How to reduce anxiety in just 2 minutes!
For many years I was struggling with social and anticipatory anxiety to the point where I would completely freeze up when anyone was around me that I didn't know very well.
I couldn’t even say hello, I would be so stuck in my head overthinking of what I could say, how I should say it, what might happen if I say it this way, I found myself in deep anticipatory anxiety trying to prepare for how the conversation may go.
I would literally rehearse what I could say when I got to school and this created a lot of isolation because no matter how much I rehearsed what to say, I just couldn't get through this block that was wedged in my throat no matter what I did or tried.
And so I often just sat in silence and I would smile to hide the fear, the panic and the shame I felt.
I constantly worried about what others would think of me if I said or did the wrong thing.
Struggling with chronic perfectionism, anxiety, deep shame, self-criticism and judgment, beating myself up from the inside out, creating a lot of trauma, self abandonment and further disconnection. Eventually leading to depression.
It got to a point where I really didn't wanna be on this earth anymore. One day I had this thought.. There's gotta be more to life than this.
I threw my hands up in the air and asked for guidance.
This completely shifted my the trajectory of my life. I was guide to different mentors, communities, healing modalities, and on a deep journey of self-discovery.
Four years ago I discovered breathwork and I realised that a lot of the anxiety I was experiencing, a lot of the fear and needing to be perfect were symptoms of trauma that were stored deep within my body, in my psyche.
And I realised the anxiety was a message… telling me I felt unsafe, offering me the opportunity to create a deeper sense of safety for myself.
Nowadays when anxiety arises, it's like, oh, okay, there's something telling me that I'm not safe…
Let me go into that, let me step into curiosity and ask myself what do I need to support myself through this? How can I create more safety for myself?
This changes the whole experience of anxiety. It’s no longer this horrible, inconvenient, overwhelming thing I have to avoid… It’s a message bringing my awareness into the present, into my body, and give myself what I need in that moment.
Through coming into this powerful curiosity practice, we can receive the messages our body is trying to give to us and it truly has the power to completely dissipate anxiety.
Take a moment to acknowledge the sensations, emotions, thoughts that are arising rather than just labelling it all as anxiety, allow yourself to get curious about what is actually happening in your body.
Ask yourself…
What is here from me?
What do I need to put myself through this?
What sensations am I noticing?
This actually deepens our connection to our body, to these messages and eases the super intense, overwhelming sensations that come with anxiety and instead they become much more subtle.
Suppressed trauma and emotions create anxiety.
When we have a lot of suppressed trauma, emotions, conditioning and limiting core beliefs, it can create quite intense and overwhelming states of anxiety that linger for sometimes days, weeks and months. Making it really challenging to manage or reduce anxiety symptoms.
Breathwork supports you in becoming aware of what is buried within the body and guiding you safely within yourself to express what has been suppressed to release it, creating space within you, and building your capacity to be with the sensations, triggers and big emotions that arise.
Often what I see people doing is unconsciously using all their energy to suppress what’s buried within, to protect themselves from the pain, the overwhelm, fearing it will be all consuming and they won’t be able to handle it.
And when another experience or circumstance arises that they have no space for because they’re already holding in so much, they become involuntarily explosive, reactive and triggered.
Having so much buried inside causes us to live in a state of high alert, in anticipatory anxiety, looking out for the next threat as a way to protect and prepare ourselves. But this actually attracts more of what we don’t want.
Where focus goes, energy flows.
Breathwork supports the integration of trauma and releases limiting beliefs that will allow you to align to the life and experiences you truly desire. For me finding breathwork really opened up my mind and expanded my self-awareness, I could finally understand why I was experiencing such intense anxiety, emotional triggers, chronic perfectionism, fearing what others were thinking of me.
Breath work will support you in shifting out of that high activation state, those anxious states and bring you into your parasympathetic nervous system, giving you a safe and powerful way to express what needs to be expressed and to release that excess energy, regulating your nervous system and bringing you into our natural state of calm, balance, centeredness and groundedness.
There's lots of different types of breathing techniques and breathwork practices that can reduce anxiety
Today I want to talk about conscious connected breathing that can stabilize your emotions, reduce reactivity, and promote a sense of inner balance.
It can provide a sense of control and empowerment helping you to manage those intense anxiety symptoms by shifting your focus from the overwhelming experience and out of the mind, into the present moment, into your body.
Anxiety is when we’re focusing on the future
Often we are fearing what might happen..
When will it happen..
How will it happen..
What if this happens..
Anxiety is really a future focus, this is why your breath is so powerful.. It brings you into the present.
Activating your parasympathetic nervous system which will relax your nervous system and your mind, allowing space to discharge the excess energy, rest and digest.
What is breathwork?
Conscious connected breathing is when we focus on deep, rhythmic belly breaths with no pauses between inhale and exhale for a period of time from anywhere between 5 minutes to 60 minutes.
