Heading Anxiety Off At The Pass

This is the third in a series of practices to manage anxiety, this program desensitizes you to early alerts of imagined fears. It entails recognizing an anxious alert to imagined fear, temporarily changing your breathing in response to that alert, observing and labeling the associated thought, and an activity known as "acting as if." Practice often to make your new breathing behavior an automatic response to an alert to prevent escalation of anxiety. Later, you create your own abd practice without the audio.

Transcript

Heading off anxiety at the path, Breath work and thought observation in response to the alerted stage of anxiety. Now I'm not a psychologist. I'm a meditator and a teacher with over 25 years experience helping people help themselves. Over the years, I have noticed that there are four or five stages of anxiety. The alerted stage, Followed by the distracted stage, The concerned stage, The bothered stage and the panicked freak out stage. When you're bothered or freaked out, It is almost impossible to use meditative techniques because your thoughts are so incessant or frantic that you will be unable to focus your attention. There are ways to deal with those two frightening and paralyzing stages that I discuss in my program called Let Go of Panicking. The good news is the other stages happen early on before the anxiety spirals out of control. At these times, You either head your anxiety off at the pass or easily get it under control. In this program, You will learn to use yogic calming breath, Self-talk and simple playacting to manage the alerted stage of anxiety. In the alerted stage, There is a slight physical response to an occurrence or a thought. That slight physical response gets your attention. It is usually a slight startle or a short interruption in breath, Similar to the way a cat or dog suddenly perks up its ears in response to a little sound somewhere. Sometimes we are just too busy to think about it. However, In some of you, It may occur when you have a little free time or you are resting. Some overly protective, Helicopter part of you does not want you to relax too much or let your guard down, So it picks a stimulus and cues you with a little startle or interruption in breath. Perhaps the startle is in the neck, A tightening of the neck, A tightening of the stomach, A skip of a heartbeat or just the interruption in breath. In this case, Before you get distracted by it, You can practice a calming yogic breath. Here's how. Let me explain the whole process first. We will practice it later. The first step is to take a long, Slow second breath in through the nose. First filling your lower lungs and then slightly into your upper lungs, Not too dramatic. Hold your breath to the count of three and then exhale 11 seconds through pursed lips, Relaxing the muscles in your face, Jaw, Neck and shoulders and perhaps your stomach. The second step is to breathe that way again, But as you breathe out through those pursed lips, Observe your main anxious thought and name it. Let's practice that just for a moment. Breathe in seven seconds, Hold three and out 11. Are you jumping the gun, Looking for trouble, Mind reading or living in the past? The third step is to breathe that way again, But this time as you breathe out, Imagine the next couple of hours acting as if everything is cool, Maybe like a pothead at a cocktail party and as you continue to perform your daily tasks, It's called acting as if. I call it fake it till you make it. In fact, By acting, You are using your imagination. By using your imagination, You're using your right brain and so you're actually showing your unconscious mind how you want to respond to those alert, Alerted signals and your unconscious will learn what you show it to do. The keyword here is show. Put on a show for your unconscious mind. You can do this by imagining stepping into the body of any laid back, Confident person you know and acting like he or she would as you go about doing what you do in the next couple of hours. Let's practice. Breathe in seven, Hold three, Breathe out 11 seconds acting as if you're going about your next daily activities in that very calm and confident way. And of course the last step finally is to actually get on with your life. Continue your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Go ahead acting as if, If necessary. Little worries like other thoughts come and go to warn us and when they do, Say to that overly protective helicopter part, Thanks, I know. And continue on breathing until the trepidation disappears. Let's practice this six times using some typical situations. In the future, You can practice on your own using situations special for you or typical for you. First, Let's pretend that you are somewhat of a worry wart and your boss sticks his head in the door and suddenly says, Can you stay a little late today? We need to talk. You feel a quick tighten in your neck or jump in your heartbeat or a stop in your breath. That means you're alerted. Now breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. Breathe out through pursed lips 11 seconds. Using forehead, Cheeks, Jaw, Shoulder, Neck, Chest and abdomen. In again seven. Hold three. And out 11. Are you jumping the gun? Or looking for trouble, Mind reading, Or reliving the past? In again seven. Hold three. And out 11. Imagining how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly chill for the next couple of hours. Finally, Imagine actually getting on with your life. Continue your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappear. Little worries like other thoughts will come and go to warn us sometimes. And when they do, Just say to that overly protective helicopter part, Thanks. I know. Second, Let's practice another situation. For example, Someone you know is depressed or someone, There's someone you've had an argument with and they