Anxiety can at times feel like a well worn glove that you have fully climbed back into before you are even aware of it.
It can start with a churning in your belly, then a tightening in your chest as your throat begins to feel constricted.
Often we go into fear of the anxiety and try on some level to outrun it. To get as far away from the uncomfortable feeling as you can when all this really does is increase the intensity of the sensations occurring in your body.
The underlying emotion in most cases is fear and a lot of the time it can be difficult to even put your finger on what the actual fear may be.
Then the ego mind kicks in and begins to fill your head with scenarios that logically you know are not real but every fibre of your being is responding as though it is happening right here, right now in this very moment.
Energetically what you resist persists, what you deny festers, what you ignore starts to scream out to try and get your attention and before you know it you are in a full blown panic attack.
Often this can feel as though it has come on you with no warning and this can be extremely intense.
What I know for sure though is that this, in most cases, will have been a build up of either hours or days and in your need to move away from the feelings and sensations and in ignoring them, this has actually had the opposite effect.
In these moments, and I am experiencing one of these myself today these are some of the things that I do…
- Take notice of your surroundings, what can you see and hear, take time doing this
- Feel the weight of your body where it sits and the sensation of your feet on the ground
- Bring your attention to your breath
- Follow the flow of your breath all the way into your body, noticing where in your body it flows to
- Now follow that breath all the way out of your body, feeling the full flow of it as you exhale
- Continue this for several breaths
- Now bring your attention to the area in your body that feels the most uncomfortable, eg belly, chest, throat
- Place your hands on this area
- Now breathe into this area, your breath may feel shallow to begin with and that is ok
- Feel your hands on the area of your body
- Continue to breathe in and out of this area, and as you do so say a few words of encouragement to this sensation in your body
- It’s ok, you are safe, everything is going to be ok, you are doing great, I am here for you
- Sit with this for as long as you feel that you need to and then move onto any other areas of your body repeating the above process
Once you have completed this process you may like to repeat again or do one of the following:
- Be kind and gentle with yourself
- Unplug from all media
- Sit outside and feel the warmth of the sun against your skin
- Go for a walk in nature
- Sit at your favourite park in nature
- Spend time with your fur babies
- Get out of the house
- Play your favourite music
- Colour in
May this serve you well.
Blessings
Kerryn
xxx
