My body wasn’t sleeping or digesting. My mind was chaotic, unfocused, and hypervigilant. My heart was racing most of the time. Panic attacks were a minimum weekly occurrence. And I was exhausted!
We all have some experience with anxiety, it’s a very common human experience, and I’m not sure you can live in this modern life without some familiarity with anxiety.
Some of us are born with more sensitive nervous systems leaving us more prone to anxiety. Anxiety can arise from accumulated stress; may show up as specific phobias around height or crowds (for example); and sometimes anxiety seems to arise out of nowhere. Whether it’s a fleeting experience, or persistent and seemingly chronic, anxiety can be healed.
You can heal your anxiety.
I came across this description of how anxiety was living in my body when I was first studying to become a yoga teacher,
“Anxiety lives as an energetic buzzing throughout my body; torso constriction, buzzing in my ears, tightness in my chest, pain in my thoracic area. It feels like I’m a refrigerator, plugged in with the door open. Running for no purpose. Buzzing. Wasting energy. Cold.”
That hurt. And, I was so fortunate to have dedicated myself to yoga!
Yoga offered me a variety of body based tools like specific breathing practices, grounded awareness exercises, mantras, and the invitation to cultivate the yogic virtues of awareness (cit), mindfulness (smriti), self compassion (karuna), self care, community (kula), cultivating resilience, and more. These tools and practices shifted my experience of anxiety from debilitating to a more intermittent visitor that hasn’t overwhelmed me in years.
In fact, I can’t remember the last time I felt like a refrigerator!
In my upcoming series Yoga for Healing Anxiety, we will explore the practices and themes above to help you identify which practices are most supportive for you now, and how to identify those you can lean into more when it’s good for you!
To grow awareness and understanding of our anxious body/mind I teach about the latest understanding of our human stress responses. This includes an introduction to Polyvagal Theory (PVT) as a tool for understanding our body/mind so we know when and how to intervene. In this way we can shift from being in reactive states like anxiety, to more responsive, settled and focused in our body/minds. PVT is a model that helps us build nervous system literacy and deep compassion for ourselves in the process. A mighty powerful lens for healing!
In the meantime, here is a practice that has helped me, especially when I find myself out walking in nature to calm, and find my mind is still chaotic (you know, when you try a strategy and it isn’t cutting it)? Having more tools help you build a more resilient nervous system, resulting in reduced anxiety and its symptoms! Wherever you are, in the midst of the body/mind storm of anxiety, try shifting your attention to your five senses.
Attending to your 5 senses
- Name 3 things you can see with your eyes.
- Identify 3 sensations (air on your skin, the squeeze of your shoe on your foot, where your clothes touch your body, etc).
- Notice 3 sounds in your environment.
- What can you taste in your mouth? Look for 3 tastes.
- What scents does your nose pick up? A freshness in the air? Rain coming? Stale office smell? Note 3 scents.
If you get lost in thought or lose track or can’t identify 3 “tastes,” no worries! The practice is to simply (although not necessarily easy) return to your five senses. Continue repeating the cycle until you notice a shift towards more calm in your body/mind. Gentle effort as you look for your experience. You can’t get it wrong!
If you’d like to learn more about how anxiety happens and what you can do about it, consider joining me for the Yoga for Healing Anxiety Series, you can put your name on the waitlist here. As always, you can access this work in my private self healing sessions.
