Mindfulness to Help with Anxiety
Your brain is doing that hamster-wheel thing again. Thoughts are racing, bouncing back and forth between that thing that you said to your best friend that you're afraid offended her, and your potential jury duty. You can feel your muscles tightening and your breath becoming more shallow. Then you realize that you're pulling into your drive way, coming home from work, and don't remember actually driving your car. If this sounds familiar, continue to read our tips about the use of mindfulness to help with anxiety.
Mindfulness to help with anxiety, simply put, is being in the present moment.
Anxiety, when it's happening, scatters our brain everywhere except the present moment. Part of the challenge with that is that we can only have positive experiences of joy in happiness, when we are experiencing the present moment. So, really, you can use mindfulness to help with anxiety, but also to experience greater enjoyment in life as you practice it regularly.
But let's be honest, there is so much to draw our thoughts and attention away from the current moment. Work, kids, chores, strained relationships, the rising price of gas, remembering to give the dogs their medication. The thoughts go on and on. How to you reign it in to even consider using mindfulness to help with anxiety? The answer might surprise you.
Try Vegas(VAGUS!) and a game
What?!!Ok, let me be a little more clear. Try engaging your Vagus nerve, which runs through a good part of your body and engaged that parasympathetic "rest and connect" system. Do this by pressing your feet into the floor, noticing that sensation. This slows that hamster-wheel of thoughts down and helps with the next step, which is
Play the 5-4-3-2-1 Game
This is a "game" of engaging your senses. It doesn't really matter what order, just keep in mind sight, sounds, taste, smell, touch.
What are 5 Things you SEE?
What are 4 Things you HEAR?
What are 3 Things you SMELL (or like to smell)?
What are 2 Things you TASTE (or like to taste)?
Name 1 GOOD THING about YOU.
How was that? Yeah, usually people have a hard time with the last one, but it's a good start to self compassion, which we'll tackle in a future post.Add this and other skills to your toolbox to help with anxiety. Chris and Alina are skilled in guiding you from frazzled and frantic to calm and connected. Get connected with us!
