Reduce Anxiety & Panic - Increase Calm

If you feel "on edge" or "wired", you will benefit from learning how to decompress your nervous system. When we experience anxiety our nervous system becomes heightened making it difficult to listen, concentrate and absorb new information. You are invited to adopt a horizontal position on the floor with your legs raised whilst listenening to this audio. A somatic wind down practice follows which explores how we can help shift the body from a heightened state of ‘fight or flight’ towards the calmer ‘rest and digest’ state. This decompression practice will lessen anxiety, settle your body and create a greater sense of calm and safety.

Understanding your body's fear response is a major key in reducing your fear of anxiety and panic symptoms. Here you will learn how panic affects your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours & the reason why anxiety/panic attacks feel so terrifying. Armed with this valuable psychoeducation, you can begin exploring ways to interrupt the fear cycle and become less easily triggered.

The fear of anxiety symptoms can make one introspective and appear on edge. No doubt you are triggered by internal bodily sensations and even unconscious perceived threats. This sensory practice will help shift your nervous system from a hyper-vigilant state to a calmer one. It engages your external senses, thereby shifting your previous introspective focus to thoughts and feelings outside of yourself.

You are invited to become curious about how you breathe, because changes in breathing patterns are common during anxiety and panic. Learn about “The Nasal Advantage” and how breathing through your nose, together with a longer, gentler exhale, can support a calmer physiological state. Discover how regular breathing practice can help your nervous system become familiar with a greater sense of safety.

Here lies one technique that needs to be in your toolbox. The 'Physiological Sigh' is a well-known SOS technique that you can use in the moment to settle yourself if you are feeling anxious. By learning this easy breathing technique, you will acquire a skill that can ground you and prepare you to face your fear. It can reset your emotional state and bring down the anxiety you are experiencing. Give it a go!

This lesson invites you to view your scary symptoms and sensations differently. Your body isn’t failing you; it’s trying to protect you. In fact, your nervous system is doing exactly what it’s designed to do: triggering physical responses that help you survive when faced with a life-threatening situation. These sensations can feel awful, especially when your nervous system triggers this survival response even though there’s no real danger present. The less frightened you become of your symptoms, the less fuel you add to the panic cycle, helping you gradually break free from the fear that keeps panic going.

This 10-minute meditation invites you to experience a safe and calm place in your mind through visualisation. You don't have to wait until you feel anxious, overwhelmed, or panicky to use it. In fact, practising daily and revisiting your safe place can help you build a wonderful inner resource for calm that you can draw on whenever you need it.

This final guided meditation brings together the key skills from the course to help you respond to anxiety and panic with greater understanding and confidence. Practise calming your body, reassuring yourself when frightening sensations arise, and using visualisation to reconnect with your inner resource for calm. Learn to approach anxiety with greater self-compassion and develop a new, more confident relationship with your body's response to fear.