Can Anxiety Cause Weird Sensations in the Body? Part 4 (Thought Anxiety) | Ep. 87 (Audio Only)

Welcome to the Holistic Inner Balance podcast with Dr. Nicole Cain and happy healthy Hadley.

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So when you have thought anxiety, assuming that you have, how does it typically show up for you? You guys, we're just getting started. We didn't even do like a hello planning session. I just like put Hadley on the spot right here and launched into it. So. Welcome to the holistic Inner balance podcast. I'm Dr. Nicole. This is.

This is Hadley. Hello. I am. I'm going to say. Okay, so it used to show up as a. And it still sometimes does, but. Okay, so it used to show up for me as a lot of criticism. Criticism of myself and also other people.

I did not.

Yes, I literally, like, I hate sharing this because it's. It's like I like to think of myself as a compassionate person and a caring person, and if you talked to me, you would think that I am. But I had this inner critic that was so. That was so critical of myself. You know, I had such high expectations of myself, but I also did have high expectations of other people and I would never have said that I did. So it was like I, I remember even thinking in school, like, oh, my gosh, like, I would do this differently. I like, like thinking about, like what my teacher was doing, like, oh, they suck at this. Like, I would do it this way and it would be so much better. Like, literally any, like, authority figure, I would be like, oh, they're like, they're bad at this.

Yeah, yeah.

Or, you know, I would be like annoyed or resentful of people, of other people. And I didn't really real at the time. I just kind of thought, you know, you're just in your own head. You just think that the things that you're thinking are normal. But I definitely had a lot of judgment and I still do, and I just catch myself doing it. And then I work through what's underneath this and all of that stuff, which that's what I do with my clients a lot too. So. But I would say the critical nature is definitely. That was my. And is still when I, When I experience anxiety, thought anxiety, it comes up as, as the critical, for sure.

So it's like quick, maybe a little bit condescending, critical, sharp, like very intelligent. It's not like you're confused or wandering thoughts. Like, you, You're. You've got the answer.

And yeah, it's intense.

Yeah. It's intense. So the flavor, there's this, like, intensity to it. And so then. So as y' all are listening, start thinking about what Dosha might be predominating in a thought pattern like that. And then I'll tell you guys what my thoughts are like. When I get thought anxiety, which is quite different than Hadley. And that's just the joy and the magic of symptoms and how they show up differently for everyone is that my thoughts tend to be racing and worried and anxious and a little bit, like, fast and hyperactive. There can be this undercurrent of. Especially if there's irritation that gets mixed in with anxiety. Like an anxious, irritable, like a Venn diagram where there's irritability and anxiousness and they're all like, kind of coming together. There can be a little bit of that, like, condescending he. Criticalness. But, like, mostly for me, it's like, very, like, intrusive and busy and thought and anxious.

Totally.

Yeah. And I would say that the. The piece that also. That is like, mixed into mine is like, a sense of, like, intense pressure. I usually don't feel confused even. Even if I'm like, totally off, like, on the wrong track. Like, I don't feel like I'm on the wrong track. I'll feel like I'm just my life, I'm doing my thing, but there's like, a lot of pressure to. And that it feels very heavy and dense. So that. That gets mixed into mine.

So as you are listening to this podcast, if you're. If you found the video and you're getting to see our faces, woohoo. Think to yourself. When you get thought anxiety or when your thoughts are anxious, what is it like for you? Is it like brain fog and you literally can't think? Or your thoughts are really slow, or it's like you get a song in your head and it's just like a Mack truck and it just won't go away. Or is it like intense and ferocious and busy and impatient and rushed and critical? Or is it all over the place and anxious? Or I mean, maybe is it even depressive where it's just like, doomsday, just fair failure, like, start.

Nothing's ever going to get better.

Yeah, that feeling, like, nothing is ever going to get better, it's just worthless. And so then you can start to explore. All right, I have annoying, intrusive, invasive, obsessive thoughts. And some doctors may say, oh, you have ocd, you're obsessing. Other doctors may say you have inattention. They're everywhere. But what's more relevant is the flavor of it, how it's showing up, because that's data of what needs healing. And we're here to show you how. And so the topic is thought anxiety. And Hadley is going to kind of walk us through how Ayurveda explains what might be out of balance and what needs to be brought into balance to help your body heal and for your symptoms to then no longer be necessary and therefore you are your best self.