don't answer your phone. You feel a little quick tighten in your neck, A jump in your heartbeat or a stop in your breath. You're alerted. Now breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. Breathe out through pursed lips 11 seconds. Passing your forehead, Cheeks, Jaw, Shoulder, Neck, Chest and abdomen. In again seven. Hold three. And out 11. Are you jumping the gun, Looking for trouble, Mind reading or reliving the past? In again seven. Hold three. And out 11. Seeing how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly chill for the next couple of hours. And finally, Imagine actually getting on with your life, Continuing your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Little worries like other thoughts come and go to warn us about this and that. And they do say to that overly protected part, That helicopter part, Thanks, I know. Third, Let's practice another. For example, You're sitting alone doing nothing and suddenly notice something different about your heartbeat, Your breathing or something different about someone else's behavior or just something that's not right. You feel a little tightening in your neck or a jump in your heartbeat or a stop in the breath. You are alerted. So now breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. Breathe out through pursed lips, 11 seconds, Relaxing your forehead and cheeks and jaw, Shoulders and neck, Chest and abdomen. In again seven seconds. Hold three. And out 11. Are you jumping the gun, Looking for trouble, Mind reading or reliving the past? In again seven. Hold three. And out 11. Realizing how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly chill for the next couple of hours. Finally, Imagine actually getting on with your life. Continue your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Little worries like other thoughts come and go and warn us of this and that. And when they do, Say to that overly protective helicopter park, Thanks, I know. Fourth, Let's practice another. Imagine being a little addicted to your medications or cigarettes, Alcohol or even addicted to your smartphone and you suddenly find yourself with nothing to do. And you reach out for them and find that they're not there or you find out your smartphone battery is dead. Feel a little quick tightening in your neck or a jump in your heart or a stop in breath. You're alerted. So now breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. And then breathe out through pursed lips 11 seconds, Relaxing your forehead and cheeks, Jaw, Shoulder and neck, Chest and abdomen. In again, Seven. Hold three. And out 11. Are you jumping the gun, Looking for trouble, Mind reading or reliving the past? In again, Seven. Hold three. And out 11. Imagining how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly chill for the next couple of hours. Finally, Imagine actually getting on with your life. Continue your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Little worries like other thoughts come and go and warn us of this and that. And when they do, Continue acting as if, But say to that overly protective helicopter part, Thanks, I know. Fifth, Let's practice another. This time, One of your own. Think of something that triggers a little alert in you or alerts you or little anxiety in you. Perhaps something revolving around cleaning the test result, Social situation, Health, Money, Relationship, Anything that normally causes you some anxiety. And feel a quick tightening of your neck, A jump in your heartbeat or a stop in breath. That means you're alerted. And if you don't feel it now, Just make it happen. Make your typical alerted response happen. Then breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. Breathe out through pursed lips, 11 seconds, Relaxing your forehead, Cheeks, Jaw, Shoulders and neck, Chest and abdomen. In seven. Hold three. And out 11. Are you jumping the gun, Looking for trouble, Mind reading or reliving the past? In again seven. Hold three. Out 11. Imagining how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly chill. For the next couple of hours. Finally imagine actually getting on with your life. Continue your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Little worries like other thoughts come and go to warn us of this and that. And when they do, Say to that overly protective helicopter part, Thanks, I know. And continue acting as if until it actually is. Six. Let's practice another, Another one of your own. Think of something that triggers a little anxiety in you. Imagine it. Feel a quick tightening in your neck, A jump in your heartbeat or a stopping breath. That means you're alerted. And if you don't feel it, Just make a typical alert response happen. Breathe in, Breathe in seven seconds. Hold three. Breathe out through pursed lips 11 seconds. Relaxing your forehead and cheeks, Jaw, Shoulder, Neck, Chest and abdomen. In again seven. Hold three and out. Are you jumping the gun? Looking for trouble? Mind reading or reliving the past? In again seven. Hold three and out 11. Imagining how your face would look, How you would move and talk if you were honestly very chill for the next couple of hours. Finally, Imagine getting on with your life. Eating your breathing like this until that little trepidation disappears. Little worries like other thoughts come and go to warn us of this and that. And when they do, Say to that overly protective helicopter part, Thanks, I know. And continue acting as if until it actually is. You have completed one session. Congratulate yourself. After you have practiced this program three or four times, You can do it on your own without the audio guidance with your own imagined triggers. After you gained some skill at this, You can begin our next imagined exposure program. One designed for more severe stages of anxiety. The next one will be one designed for the distracted stage of anxiety. Thank you. Have a good day.