Mindfulness & Anxiety

[Mystrose]

I want to share something I’ve been learning about to manage my anxiety. It’s actually working and doesn’t cost anything or require the normal breathing, meds or diet bs people try to shove down our throats. Yes, those things are good for some people but some of us need more help. I see people ask “what else can I do?” a lot here.

It’s about learning to “incorporate mindfulness moments thru out the day independent of your anxiety level and during a co-occurring activity.”

Sounds complicated huh?

It’s actually a simple concept.

The key for this is doing it when you’re not having anxious thoughts.

~Every time you wash your hands take that 20-30 seconds to be completely mindful. What mindful means is being 100% (as much as possible) in that moment. Most of the time, when you’re not mindful and go to wash your hands you’re not thinking about washing your hands you’re thinking about what you’re going to do after you’re done, basically looking at the future.

If you change that 20-30 seconds into walking up to the sink and turning on the faucet and feeling the temperature of the water and putting the soap in your hands and smelling the scent of the soap and really wash, feeling the muscles in your hands and the way the soap feels and if you feel your mind start to wonder or you catch yourself already thinking about something else, just bring yourself back in gently and say, “nope, I’m washing my hands right now” you will start to get in tune with all your senses.

Then, on days when you are having anxious thoughts you might think, “I need to have a moment of mindfulness so I can try to get myself centered” and because you’ve been consistent in doing this exercise every time you wash your hands (or while you brush your teeth or whatever activity you choose for this, just be 100% in the moment) you’re body will go, “Oh yeah you’re doing that thing where you get mindful and centered with yourself… I can snap back into that place.” You will start to be able to get to calm quicker and eventually over power that anxiety.

This has been very profound for me and I hope it makes sense and helps.

Much love to everyone

[Sita]

LOVE THIS!!

It’s similar to what I did when I was trying to break some negative thought patterns that were forming. I had a favourite song, memorized every word, every chord, and every time I detected my mind straying towards that thought, I would start singing that song, humming, playing it in my head or out loud, and focus on it alone.

It worked wonders to break the cycle by mindfully breaking the stream of thought, and brining back happiness because of the song I loved too. Helped that I chose a song that has a positive tinge to it too.

[Mystrose]

When I was in high school I would have terrible anxiety attacks in class. I wrote the words to a song I love from Led Zeppelin called Immigrant Song on all my book covers. The song had nothing to do with anything, but when I read the words, it grounded me. I just thought I was tricking my mind to believe doing this would stop what was happening to me. I had never even hear of anxiety.

It’s a form of distraction and it blows me away sometimes when I realize I was teaching myself how to cope when I had no idea what was going on with me. It’s neat to hear other people doing similar things.