How to Deal with Anxiety
- R.P.M. – The first question I ask a client struggling with anxiety is: How do you start your day? Science shows, your anxiety and stress levels will dramatically go down if the first thing you put your attention on is nourishing and calm. Rather than stress, like the news and emails. Rise Pee Meditate is a Davidji acronym that teaches that the only thing you put before your meditation is going to the bathroom. The reason being, if you add anything else (e.g. brushing your teeth, walking your dog), then your mind becomes too activated with stressful lists, leading to more anxiety.
- Intention Setting – Every morning, after you meditate, choose an intention for the day, energy you want to embody and ripple on the planet, such as love, peace, gratitude, forgiveness, courage, freedom, letting go, etc. Write the intention on your wrist so you can stay connected to this reminder throughout the day.
- Name It to Tame It – I teach clients to call their anxiety “activation”. Instead of saying “I’m anxious,” shift to “I’m activated,” like a snow globe that is all shook up. Why? If you have a history of anxiety, you likely have some fear to experience it again. This fear creates resistance, and what you resist persists. When you reframe it you can more easily accept what is happening inside and give it the space to unravel and heal.
- Work With Mantra – Is your mind running you, or are you employing your mind? Mantra is derived from two Sanskrit words: man meaning “mind” and tra meaning “vehicle”. We can choose to be more purposeful with how we use our minds and mantra is a helpful tool. Every morning, pick one of my lemon mantras to work with throughout your day to help make lemonade out of the lemons life gives you. This allows you to stay connected to the power of presence rather than the fearful mind which adds logs to the fire of anxiety. Access all of my lemon mantras and other mindfulness downloads on my website.
- Pause More – Implement Pause Practices: Pause when you notice anxiety start to spark, close your eyes, bring your awareness to the activation in your body, and notice it with loving awareness. This allows us to work at the root of our fear with a gentleness that brings deep healing. Get your own snow globe with my 7 mantras to help remind you to pause, notice settle and connect with mantra every day!
- Breath Practice – Still Point Breathing connects you to your depth of calm and allows you to feel anchored. Close your eyes and notice your breath moving in and out. Do not force your breath, only notice your natural breathing. You can put your hand on your stomach and feel the belly expand as you breathe in and contract as you breathe out. Stay with noticing this movement, and then notice the pause at the end of the exhale. As you notice that space, that gap, that still point, notice how that feels. As the activity of breath continues, see if you are able to keep your attention in that still point. Let yourself rest in that space. For more guidance on this access my meditation: Connecting to Your Inner Calm on Insight Timer.
UPCOMING OFFERINGS
INSIGHT TIMER
Explore your practice with my guided meditations on Insight Timer.