Yeah, so this one's a super straightforward one for the doshas. Like, some of them are like, yeah, this dosha plays into this. But then there's an underlying doja. This one is like, oh, yeah, that's pitta, that's vata, that's kapha. Like, it's like, so this will be fun. So the one that I was describing at the beginning was done to none pitta. And if you have been following along, you know that I already. That I have a lot of pitta in my constitution. And so it makes sense that the one that I have the most of would be the one that is how my thought anxiety comes up. And so it's that intensity. It's that critical nature. It is that the. The thoughts are either critical in nature or Dr. Kane and I were talking about this before. Maybe they're not necessarily critical in nature. They don't feel like they're hateful or. Because I don't really feel like I've ever had like, super hateful thoughts or loathing. But it's more like. I mean, that could be the case if you have the pitta thoughts, but it could also be that you're the. The thoughts that you're thinking are not necessarily like, super critical, but they are. They feel really intense. Like there's. They're. The thoughts are like coming at you with a. With an intensity. And that sort of pitta is. Can be very myopic, which means just like very intense focus. So it almost feels like there's like a. Like a laser focus on these thoughts. And so that's all pitta. Fire. That makes sense, right? Fire is one of the easier ones to think of. And then we've got vata, which is what Dr. Kane was describing. And that is that confusion. Like, what even do I think I have all of these things that, That I have going on. I don't even know what's up or down. Like, I feel completely ungrounded, you know, moving really fast. Things are just like up in the air because vata is, errant. Either. Right. And so there's like a lot of movement and there's a lot of lightness and airy qualities. And then we've got kava. And that's kind of what I was describing with that. The heaviness, the density. And so if you feel like you have that can be also more depressive thoughts, that depressive anxiety thoughts, which are sort of like fast moving depressive thoughts. And so it's like, oh my gosh, everything is helpless, helpless and hopeless. Every, like nothing's ever going to get better. It can also be like sort of those, sort of those like Eeyore kind of thoughts. It can feel like it's anxiety, but it's moving a little bit slower and a little bit heavier. And so there's still a quality, like, because it's anxiety, there's still a quality of that of vata of like it's still like moving around. Whereas, like, if it were just depression without anxiety, it would be a little bit different. But that kapha quality can come in and be like, essentially, yeah. Or it can also keep you stuck in whatever like pitta or vata loops that you've got going on. So like, like I was describing the intensity. So what will happen to me is that intensity will mix with the kapha of like, kapha is like stubbornness and being stuck in something and so that it'll just be like intense and like continue being intense over and over and over and over again. And it feels like I can't pull myself out of it, if that makes sense.

I kind of want to go with that because I really love what you're saying. And I feel like this is something that a lot of people deal with is the sticky factor with thoughts where, yeah, it's. What do you do if we have a thought and it's just stuck there, it's intrusive, it's recurrent, it's disturbing and it's just stuck. Like, how do we destitify those thoughts?

Yeah, that's a really good question. And there's so much out there that, you know, there's so much mindset work out there that people, you know, people are like, oh, just change your thoughts. Which I think is hilarious because it's like, yeah, I would if I could.

Under right on them.

You know, you, you control your thoughts and then we can, can kind of get into this like anger at ourselves or disappointment in ourselves or just feeling bad about ourselves that we aren't able to change our thoughts. And then we feel more of these other like Anxiety thoughts, because we're not changing our anxiety thoughts. And then we feel more stressed about that. So the first thing with thoughts and you guys all, you know, I, you know, my biggest thing is working with the body. Because when we come. I think it was Einstein that was like, if we try to solve a problem from the same level that the problem started, then we're not going to be able to solve it. So we have to go to a different, like through. Through kind of like the back door, if that makes sense. It's like trying to throw thoughts on top of other thoughts is just going to create this whole mess in our minds. And so what we can do instead is instead of like affirmations, which, you know, I like affirmations as long as we also do this other work. Because affirmations can sort of just feel like putting a bow on top of like a shit sandwich.

Sandwich is perfect.

Yeah. So what we can do is again, all about regulating our nervous system. Getting into a place where we do feel like we are in that nervous system regulation state. And then, and only then can we really change our. Our subconscious thoughts. We, we can't really. We can change our conscious thoughts, but then once we're. Once we stop paying attention and stop being conscious because we're literally not conscious. Like 95% of our lives, 95%. Like we have subconscious thoughts ruling our lives. So in order to actually change those, subconscious repetition does work to an extent. So like affirmations and stuff. But you've got to be listening to affirmations or saying affirmations like all the time, which is usually not feasible for all of us. We have busy lives. So working with the subconscious is really the key here in order to actually change our thoughts. So the biggest thing is regulating our nervous system, feeling like we can be safe enough to even change our thoughts. So like our subconscious, we can also sort of think of our subconscious mind as our ego or our inner child. They're sort. There. There are like slight differences with how we think of these things. But. But for the most part, our subconscious mind is like this thing that's trying to keep us safe. And our subconscious mind is programmed from like when we were kids and when we, you know, and if we've had any traumatic experiences since then, how we've adapted to those. That's all stored in our subconsc conscious mind. The cool thing is that that's all stored. Our subconscious mind is essentially stored in our body. It is our body. Like it is part of our body or our body is part of our subconscious mind, whatever way you want to look at that. So working with the body, working with that nervous system regulation is huge. Again, you know, we've talked about different techniques for nervous system regulation, so we don't need to go super deep into those on this specific episod, but regulating that, and then you can introduce new thoughts on top of that. So what I really like to do that's super simple is to do some sort of nervous system regulation practice some sort of meditation where I'm becoming aware of my body, becoming maybe becoming aware of my surroundings, so that I feel like my nervous system feels really safe in whatever space I'm in. And then I either meditate, kind of let my mind just. Just kind of go, or I will journal and, and journal out, like all of the limiting beliefs that I have and question whether or not they're true, question these thoughts that are racing through my mind, that are the anxiety thoughts. Write all of those down, kind of stream of consciousness, and then look back at them and rewrite them so that it's like that's actually not true. What is more true here or what would be a better feeling thought that can still be true, that doesn't feel like I'm lying to myself. That's how I like to do it. The meditation can be helpful, but if you're in a state of just like swirling, swirling, swirling, sometimes meditation can exacerbate that state. If we don't have the nervous system regulation practice beforehand.

