This might sound weird or crazy, but it's extremely validating and it works.
Hello! Welcome back to yourself. My name is Sheer and I'm so happy you are here.
This is the podcast where we listen to the voice of our higher self rather than the voice of our ego
and lead from love rather than fear. So let's get into it. Today we are talking about how
to relieve anxiety immediately. First things first, I am not a therapist. I am just a girl with
anxiety and anxiety is not all of you. Anxiety is a part of you and you do have the power to shift
your mindset and your thoughts every second of the day actually. You have the power to shift
your thoughts whenever you want, whenever you are ready. I'm going to walk you through some
techniques and tools that I have learned from therapy as well as from podcasts that I listen
to about the subject. So let's start with physical resets. First thing you need to know
is anxiety is your body trying to protect you. Anxiety is a fight or flight response
that is trying to protect you from some kind of perceived danger. This is left over from when we
were getting chased by animals and now this can be triggered by something as small as a question like
can we talk or something as big as like big T trauma, whatever that may be. It can also be
triggered by something that reminds you of a big trauma that you've been through but in the moment
you do have the power to physically reset your body and when we physically calm down our body
it can signal to our brain that we are not in a threatening situation. When we are in a threatening
situation we feel it physically like our heart starts beating faster, our breath starts getting
shorter and our palms can start sweating, we can also freeze up and the first thing we can do is
start releasing the tension in our body and deepen our breathing and slow our heart rate. So first
thing that I like to check in with is my tongue. A lot of times when I'm stressed I notice that my
jaw is clenched and my tongue is on the roof of my mouth. So first thing I will do is check in with
my jaw and tongue and release the tension in my jaw. Next thing I will do is if I'm hunched over I
will bring my chest back up. I will open it back up because when we get anxious we can become like
a small little ball to protect ourselves so when we open our bodies it's signaling to our brain
that we are not in a threatening situation. Next is breathing. So as I mentioned our breaths can
get shorter when we are in danger and there are two main breathing techniques I use to reset my
breathing. So if I'm very activated like above a five on a scale of one to ten I go to the breathing
reset which is two sniffs through the nose hold for four seconds and then exhale for seven seconds.
Okay we can do that at least twice but you can do it as many times as you need. Sometimes when
I'm very activated I will put on a stopwatch to make sure that I am doing this breathing reset for
at least one minute but it would be better to do it for maybe three to five even if I'm that activated
but that is the physiological breathing reset and it helps our bodies slow our breathing down.
Once I am activated under a five I go back to belly breathing. This is when you inhale through
the nose when we inhale we're going to breathe into the belly let's inhale for four
hold for four
exhale for eight
and this can be done for as long as I am present until I get distracted and again I can use a
stopwatch for this one just to make sure that I stay in this space of intentionally belly breathing
for at least a minute better to do it for three to five minutes. Another thing you can do physically
is hold ice this is going to reset your vagus nerve which runs down the middle of your body
and it's what gets activated when you are in fight or flight response. So holding ice can help calm
your vagus nerve and signal to your brain that you are not in a threatening situation. When we do get
threatened another thing that can happen is our body creates heat and if we hold cold it's signaling
to our brain that we are not under threat. Another thing I like to do is alternate tapping. You might
have heard of the butterfly technique where you cross your hands on your chest making a butterfly
shape and you alternate tapping the fingers on your chest. This helps in two ways. Number one this
can take you out of your head and into your body because you are physically tapping on your body.
Another thing it does is use both sides of your brain to help your brain process faster and help
you get out of this activated state faster. Another physical reset is to physically move. If I can't
go for a walk or go for a workout because that can be asking a lot of myself in an activated state
to go for a workout. So something that I can do that's very easy is do a quick set of mountain
climbers or burpees or jumping jacks or if you are in the mood you can dance like they do in
Grey's Anatomy. You just need to move. Move your body get out of your head and into your body and
let the emotions come up and out of you. We don't want them to be trapped. Trauma gets out of your
body through movement so move your body. Even when it's the last thing you want to do do three
jumping jacks. Just move. Your body may not want to do it because it thinks you are under threat
but if you know that you are not under threat try to push past that and move your body to show
your body that you are not in a threatening situation. Everything is okay. This is just anxiety
and we are moving this emotion out of our body. So those were some physical interventions we can do
to get out of our heads and into our body when we feel anxiety. Next is the mental interventions
and these arguably are harder. When we do have big emotions we need to feel them. You need to
feel it to heal it and release it and if you don't they will stay stuck in your body until they are
acknowledged, felt and released. The emotions are always there to teach you something. This concept
comes from Abraham Hicks book The Power of Emotions. Let your feelings be your guide. Your feelings
are teaching you something and you can always shift them from going upstream against the current
to downstream with the current. Let me give you an example. Let's say at work you have just seen a
meeting put on your calendar with no context and you are afraid you're going to get fired.
