Responding to Anxiety with Heart and Wisdom - Episode 125

Awareness That Heals, Episode 125.

A very warm welcome to Season 3 of Awareness That Heals, where we have progressed to be able to focus on one challenging emotion at a time. This will allow you to choose a specific emotion that you've had challenges with, and each one will have a progressive series of guided meditations that will allow you to go deeper and deeper into self-compassion. For me, it's truly inspiring because each emotion has unique nuances for both self-care and responding to your environment at the same time. This is subtle and a rare skill, as all too often we don't stay aware of how we can care for ourselves as we are. I hope that you'll not only find it helpful, but also give you deep resources that you can internalize when the emotion is most emerging.

So let yourself be aware of your anxiety right now and find that place inside you that wants to care for you while you're there. And recognize that as you do that, it's kind of magical. It's like throwing in a whole chemical element into your chemistry that is new. That instead of anxiety being a downer, it ends up being something that can be a symbol of your resilience, your intelligence, and your wisdom. I am bringing you greater tolerance and caring and acceptance. Can you feel it right now? To what degree? See if you can feel it. And if you can't feel it, see if you can just let the thoughts be there and don't judge the thoughts. The thoughts are the anchor. Whenever you're that anxious and you can't feel it, it's fine. Thoughts are powerful when they're guiding you to care for yourself. You are the welcomer with your anxiety and recognizing that the welcoming can be even bigger than the anxiety as you develop this practice. And ask yourself what sentence or two would be most helpful to both accept the insecurity or anxiety and learn more about what you can do to grow and support yourself while you're anxious. I see you and I'm welcoming you. With kindness, hoping you can hear me and remember this message as you and my anxiety arises again. I am welcoming you with kindness and hoping you can hear me, even if it's just the thoughts. You'll never be alone without this support as long as you remember me, your awareness and your caring and your ability to respond. Can you see this yourself in your own words? Take a few moments. Can you see your capacity to be aware and to care and to be resilient? So take that time, and if the answer is yes, see if you can feel a little bit of peace. And even if you just know that that your thoughts are guiding you better, be satisfied. And look at what thoughts are most helpful, most inspiring, heartening, touching, and liberating, and relish those thoughts. See, try to find the thought, just one thought. It may be something like, you aren't doing this on purpose. Or, I trust your deep efforts to bring more inner peace while you're anxious, or while I'm anxious. This isn't all of you, and you're still fine, and you can be your best self with me even while anxiety is here as it is now. What are the attitudes and qualities that you most need now? It could be courage. Perhaps it's trust, gentleness, encouragement, a welcoming, maybe even humor. What is your most needed quality? And really look What quality do I uniquely need? And then ask yourself, what are the most essential needs, especially from the outside? Being understood, nurtured, being asked questions, being trusted, having the other be open to communication, authenticity. And be open to let others know that you need this from them. What are the specific actions or inactions that you need? You may need your partner to give you space. You may need communication. You may need to take another risk. Being more intimate sensually, asking for a need from another, perhaps your partner, is a gift to both of you. And you're looking for any specific action unique to you that you can take that perhaps brings up more anxiety. And you still go for it. Do you get that? Because if you're courageous, and as you get this more and more, you're likely to provoke more what I would call healthy anxiety because you have more courage. So you may go for communication, you may focus more on what is most important to you and present, and care for the anxiety at the same time. And let yourself appreciate the courage, the growing courage that's an outgrowth of being able to embrace your anxiety with awareness. And may this appreciation— hopefully you have this appreciation— be a part of you each time you're able to be anxious Be aware and be the responder and recognize that this is a tool that can be with you for the rest of your life. And most of all, as we end this meditation, bring appreciation to the sincerity in your heart that truly wants to care for your anxiety, has always wanted to, but now you have the tools and appreciate that who you are is the awareness and the yearning and longing to care and the resiliency and the capacity to respond to your anxiety from your heart and your wisdom.

Thanks for listening to Awareness That Heals. Please click subscribe so you won't miss an episode. If you love the podcast, the best way to help spread the word is to rate and review the show. This helps other listeners like you find this podcast. We're deeply grateful you're here and that we have found each other. We encourage you to download our introspective guides at awarenessthatheals.org. They will be helpful to you while listening to our podcast.