It will help you to release physical and emotional tension that is stored in the body, including anxiety related tension. This type of breathing will activate your body's natural healing response, supporting the release of stagnant energy and bring you into deep states of relaxation.
It can also be a really beautiful way to release emotions. By coming out of our head, into our bodies where the suppressed emotions are stored, it opens up a gateway that allows the emotions to bubble up and out and integrate.
Storing those emotions can be causing the anxiety because we end up walking around trying to prevent any triggers from bringing the emotions out, if we take control and give ourselves permission to feel and express we no longer have to protect ourselves from feeling, we take our power back, we LIBERATE ouselves!
Suppressing emotions takes a lot of energy, expressing them liberates your energy and you’ll find yourself feeling lighter, more energised, clear and have more access to creative energy to utilise in creating your desired life.
Why do I feel like I am overreacting?
We feel like we're overreacting because what's happening is we're not just reacting from the thing that's happening in the present, we're reacting to every single layer that has not been resolved.
So every time you didn't allow yourself to feel or express your anger, there's this one experience in this moment that triggers not only the anger from the present moment situation, but every situation where the anger was suppressed and then we have this “overreaction” because it's every time we didn't express the anger.
Why is the anxiety so overwhelming?
Because we didn't allow ourselves to feel the anxiety or the feeling of not being safe in those past moments. We didn’t tune into what was creating the unsafety and resolve the situtation by creating safety, we usually cope, distact and numb out to avoid the pain.
And so when a situation creates the feeling that “I am not safe” it can trigger every other time you didn’t feel safe.
When we don’t find a way to bring ourselves back into safety we become over activated and overwhelm our nervous system, eventually this will exhaust your physical, mental and spiritual bodies and often you’ll find yourself dropping into a state of depression due to exhaustion.
And that's what was happening for me for a very long time.
Breathwork allowed me to go into those deep layers, to find the core of what was creating this pain and suffering and resolve it so it no longer had power over me.
In this process I realised the anxiety and depression were messages guiding me to this healing, to this liberation. I was finally able to reconnect to my authentic self and to my body.
And the anxiety… It dissipated.
Nowadays when I experience anxiety, I know it’s a message for me, an invitation to notice where I am feeling unsafe and tune into what I need to support myself through this experience and offer myself more compassion and self love. This is truly a powerful process of rebuilding your relationship to self.
Dissipate anxiety in just 2 minutes!!!
This process of reducing anxiety took me many years but now I am able to support clients to do this in a matter of hours, days and weeks.
Today I want to offer just a short two minute practice that you can use now to support the reduction of anxiety
I invite you to take a moment here.. Stop what you're doing for two minutes.
Bring your awareness to your breath, just your natural flow of breath
Start to deepen your breath
In through the nose, out through the mouth, really focusing on the depth of breath.
Notice the sensations in your body
Notice any emotions or thoughts that you’re experiencing in this moment
Continue to follow your breath, deepen your breath a little more, feel the expansion in your belly as you inhale and the softening as you exhale.
Stay here for 1-2 minutes.
Now bring in a little bit of shaking throughout your body
This will help discharge that anxious energy from the anxiety that you're experiencing.
Notice how you feel after the 2 minute exercise, how do you feel?
Practice daily or even multiple times a day for best results, continue to reflect on any shifts you experience, small and big.
If you're experiencing anxiety, I invite you to get curious what does it feel like in the body?
Because often we're in the mind telling ourselves, I'm anxious. I'm anxious, I'm anxious, and we don't realise what's actually going on in the body. We've labeled the symptoms as anxiety,
What's really going on in the body?
Is there tension? Where is the tension?
Is there rapid breathing.. Is your heart racing?
Is there constriction? Where?
Start to notice areas where you do NOT feel the anxiety.. Maybe in your legs or your feet.
Is there an area of your body that's a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more comfortable?
And you may have already started to notice that as you shift your awareness to your breath, to the sensations, you've already started to come out of the mind a little bit.
You've already started to dissipate that anxiety and you're feeling a little calmer.
It may not be completely calm, but there's a slight shift, and over time it will reduce a little more and a little more.
Just keep allowing yourself to be with it and hold space for it without any need to change anything.
All we're doing here is coming into curiosity and being with our breath.
Set yourself up for success by starting small
We don’t have to pressure ourselves to dive into a 20 minute or 60 minute meditation practice, we can start today with as little as two minutes that can lead to incredible transformation.
Give yourself the gift of 2 minutes per day and as you notice the shifts you’ll naturally want more.
Ready to dive deeper???
And if you’re ready to dive a little deeper, download my RAW Embodiment App, IT’S FREE!
On my app I have a free Integration program with practices to support you in cultivating a daily breathwork practice that will reduce anxiety levels and reconnect you to your authentic self.
I also offer private coaching that will allow you to heal and integrate the deeper layers of trauma and conditioning that may be more challenging to navigate alone.