Hi,
I'm Audra from the Wellmind Collective,
And I'm here to talk about anxiety today.
In the last video,
We talked about stress,
How to identify it in the body,
And what breathing techniques we can use to lessen that stress for ourselves.
Well,
Anxiety feels a lot like stress similarly in the body,
But the difference is stress is a physiological or behavioral response to an immediate threat or challenge.
Challenge,
I have a test tomorrow.
So that's gonna cause you stress because maybe you need to study,
You don't feel well prepared for it.
So anxiety is an emotional feeling and psychological state anticipating the possibility of harm,
Meaning I know I studied,
But I'm gonna bomb it because I'm not good at taking tests,
Right?
That's a story you're telling yourself.
It's probably not true,
Most likely not true.
Have you ever heard that saying that I have 99 problems,
But 98 of them are most likely made up?
That's the anxiety.
That's the story we're telling ourselves and the possibility of harm.
So for example,
The night before a test,
We're laying in our beds and we are ruminating and making up story after story about why we're not gonna pass this test.
We're gonna say,
I know I studied,
But I am not good at taking tests.
I know I studied,
The teacher doesn't like me though,
And she's a harsh grader.
I don't know if I studied enough or I studied too much.
All the stories that you can tell yourself of why it's gonna be horrible,
The test is gonna be horrible,
That's the anxiety.
So I'm gonna give you some tips and tricks on how to battle that anxiety.
So you learned in the stress video about some breathing techniques.
Those can be used for anxiety,
But the better way of doing breathing for anxiety is that we wanna elongate the exhale.
So we're gonna move our body,
Because even in anxiety,
We have physiological responses that are around sitting us in the sympathetic nervous system.
We are breathing quickly,
Rapidly from the chest,
Et cetera.
So we will slow that down.
All right,
So as we're breathing,
What I would like you to do,
We're gonna take three big belly breaths.
That is step one.
You wanna,
You want to calm your system down immediately and start trying to get it to the parasympathetic,
Set parasympathetic.
You wanna calm your body down and may it move you more towards the parasympathetic nervous system.
So what we're gonna do is we're gonna do some belly breathing deep in our bellies.
Deep in our bellies.
And on the last breath out,
We want to let it all go.
And so we call that,
In yoga,
They call it the lion's breath,
Where you just go,
Ah.
That's what I want you to do on the last exhale.
And then we're gonna move into a little bit more of round breathing and we'll keep elongating the exhale and that will help bring you down.
And it'll allow you to be more conscious of your breath and be able to question yourself about your story.
So when you're ready,
Lower your gaze,
Close your eyes and let's take three big belly breaths.
Ready?
Breathe in and then breathe out.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
And breathe in one last time.
And when you breathe out,
Stick out your tongue and let it all go with the lion's breath,
Ah.
Now return to normal breathing.
I want you to think about the story that you're telling yourself about your anxiety.
And now we're gonna take four big deep breaths.
So when your third breath's in,
We're gonna take.
And now what I want you to do is we're gonna transition to elongating our exhales.
So let's breathe in for four and we're gonna breathe out for five.
Let's breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for four,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Continue on that round and we're gonna go up on your next exhale.
We're going to breathe in for five and exhale for six.
When you're doing this,
Focus on your breath,
But also think about what is the story that you're telling yourself about your anxiety?
Okay,
Ready?
Breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe out for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
One last time.
And for this last breath,
When we breathe in for seven and out for eight,
I just want you to focus on the breath and just be in the moment,
In the present moment,
Focused on that only.
So breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Breathe out for eight,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Breathe out for eight,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Breathe in for one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Breathe out for eight,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Now you can return to your regular breath.
And I just want you to focus on the breath and I just want you to feel in the moment how you're feeling.
When you're ready,
You can flutter your eyes open and return to this moment.
Anytime you're feeling anxious,
And I know when you get stuck,
I know for me,
When I get stuck in that storyline of the 98 problems that I'm making up,
It's hard to get out of that.
So one thing,
The breath helps break you out of that and it helps you focus on the story to see if it's truly real or most likely it's made up.
It's just what our body is doing.
Our brains are programmed for survival,
So it's thinking of all the worst case scenarios so you're ready.
But you don't have to worry about that.
You've studied,
You're ready.
So I hope this is helpful.
Have a great day and I appreciate you for listening.
Thank you.
