DAY 2
Hi
Welcome to the second step of your challenge.
I hope that you feel proud of taking the first step yesterday on this 7-Day Challenge!
Today we look at, what is blocking you from allowing these inner relationships to be in balance and harmony?
The answer for people not feeling balanced and harmonious comes from their
Abdication of physical responsibility.
So what exactly does that mean?
Your health is your most important asset. Despite what others might say, your most valuable asset is not your car or your home, and not even your career.
Without your health, you have nothing. And if you're less fit than you could be, you're sacrificing days - or years - from your life.
When you decide to take back the responsibility of your well being and decide that it's time to live a healthier lifestyle, you're likely to get better long-term results if you start improving your nutrition and increasing physical activity at the same time.
Lifestyle change is very challenging to do by yourself. Most people need support and encouragement. You need to discover what works for you, so you feel more confident in your ability to make changes.
Maybe an online fitness class such as Zumba or Yoga.
Or an online nutrition course, or reading a book such as "Liver Rescue" by Anthony William.
Or perhaps you want to move more - walking, running or cycling
Or something else like investing in a 'juicer' may resonate with you.
DAY 3
Dear %FIRSTNAME%
Welcome to the third step of letting go of your anxiety.
I trust you have followed Tool 2 and have connected to your inner intuition and have some clue as to why you are experiencing it.
Now, may I ask you a question...
... what did you eat for breakfast today?
Did you know that eating porridge for breakfast has been thought to increase your happiness levels by 20/30% ?
Why don't you try it and see how you feel?
Your mission today is to keep your attention on your body, moving energy from your head to your stomach area.
Emotionally.....
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Today set your clear intention to let go
of anxiety and worry
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open yourself up to believe that you can move up to
greater wellness, so be gentle with yourself and know you are doing the best you can.
Tool 3
Keep your attention in your body.
It is best to notice if you're having anxious thoughts early on, before the spiral of anxiety fully takes hold.
Get out of the mind and into the body
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ENERGY FOLLOWS ATTENTION PODCAST
Anxiety and panic attacks can feel really awful. I experienced panic attacks from
the age of 21 when a huge change was about to happen in my life. I learnt that a simple way to deal with this, is to breathe deeply and move your attention from up in your head to down into your stomach area.
Energy follows attention.
If your attention is in you, the energy is more likely to flow to your body creating a greater likelihood for real change.
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Start by taking deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Fill up your lungs fully as if they are balloons and on your out breath, let all the air out of the balloons.
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Do this 3 times until you feel more relaxed and calm.
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Visualise, sense or imagine a bright white light coming from above you and coming down and into your head.
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Breathe in the white light and see, feel and or sense it travelling down into your stomach area.
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Breathe normally
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Feel the calmness
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You have now moved the energy from your head to down into your body.
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When you feel ready, walk around barefoot, either outside on concrete or grass. Or inside on a tile or cement floor. This will help reduce stress and relax the nervous system as it continues to bring energy down into the body, bringing optimum health and inner peace
Holding onto fear
Suffering from anxiety means that your mind has got into the habit of holding on to fear, instead of letting the response follow its natural cycle. What you need to do is to get it back into its normal rhythm. Your body wants to respond naturally but is being held back. Left to itself, the fear response isn't mental; it's physical.
There are three steps to get the body back to its natural state of well-being.
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Firstly, move your energy out of your mind and back into your body.
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Secondly, the response to the fear needs to cleared
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Thirdly, return the body back to its natural state of relaxation.
It is important that the above steps are done in order.
The fear response must run its course and the response won't end as long as the mind keeps fuelling it with new reasons to be afraid.
Therefore, each step must be done thoroughly, so that your anxiety will subside and go away.
A = ACTIVATING EVENT. "I panicked after feeling unwell when I got off the train"
B = BELIEF "I’m nowhere near home, I don’t know what’s going on, I won’t cope being at work all day, I can’t think straight"
C = CONSEQUENCES massive panic, castastrophising thoughts, stuck in emotional mind, heart racing, shallow breathing
D= DISPUTE You have experienced panic before and know what you do.
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Allow yourself to feel the intensity of these feelings and check in with your body. You know there’s nothing to be afraid of. You have done this before. You have all the tools you need to calm down. Use your senses to get back in your body - what can you see, smell, taste, touch, hear?