Your first thought could be wow this meeting came out of nowhere. I have no context. I'm
definitely getting fired. That is a very upstream thought. It does not feel good in your body
and it creates more anxiety. So what can this feeling be telling us? This feeling can tell us
that you care about your job. This feeling can tell us that you care about security and money
and a study paycheck. This feeling can tell us that you like your job. Now we go into how we can
shift this thought from going upstream to downstream. Just little by little. It doesn't have to be a
180 shift but let's just start turning it. So the first thought was I'm probably going to get fired
because this meeting was put on my calendar without any context. The next thought could be this meeting
was put on my calendar without any context. I don't know what it's about and everything might be okay.
That thought could feel a little better. Let's try to shift it again. This meeting was put on my
calendar without any context. That's a fact. I don't know what it's about but I know that I can
handle whatever happens. That thought can feel even better and that thought can be empowering
and now we're shifting our thought from I'm definitely getting fired to I can handle whatever
happens and we've shifted from going upstream against the current to downstream with the current
because we cannot control what happens to us. We can only control how we react to it
and that is empowering to remember that. Becoming aware of the feeling is so impactful. When you can
acknowledge the feeling, sit with it and let it come up and speak to you, that is incredibly impactful.
So this process I learned in therapy on how to notice and acknowledge and listen to your feelings.
First, check in with your body and notice where in your body this feeling is coming up. Can you name
it? Where is it in your body? Does it have a shape? Does it have a color? Does it have a texture?
Rate the intensity of this feeling from one to ten and then ask this feeling what is it trying to
tell you? Notice anything that comes to your mind when you ask this question. Don't overthink it,
don't dismiss it. When you ask this question, just notice what comes to your mind.
Then you can ask yourself, is this answer true? Where did this thought come from?
When was the first time you had this thought? How old do you feel? From here you can start
tapping on the anxiety or the feeling. So you've rated the feeling intensity from one to ten
and now you can start tapping on it. So tapping refers to EFT tapping. This stands for emotional
freedom technique. You tap on these meridian points on your body starting with where your
brows meet your nose, on the side of your eyes, under your eyes, between your nose and mouth,
under your mouth, on your chest and the collarbone area,
on top of your head. You can also use the karate chop point on the outside of your hand.
So you have the options to go through these points every time you speak and validate your
feelings and challenge them and then note what you would rather feel. Or if you prefer to stay
in one spot, you can do that as well. I suggest you rate your feeling intensity before you begin
tapping, tap through the points, validate your feelings, ask yourself if this is true,
answer those questions. Where did this thought come from? How old do I feel? When was the first
time I had this thought? Then continue and speak of what you would rather be feeling or what you
are ready to feel. And when you are done tapping, sit with yourself, take a breath, and rate the
intensity of the feeling again on a scale of one to ten. If it dropped even one point, you've made
progress. Even just going through the tapping alone is making progress. Even just acknowledging the
feeling alone, naming it in your body, all of this, everything you are doing right now is making
progress. Now another technique that I learned from a podcast episode is to journal to your anxiety.
At the beginning of the episode, I talked about how anxiety is a part of us, not all of us.
Anxiety is a part of you, not all of you. Similar to the movie Inside Out where they have
separate feelings that all are in Riley, your anxiety is a feeling that is a part of you. It
is not all of you. You also have security that is a part of you. And you can listen to anxiety
and choose to listen to security. Anxiety being a protector part comes from Dick Schwartz's IFS
Internal Family Systems Therapy concept. And this talks about how we are made up of parts.
And these parts include protector parts such as anxiety that are trying to protect us from
danger, from feeling big feelings. And they are there for a purpose. And they are also not the
only parts we have. So when I do feel anxiety, I like to journal to anxiety and thank it for
trying to protect me. And I let it know I'm ready for you to step aside so I can listen to calm and
secure. Or whatever feeling I would rather be experiencing. Then I let the feeling that I prefer
to experience speak up and I journal what that feeling is saying. And then I make a choice to
listen to that feeling that I prefer to experience. Now this takes time. This might sound weird or
crazy, but it's extremely validating and it works. Our feelings just want to be validated. Our feelings come up for a reason.
Whether they are there to protect us or encourage us. Our feelings are always coming up for a reason.
And anxiety is trying to serve a purpose. So when we let our anxiety speak up and listen to what it is trying to protect us from,
this gives us valuable information on how we move forward. And it also gives us information about what we care about.
Now you should be so proud of yourself for listening to this episode, for even considering sitting with your feelings and showing up for yourself.
And with that, thank you so much for listening to this episode, showing up for yourself and being open to trying new tools to relieve your anxiety.
You can reach out to me on Instagram at BackToYourselfPod. Let me know what you thought of this episode and what you want to hear about next.
And I hope you go do something fun for yourself today. Bye!