5 Steps to Regulating, Reducing & Healing Anxiety
Sometimes, when you’re living with chronic anxiety, you can get to the point of resigning to living an anxious life. You might hear yourself say things like, “Welp, this is my lot in life…I’m just an anxious person and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
We GET IT and those feelings of exhaustion and urges to resign are valid. And, we want you to know that there are ways to regulate and heal your anxiety that are completely GAME CHANGING.
And we know. A part of you might be rolling your eyes, skeptical and thinking, “What makes this blog post any different than ALL the other blog posts I’ve already read on how to cope and manage my anxiety?” That’s fair. We encourage critical thinking.
This post is different because 4 out of the 5 tips are somatic and embodiment based strategies that get you OUT of your head and into your body which is SO needed when it comes to anxiety. And the other awesome thing about this post? We don’t expect you to just take our word for it. Go EXPERIENCE these 5 tips and feel it for yourself.
Learn about your autonomic nervous system & your emotional window of tolerance - The autonomic nervous system is a branch of the central nervous system and it plays a MAJOR role in various energetic/emotional states including anxiety. The autonomic nervous system is made up of two branches, the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch, which should be working in tandem with each other. In the case of chronic anxiety the sympathetic branch is dominant which is why things feel so fast, amped up and chaotic. The emotional window of tolerance is a framework that helps us gain clarity about what is happening in our nervous system and the path to repair.
Use mindfulness to develop your interoception & proprioception - Simply put, mindfulness is paying attention to your present moment experience. When we learn to direct our attention vs. our attention directing us, we can begin to develop our interoceptive and proprioceptive abilities which are needed to regulate and reduce anxiety. Interoception is the skill of sensing and feeling things from the inside like your heartbeat, muscle tension, energy and blood flow, where emotions show up in your body and the sensations/images/thoughts/stories associated with those emotions. Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense its own position, movement, and spatial orientation without relying on external stimuli. Proprioception helps reduce anxiety (a fear based emotion) by promoting a sense grounding and connection within the body and also the body’s relationship to the world around it providing a sense of safety and stability.
Learn, practice & integrate somatic tools to regulate your energy - There are various body-based tools that we have found through research and in working with folks that regulate energy and rewire internal circuitry thus decreasing anxiety. These somatic tools (shaking, stomping, pushing, pillow slams, sighing, singing, humming, heel drops, spinal movements, eye placement, etc.) speak directly to the autonomic nervous system whereas thought-based strategies like reframing, journaling, talking things through etc. don’t. Once your nervous system has issued a stress response (which is what anxiety is) thinking your way out of that energetic/emotional state is not effective. It would be like someone giving you commands in a language you don’t speak, it just doesn’t compute. We gotta learn to speak the language of our nervous system in order to reduce and heal anxiety.
Hierarchical experience breakdown - Once you’ve got a handle on your emotional window of tolerance, the “go to” reactions of your autonomic nervous system and specific somatic tools to move and direct your energy, it’s time for exposure. Even though your anxiety would like you to just avoid situations that make you afraid, that doesn’t actually help you reduce and heal your anxiety. Instead, select a situation you know makes you anxious and break it down into smaller steps. Then, challenge yourself to complete the first step and use your somatic regulation tools to help you. Sometimes you’ll need to repeat the same step a number of times until your nervous system has rewired and begins to read the situation as less threatening. You’ll be able to feel a decrease in the level at which your body is responding to that perceived threat. It’s important to note that you may never find that situation FULLY enjoyable but you will be able to do it, stay present for it and not feel SO drained afterwards.
Develop and embody genuine curiosity & compassion toward your anxiety - At our cores, humans are innately curious and compassionate and an important step to reducing anxiety is relating to it with GENUINE curiosity and compassion. This one can be tough because most of us HATE our anxiety and what it’s done to our lives. But, like anything else on planet Earth, healing and growth cannot take place under unrelenting, harsh conditions like criticism and hatred. It’s CRUCIAL to build an understanding and loving relationship with the anxious part of you so this part of you feels safe to let go of the old ways of doing things and grow into the new ways of doing things.
Identify & release the limiting beliefs driving your anxiety - This step is MOST successful in the presence of a compassionate witness and guide as it can be near impossible to see our own blind spots. The beliefs we hold inside to be true can become so normal and “protective” to us that we can struggle to see why we need to let go of them. Underneath all anxiety are beliefs that are being treated as the truth that continue to drive anxious sensations and feelings. Examples of these beliefs are: “The world is unsafe”, “Other people cannot be trusted”, “I am not enough”.
So….go ahead, go on and get out there - give these 5 tips a try! And, when your anxiety (fear) starts getting in the way of you trying these tips, remember the wise words of Ram Dass “...when you are just in the moment, doing what you are doing, there is no fear. The fear is when you stand back to think about it. The fear is not in the actions. The fear is in the thought about the actions.”
Ready to finally regulate your anxiety? Connect with us for a consultation at info@bravecounseling.com or 720-923-3033.