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You can continue with your day and don’t need to have such high expectations of yourself. You will cope like you always do.
Take just 5 minutes right now and think of 3 things you're most grateful for today and really feel the gratitude spread throughout your body. Be thankful for the wonderful things that happen in your day - whether it's just that you're here, breathing and living. Write them down in a journal/notebook.
Day 4
Dear %FIRSTNAME%
Welcome to the fourth step in your Anxiety Toolbox
Today, I invite you to spend at least 5 - 10 minutes getting clear about your day ahead.
What are your top priorities for the day?
What is the most important?
Start with the most important and when that is complete, move on to the next task.
This will create the direction for the day without overwhelm.
Use your calendar, mobile phone or notebook to help you with this.
Your mission today is to 'stay with your body'.
Emotionally
"I am letting go of anxiety and worry"
I know you have said this before, but it is important to set your intention daily and remain focused on it.
Continually open yourself up to believe that you can move to greater wellness
Tool 4
Get Out of the Mind and Back into the Body .
It is best to notice if you're having anxious thoughts early on, before the spiral of anxiety fully takes hold.
o when you become aware of having anxious thoughts.......
Close your eyes and feel your body. The sensations may not be nice, because fear is when your heart beats faster, sometimes your hands shake or get sweaty, your whole body might shake, your breath becomes shorter and faster.
Those are the basic sensations your body will be feeling. There may also be muscle weakness. Your knees may feel like jelly or perhaps you feel aches in your body or a sick feeling in the pit of the stomach.
Even though these sensations aren't pleasant, I promise you that they want to get out. Your body always tries to discharge discomfort, but it can't do that while you are living in your head and blocking the release that needs to happen.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO MEDITATION
Take a few minutes and let yourself settle into the feeling of being in your body. For many anxious people, the mind will aim to take control. Before you know it, you are caught up in anxious thinking, so be very mindful when doing the following exercise.
Yesterday, I gave you a tool to bring down the energy from your head to down into your body.
Today, here are some tools on how to stay with your body instead of jumping back into your thoughts.
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Sit or lie down in a comfortable warm, softly lit place.
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Take deep breaths - Draw the air down into the pit of your stomach, then easily and slowly release it again. Follow your breath as it goes in and out, feeling it pass in through your nose, filling up your lungs, then out through your mouth.
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Lower your shoulders.
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Allow your head to nod and roll down towards your chest. Then slowly bring your head up to balance perfectly between your shoulders.
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Sigh or yawn and let out a low moan if you wish.
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Focus on what's right in front of you, or around you. Use your senses. Listen to the sounds around you. Feel the fabric of your clothes and focus on how they feel. Reconnect with the moment.
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Focus on your left hand. To just put your focus there and feel how the hand feels to you and how the energy is flowing through it.
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Surrender to what you are feeling and let it in. Observe the feeling in your mind and body without labelling or judging it. If you let it in - for me the feeling often seems to physically locate itself to the middle of my chest with a sense of tightness. Just observe it for maybe a minute or two and allow the feeling to vanish on your out breath.
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Use the affirmation "I am letting go of anxiety and worry" and say it as many times as you feel is best for you.
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Breathe naturally
You are nearly half way through this Anxiety Toolbox so you are well on your way to mastering anxiety, which will eventually subside and go away, so do be patient as it's a process.
Remember...
A = ACTIVATING EVENT. "I panicked after feeling unwell when I got off the train"
B = BELIEF "I’m nowhere near home, I don’t know what’s going on, I won’t cope being at work all day, I can’t think straight"
C = CONSEQUENCES massive panic, castastrophising thoughts, stuck in emotional mind, heart racing, shallow breathing
D= DISPUTE You have experienced panic before and know what you do.
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Allow yourself to feel the intensity of these feelings and check in with your body. You know there’s nothing to be afraid of. You have done this before. You have all the tools you need to calm down. Use your senses to get back in your body - what can you see, smell, taste, touch, hear?
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You can continue with your day and don’t need to have such high expectations of yourself. You will cope like you always do.
You did this next exercise the other day, but let's repeat it again.
Take some time right now, even if it's just 5 minutes, to dream about being anxiety free and what life will look like.
Imagine it in as much detail as you can.
Imagine feeling happy and carefree.
What will that feel like for you and your family?
Allow yourself to just have fun and work your mind muscles to help you create a wonderful reality for yourself.