The following meditations are a progressive series adding more and more elements of healing anxiety, and you are strongly encouraged to go through all 6 meditations and repeat them as necessary. They are supporting you to access your best sense of self while you're anxious, and it's very likely they will require repetition to be embodied by you. We all have the capacity to be guiding ourselves with our awareness when we're anxious, at the least with our wise thoughts, and many times be able to transform the anxiety to be our friend rather than be resisted or suppressed. I truly hope that this series will give you this essential part of yourself that is a clear response each time anxiety is present with practice. I wish the very best to you, and that is my prayer and wish for doing this series.

So let yourself be aware of your anxiety right now and find that place inside you that wants to care for you while you're there. And recognize that as you do that, it's kind of magical. It's like throwing in a whole chemical element into your chemistry that is new. That instead of anxiety being a downer, it ends up being something that can be a symbol of your resilience, your intelligence, and your wisdom. I am bringing you greater tolerance and caring and acceptance. Can you feel it right now? To what degree? See if you can feel it. And if you can't feel it, see if you can just let the thoughts be there and don't judge the thoughts. The thoughts are the anchor. Whenever you're that anxious and you can't feel it, it's fine. Thoughts are powerful when they're guiding you to care for yourself. You are the welcomer with your anxiety and recognizing that the welcoming can be even bigger than the anxiety as you develop this practice. And ask yourself what sentence or two would be most helpful to both accept the insecurity or anxiety and learn more about what you can do to grow and support yourself while you're anxious. I see you and I'm welcoming you with kindness, hoping you can hear me and remember this message as you and my anxiety arises again. I am welcoming you with kindness and hoping you can hear me, even if it's just the thoughts. You'll never be alone without this support as long as you remember me, your awareness, and your caring, and your ability to respond. Can you see this yourself in your own words. Take a few moments. Can you see your capacity to be aware and to care and to be resilient? So take that time, and if the answer is yes, see if you can feel a little bit of peace. And even if you just know that your thoughts are guiding you better, be satisfied. And look at what thoughts are most helpful, most inspiring, heartening, touching, and liberating, and relish those thoughts. See, try to find the thought, just one thought It may be something like, you aren't doing this on purpose, or I trust your deep efforts to bring more inner peace while you're anxious, or while I'm anxious. This isn't all of you, and you're still fine, and you can be your best self with me. Even while anxiety is here as it is now? What are the attitudes and qualities that you most need now? It could be courage. Perhaps it's trust, gentleness, encouragement, a welcoming, maybe even humor. What is your most needed quality? And really look, what quality do I uniquely need? And then ask yourself, what are the most essential needs, especially from the outside? Being understood, nurtured, being asked questions, being trusted. Having the other be open to communication, authenticity, and be open to let others know that you need this from them. What are the specific actions or inactions that you need? You may need your partner to give you space. You may need communication. You may need to take another risk, being more intimate sensually, asking for a need from another. Perhaps your partner is a gift to both of you, and you're looking for any specific action unique to you that you can take that perhaps brings up more anxiety and you still go for it. Do you get that? Because if you're courageous, and as you get this more and more, you're likely to provoke more what I would call healthy anxiety because you have more courage. So you may go for communication, you may focus more on what is most important to you. And present and care for the anxiety at the same time. And let yourself appreciate the courage, the growing courage that's an outgrowth of being able to embrace your anxiety with awareness. And may this appreciation— hopefully you have this appreciation— be a part of you each time you're able to be anxious, be aware, and be the responder, and recognize that this is a tool that can be with you for the rest of your life. And most of all, as we end this meditation, bring appreciation to the sincerity in your heart that truly wants to care for your anxiety, has always wanted to. But now you have the tools and appreciate that who you are is the awareness and the yearning and longing to care and the resiliency and the capacity to respond to your anxiety from your heart and your wisdom.

Thanks for listening to Awareness That Heals. Please click subscribe so you won't miss an episode. If you love the podcast, the best way to help spread the word is to rate and review the show. This helps other listeners like you find this podcast. We're deeply grateful you're here and that we have found each other. We encourage you to download our introspective guides at awarenessthatheals.org. They will be helpful to you while listening to our podcast.