our nervous system's going,

Hey,

There's something going on here.

We need to pay attention.

And that's helpful.

What's not helpful is our mind starts to go into walking out with our box of stuff We've just been let go.

We see the screen in our mind of our online banking.

We don't have enough money for rent.

And then we visualize out on the street and cold and rainy or something.

So our mind can easily take us into these worst case scenarios.

And that's not actually happening right now.

And that's not helpful because it scares us.

So we have these situations of there might be something I need to take care of.

I might need to take some steps.

It's probably not the time to buy a new car or to buy a new house if I'm not too sure about my job.

So I can be careful and not go into a spiral of fear.

Let's sit and watch thoughts for a moment.

And I've just brought up some kind of scary thoughts,

A scenario that many people worry about.

So one of the things we could do with those kinds of thoughts is we could recognize that's catastrophic thinking.

There might be a germ of something in there that I need to pay attention to,

And I will.

But I don't want to let myself get trapped in those thoughts.

So as you're watching your thoughts right now,

Notice,

What is the energy of the thoughts?

What is its truth?

If we have a fear response in our body to our thoughts,

They feel more true.

Relax your shoulders,

Let your body settle back into whatever support you have.

And what's happening in your mind and your thought stream.

Most of us after several seconds will find that there's some thoughts coming into our mind and we could notice Okay,

That's a thought about the past Lots of worry about the future.

Or maybe it's an anticipation of something fun in the future.

We might be thinking about something kind of mundane.

I need to remember to book that appointment or something.

Let's just breathe and notice the content and the intensity of your thoughts for a moment.

This mindfulness is a little complicated when we bring it into our body as well.

Because we're noticing thoughts in the mind.

We're looking to see,

Are those thoughts nervous system generated?

Are they about the past or the future?

And how am I responding to the thoughts?

So as you're watching the thoughts,

Thoughts are images.

Which are colors and shapes and or words which we hear or we might have them written out on a billboard or something.

We can notice the way that thoughts show up.

Sometimes they're little video clips with sound,

Without sound.

Sometimes it's someone's face.

So as you're watching thoughts,

You could notice the details of how thoughts come into your mind.

And then you could also notice,

How am I responding to those thoughts?

So let's do that again for a moment.

One way to help monitor that is to be aware of your breath.

Allow your breath to be continuous and smooth.

When we're breathing diaphragmatically,

Our stomach softens on the exhale.

It expands on the inhale.

So if you were to become aware of your breath and then from this awareness and including this awareness,

Watch thoughts again,

What's happening in your thought stream.

And at the beginning,

You'll probably just be noticing your breath.

Let's let this go on for a little bit and see what are the thoughts that come in.

And what takes you away from awareness of your breath?

Also,

What changes your breath?

What are the types of thoughts that change your breathing pattern?

Breathing in and out,

Being aware of the breath.

Just keeping track of thoughts.

If you've gotten lost in a train of thought,

That's normal.

Bring yourself back.

And what is the impact of your thoughts on your body?

Are you going one thought to the next to the next?

If it's a fear thought,

That often will cause changes in our breath.

Or energy in our body,

We tighten up.

So let's look at some of those thoughts that might have come up.

So if it's a thought that's creating some kind of fear,

A hypervigilance of,

Oh,

I need to be careful about that,

Or what if this happens and then that and then that and then that?

How am I going to work with that?

So one of the things we can do is we can work directly with the images that are in the thought stream.

So if you wanted to just pick an image that has some kind of intensity to it,

Open your eyes.

So often when we're doing these practice,

We have our eyes closed and that makes it feel more real as well.

So if you open your eyes,

Put yourself into the image.

So if you're looking at something out of your own eyes,

Maybe you're looking at somebody's face who's yelling at you.

It's very immediate.

That is what we would see.

So one of the ways we help our brain notice that this is a thought,

It's not real and it's not real right now,

Is we bring our into the image.

So you might look at an image.

I'm standing here and I can see myself and I can see the other person.

That helps our brain notice that it's actually a thought.

That's one way to work with an image,

But another way is to look over on the wall on the other side of the room and put the image over there.

We could put it in a frame,

Could be a black frame,

A gold frame,

A rainbow frame,

Whatever kind of frame.