While it's incredibly important to constantly stretch your mind, work your imagination muscles and dream big, getting out of the funk of anxiety and into the calm flow will only happen when you take the right action, consistently... day in, day out.
To help you get back into a calm flow, you need to be really intentional about the actions you take on a daily basis. Write them into your journal or notebook and once you've completed each tool every day, check it off.
Day 5
Dear %FIRSTNAME%
Yes, you are nearly there to gaining all the tools within the Anxiety Toolbox
Discipline yourself to do what you need to do today. To help you with this:-
Set a reminder in your phone to go off every hour or at certain points throughout the day, to remind you to check in with yourself and be aware of how you are feeling.
Take a moment and think about how your day is going, what you've been focusing on and adjust accordingly.
Today your Mission is re-training your body
Emotionally...
One day at a time
One moment at a time
Tool 5
Clear the Fear Response
Let me assure you that by its nature, fear is temporary, but if it insists on sticking around, give a clear message: let go.
The message can't be in words, however. The body's language is entirely physical. So you need to send your instructions physically. This is unusual for anxious people, who have been sending mental signals of distress, tenseness or worry for weeks, months or even years. But, it isn't hard to do.
Your body can be retrained. Let me repeat that. Your body can be retrained and you can regain control, by learning and practising the following steps.
If you try to fight it all at once, fear is just too overwhelming.
Therefore, let's break the body's sensations down and deal with them one at a time.
ACTION TOOLS TO REGAIN A SENSE OF CONTROL
If you feel......
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Shivers, trembling
TOOL - Lie down in a softly lit room and cover yourself with a soft, warm blanket. Say to yourself "I am safe and allowing fear to leave me", as many times as necessary or repeat affirmations
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Tense muscles. Fear paralyses the body, so you may feel as if something terrible is about to happen.
TOOL - Lie down on your back. Remember how a dog or cat stretches when it wakes up from a sleep? Copy them with a slow stretch and twist of your body. Reach your arms up as far as you can. Rotate your shoulders. Wiggle your toes and stretch your feet and legs.
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Feeling breathless, shallow breathing
ACTION - Be mindful of deep breathing. Feel your breath going low into your abdomen as you can. Draw in air slowly and deeply until you feel your tummy starts to bulge out Then exhale with a whoosh. Let the air escape as if your lungs were a balloon collapsing. Whenever you feel anxious and notice that your shallow breathing, take a deep breath with your hand on your tummy. The breath regulates the movement of emotions. If you need to cry, then cry. Feel your emotions and let them go.
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Tight throat
TOOL - Fear tightens the throat, so make sounds that activate the fear to leave. Laughter can help. Watch a funny program/comedian or film.
Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease.
Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being.
Or try humming a simple tune like a nursery rhyme or making a sound like a high tone in your head going to a lower tone in your belly. Breathe the fear out with the sound.
If making sounds doesn't help, then just focus on your breathing and imagine breathing in rays of 'sky blue' and breathing out 'grey' fear. As you breathe in blue rays of light, you feel safe and secure as it creates a bubble of light that surrounds and protects you. Do this for ten minutes and again if emotions arise and you feel like crying, let it go. Know you are safe and it's a release.
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Curled Up
TOOL - When you feel like drawing up into a tight protective ball, as if the fear will stop noticing you, don't. It will prevent the release of a deeper anxiety.
Put your attention on your heart. See it filled with white light. Now, while you slowly breathe out, see the light expand. Don't force this, perhaps the light only expands by a small amount. Take another breath and repeat the process. See yourself expanding with the light, growing more expansive and open. Let the expanding light go beyond the body. See it fill the space around you. Now see sense or feel it filling the room and finally it goes outside the room in to where you are and the surrounding world.
These steps should take at least 10 minutes to deal with your bodily sensations
You can also do a wall sit - squat against a wall for 10-20 seconds which will help tenses parts of the body and ground you. Or do some press-ups or sit ups, or muscle tensing and relaxation.
Spend at least 5-10 minutes having some quite time. Go outside or in a quiet space, focus on your breath. Breathe in deeply, relax. Be in the moment. Pay attention to your heart beating, notice how your hands and fingers feel - tune in with yourself. What can you see?
Once again use all your senses.
Focus on the flowers. Smelling flowers or wearing a floral perfume has been proven to make you happier.
Let's do this together!
Heather