I love that I want to put this into steps because I like what you're describing, and I feel like this is something actionable that we could all use, like, starting today. And so totally I was taking notes while you were talking, and so help me kind of fill in these steps. So I'm thinking step one is just to reframe what our thoughts are. They're sticky, they're stubborn, they're intrusive, they're here. And it's easy to look at the thought as the problem, but we actually want to go deeper and identify the thought is a canary. It is an indicator of an adaptation to something deeper. And so it's producing the information, like, hey, if you follow us, there's something deeper here. So number one is we're just going to reframe what our thoughts are. And your thoughts are just simply data. The content of the thoughts aren't as relevant as the reason that they're there. And so sometimes we get really disturbing thoughts and we think of, like, our biggest fears or we worry that we said Something wrong, and we obsess over it. Whatever it is, the brain likes to think. The brain is going to do all sorts of thinking. It could literally be just a squirt of cortisol came out, it went through your brain, and your brain attached a thought to it. And so all we want to do is say, oh, I'm having thoughts. What are these thoughts? Like, are they kind of coffee, Pitta vata? There's something deeper that these thoughts are trying to tell me about. So, number one, what are the thoughts trying to tell you?

Oh, so I would actually say, wait, we maybe want to make that number two, because number one might. It might be more. A lot of times when we're stuck in the thought, it's hard to be like, what are these thoughts telling me? So it might be that number one is the nervous system regulation, and then number two is what are the thoughts trying to tell me? Does that make sense? So it's like just like bringing yourself. Okay. Oh, man, I'm like, all over the place with my thoughts. Let me just like, even bring myself into this, like, state of nervous system regulation and then investigate and then be like, oh, okay, that's what's happening. And that's what's happening. And that's what's happening. Does that make sense?

Yeah, Reframe this. That the thoughts are. Okay, we're having thoughts. We need to. Yeah. Go into our body and we need to ground. We need.

Yes. So identifying that thoughts are happening, but not even needing to identify the specific dosha quite yet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I would probably want to know my dosha so that I would know the best ways to ground. But I love this.

Fair. That's fair. Yeah.

This is good because some people might just be overwhelmed by that and they might be like. But.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah, that's what I think. See? Yeah.

The importance is, like, the nervous system must be tended to first. And I think that's what you're describing is get into the body, regulate the nervous system. We have a ton of content on this podcast about that. Hadley teaches a lot about self massage, self touch, placing your hand on your shoulder and feeling the weight. In the previous podcast about trauma anxiety, I walked us through different gentle movements to try to work with the nervous system. Listen to our other content about that. Vagus nerve hacks. We talk about that. And so whatever you need to do for your nervous system, and I would argue that it depends on what's going to work best for your nervous system is going to depend on your dosha. So you might take your. Your Dosha quiz and really start to familiarize yourself with what it's like for you when you're in a particular state of imbalance. And the quiz will tell you that so that you can, like, go straight to the strategies that work best. And then. Okay, so one is just simply noticing. Number two is grounding the nervous system in whatever way is going to work best for you. And then once you're grounded, then you can go in and start to ask questions and get more information. Because you want to do that from an online. Like my prefrontal cortex, my mohawk of awareness, my logical, analytical brain is now back online because I did the grounding. So now we can start to get more information about, like, okay, why is this happening? What's going on? What do I need to pay attention to? And so getting more information you were talking about. Of course, if you're using behaviors like, my husband likes to lean into vata chaos. And so when he's, like, in a state of vata, his behaviors will make him more and more vata. So if we just pick on him for a minute and this, you know, he edits all these podcasts. If he knows that I use some of his examples, he's the best. But, you know, let's say he's, like, going on, and Paul's, like, really busy, and he's really getting excited, and then he turns on all of the music, and then he gets, like, 12 phone calls. And now his brain is like, millions of thoughts. He's so smart. He's thinking of 20 things at once. But then he forgets what he was thinking about. And so first thing he would need to do is be like, oh, this is happening. Number two, let's ground his vata. So let's use, like, vata pacifying vata, balancing grounding techniques, nervous system calming techniques. And then number three is like, okay, what is this coming from? What is the unmet need? And start to explore. We talk about EMDR in a previous episode. You guys are going to have to listen to it. So, so good. And what is. Is there a trauma pattern that's making him lean into the familiarity of chaos? Or is there an attachment wound that makes him feel like he has to be everything to everybody? Also, biologically, is he eating all of. Is he drinking all of the bubble water and eating coffee? And coffee?