Notice that the thought image is inside the frame.

And then on the outside of the frame,

There's something else.

So you might see,

You know,

I've got a window over there.

You might see the color of paint on your wall or something.

So we have the image,

The frame.

And then what's on the outside.

Look at the image that's inside the frame.

Images are colors and shapes.

So look at the colors and shapes.

Our mind interprets the colors and shapes.

As you're looking at that,

Notice that there's a frame and then take your eyes to the outside space and take them around.

You can use your finger too if you want.

Take them around the empty space a couple of times in each direction and let your eyes follow around.

And as you're doing that,

There's a bilateral brain stimulation that's happening,

So it helps our brain to disconnect from the image.

And with really intense images,

That can be helpful to do a few times.

Sometimes we do it once and the image gets dim or it just doesn't feel as intense anymore.

Other times we might need to do it a few times if it's a really troubling image.

So we don't ever need to be trapped in this compulsive thinking,

In this catastrophic thinking.

We can interrupt the thinking.

That's one way that we can do it.

Some people tap on their forehead.

Let's take your attention away from the thought and into the sensation and the sound on your forehead.

You might stand up and move around.

You could go outside and take a few deep breaths.

You could shake.

Anything that brings us back into awareness,

Hold your own hands.

All of those things are helpful.

If you notice,

And the sooner we notice,

The better.

As soon as you notice that there's a train of thought in your mind that's making you afraid,

Do something to interrupt that.

If you notice that you started holding your breath,

Do something to interrupt that.

Take some breaths.

As you're exhaling,

Let your whole body relax.

We can look around,

We can move a little.

So part of the skill of working with this in this way with somatic mindfulness is that we notice sooner because we're kind of keeping an eye on things.

Like after a while of watching your thought,

You start to notice if something alarming comes in because that's not what's usually there.

And if you're aware of your breath and you're allowing your breath to be smoother,

Diaphragmatic,

You start to notice if you're holding your breath.

So an alarming thought.

And or holding your breath and or tightening your body or sensation in your body,

Any of those are signals.

A sick feeling in your gut,

I'm sensing that something's off here.

Holding my breath,

I'm sensing there's a threat.

If there was no threat,

I wouldn't be holding my breath.

I also would not be having catastrophic thinking.

So we're trying to bring ourselves into accurate assessment.

We have a nervous system that's prone to negativity.

We notice threats because that's what will help keep us alive.

So we can do all kinds of things to come back into what is my actual level of threat right now?

I'm looking around the room,

I'm breathing,

I'm making a little movement with my body.

There is actually nothing here that I need to be scared of in this moment.

So we resource ourselves through these practices.

Through awareness of our nervous system.

The fewer catastrophic thoughts we have,

The more feeling of safety we have,

The more that we can actually let down our guard and enjoy whatever there is to enjoy in our life right now.

So those are some of the ways that we can work with this.

It's all about the nervous system.

And we're not helpless.

There's so many things that we can do.

It starts with awareness.

It goes into the breath and into the body.

It goes into witnessing thoughts.

Really learning what are the habits in my mind.

My nervous system.

Are they helpful?

Are they exaggerating the level of threat?

And that's a nervous system response.

It's not something we're doing wrong.

We're not foolish because we're worried about the world.

There's a lot of danger in the world.

And the best way to resource ourselves is to be as accurate as possible.

And to really notice right now,

I can afford to take a few breaths.

And then our higher level mind comes online and then we could actually do something.

We could work through.

Okay,

This is a threat.

This is something that I need to be engaged with.

And I can't really do that if I'm in a fight,

Flight,

Or freeze.

I'm coming back into stability and steadiness.

And from here,

This is where I can actually do something with what's going on in the world and what's going on in my personal world.

And also that we have so much more enjoyment in life.

Nervous system reactivity really causes a lot of suffering.

It causes our heart to close.

We don't have compassion for ourselves or each other.

We don't even think of some of the innovative things that we might do.

We don't have the courage or the ability to reach out for help,

Perhaps.

So coming back into regulation,

Coming back into kindness for ourselves,

Letting our whole brain be online,

That's really a solid way to approach what's happening in the world right now.

And what's happening in our own personal life.