It's common that when you feel anxiety, you
have uncomfortable sensations in your body, like an upset stomach, tight muscles,
cold or sweaty palms, uh maybe a headache, or like fast breathing or rapid heart rate.
And our our natural tendency is to try to make these feelings go away, to run from our body's
messages, to distract ourselves, to stay busy, to avoid these feelings in any way we can
or try to force them to change. And while this can work in the short term, or it might
feel less uncomfortable in the short term, it actually perpetuates the cycle. It trains your
body to be more keyed up, to be more avoidant and essentially afraid of itself in addition to
whatever outside thing you were worried about. So what can you do instead? In this video you'll
learn what to do with anxious sensations in your body. Okay. So your tendency when you feel your stomach
getting upset or when you feel your heart beating fast, when you feel these anxious sensations,
is to escape, to perpetuate the anxiety cycle by avoiding your body's own messages and sensations.
But the more we struggle against our sensations, the more intense they usually feel. That's
because we're essentially telling our brain that these sensations are dangerous, that
this feeling is going to harm us. Now, that's not working, right? And if we look
at the anxiety cycle, we have this stimulus, like maybe an anxious sensation, a feeling in our
body. We interpret that as being bad or dangerous, and that makes us more anxious. And the more we
avoid it, the more we send a message to our brain to reinforce that anxiety. So we're going to learn
what to do instead. Let's slow down, and let's do the opposite. So we're going to lean into our
body's sensations. We're going to sit with it, get curious. We're going to soften into it. We're
going to practice willingness. And for that, I use the acronym PEACE. Let's get Present, let's
Explore, Accept, get Curious, and Expand. So if you notice an area of your body that's claiming
your attention, you can gently place a hand on that area and rest for a minute or two. Now,
we're going to do this together in a moment, uh but it's important to understand our intention
with this technique. We aren't trying to change the sensation. We aren't trying to fix tension
or make a feeling go away. We're simply making gentle contact with that body part and offering it
our support and our undivided attention. We treat these areas of discomfort as we would a cherished
friend. We lean in. We go slow. We listen to them, and we connect without an agenda. And as we bring
our presence or our attention to that area and we sit with it, we allow it to be there, and we
rest into it. We relax into it. So go ahead and pick an area of your body. I'm going to use my
shoulders because they're often tight. And just place your hand gently on that area. Um sometimes
in a session I also invite my clients to gain a little bit more awareness by like picking a gentle
object, a heavy object, and and like resting it on that body part to just bring awareness to that
area. This is a stone um from the desert that I really like, so I'm going to go, I'm just
going to use my hands, and I'm going to just rest them gently on my shoulders. Now, I'm not
massaging my shoulders, I'm not squeezing them, I'm not trying to force them to relax. I'm just
giving them some attention, and I'm just noticing, "Hey, shoulders, you seem a little bit
tense. How you doing?" Just checking in with them. Just going to notice what they feel like. Remind yourself, I can handle feeling
this feeling. Uh you could say, "Oh, I notice that tension" or "This feels uncomfortable,
but I can feel this feeling and be okay." Now, if you were doing this with your stomach -
let's say your stomach was having a little bit of butterflies in your stomach, you could say, "Oh,
hi there, butterflies. I notice you. I hear you. I'm listening to you. I can handle this feeling.
I can make space for this feeling, and I can be okay." Now, for me, putting my hands up on my
shoulders makes my shoulders a little bit tight, so I'm just going to squeeze them one more time,
and then I'm just going to create some awareness around them without touching them. You can
continue to touch the area of your body that feels a little bit uncomfortable or tight. And just
imagine these sensations of tightness or tension or whatever, imagine these sensations are your
friends. They're coming to you with a difficult message. Just visualize yourself listening to
their story with compassion. You aren't judging what they're saying. You aren't judging them.
You're just listening with compassion. And now, send some love to your body. "Thank you for
trying to keep me safe. I appreciate you." Imagine this area of your body is like a small
child. It's like out of breath after running in to give you a message. Give that area of your
body a mental hug. Listen to what it has to say. You are confident in your ability to hear
them. You are warm and kind. Imagine yourself responding with gentleness and kindness. Now,
you don't have to already be open and kind. You can visualize yourself being compassionate
and kind. Just imagine yourself embodying these characteristics. Um and and create a soft facial
expression to match this kindness. And again, don't worry if you don't know how to do this yet.
We don't learn or develop these skills overnight. We're going to develop them through practice.
So you can learn to listen to your body with compassion and with warmth and with openness
and wisdom. Notice how as you make space for these sensations, your capacity to feel them
increases. Imagine it's like a jar. Perhaps you felt like that jar was overflowing with emotion,
but now the jar itself is expanding, and you have space for that feeling. You can be curious and
expand your awareness and also notice the other areas of your body that are perhaps calm or warm
or soft. You can handle feeling your feelings. They are just messengers. Your body is your
friend, and you can listen to it. You got this. [Music]