Yeah, yeah.

So leaning and eating crackers, popcorn, always eating rice cakes. I'm like, they're making you more vata. But he looks so then we can go into the deeper why? And so now suddenly this like ADHD hyperactive anxious state is giving us deeper clues on what needs healing and how. So that's, that's a kind of an example. What do you think?

Yeah, so that inquiry. So basically what we've got here is step number one is just noticing step number two is grounding down the nervous system. And step number is then once we are, once we're able to do that, then we're able to do the inquiry and the investigation. So what we can do. There are different types of things that we can do for that investigation, which you've been kind of describing one of them. One of the modalities for it is therapy. However, you're not always going to be able to just like call up your therapist every time you experience this. Right. But that's definitely something to bring into it, of course. But then also, like you could do this nervous system practice and then journal, like I mentioned. Here are the thoughts that are happening. Sometimes just getting the thoughts from your mind onto paper are like, oh my gosh, none of these matter. Wow. Okay. Literally, like, didn't mean anything. Like I'm just, okay, they're all here on paper. Sometimes they're a bit more significant. And then you can be like, oh, that's really interesting. That's something that I can dive into rather than being like, oh my God, I, I suck for having these thoughts. It's like, let's just get curious and have that self compassion and so we can journal it out. If you're more of a verbal processor, you could talk it out. You could talk it out with someone else. You could also just like talk it out with yourself, like say it in a voice note or even just like talk to yourself. Sometimes I've done that. I feel a little bit, a little bit nuts when I do that, but I kind of love it and I giggle about it. So, so it can be kind of a playful experience. And then, oh, there was one other thing that I thought I was going to suggest. Oh, feeling through it with your body. So you've done the nervous system regulation practice. This is, this is one that not a ton of people are talking about in the wellness space. People talk about journaling. People talk about, you know, therapy or talking things out with. But this one is like huge and hugely effective. I have found for my clients especially is to identify. So now I feel safe in my body. Now I can actually identify the physical sensations that come up when I think these thoughts. And then I can sit with that physical sensation. So for you Know one example with one of my clients, she thought that. She actually told me afterwards, she was like, yeah, I did not think this was going to work. I thought this was going to be super weird. Um, but she had this lump in her throat that accompanied. Accompanied the thoughts. Usually a lump in your throat is related to fear and. Or anger. Probably a little bit of both a lot of the time. So. So she had this lump in her throat. And then we did this exercise of wherever it's feel you're feeling the sensation in your body, just bring your attention to it and allow it to expand as much as it needs to expand. Allow it to, you know, allow your whole body to hold it rather than this one little place in your body. So it might be like a tightness in your chest, it might be like a tightness in your shoulders or a buzziness in your forehead. Just any sort of physical sensation like that. Usually it's held in one small place in your body. And as you allow that to expand throughout your whole body, it's basically like a bigger container. And so it can hold it easier. And so you. You allow it to expand and dissipate in your body. And you might think this is totally weird, but I promise, if you try it, it actually does help. And sometimes I even like to watch it, like, allow it to expand throughout my body and then allow it to expand even further than my body to the room. And so the room is holding that emotion rather than just my. My body or just that little part of my body. And that can be another way to release some of these thoughts that are really intrusive.

What we call that.

Oh, man. What do I call that? You're better with names than I am. I've been calling it, like, somatic experiencing of your emotions.

It's called somatic expansion because I feel like the gift that it's giving is expanding it.

I love it. Yes. So good. I might have to use that as like a technique.

Exactly. It describes exactly in two words. What you're doing is you're noticing sensation and then you're allowing that somatic experience, that sensation in the body to expand so that it's not having to be held so tightly in one small spot that it's able to be supported by the room.

Exactly. Yeah. That's a great strategy. It's like a bigger container so it doesn't feel so intense.

Yeah, there's. I call it somatographic imagery. So it's so cool that you're talking about this because you and I are basically the same person and what we would do, the somatographic imagery, which takes quite a lot more time. And so I love. I'm going to borrow yours.

Yeah, please do. I want more people to know this stuff.

It's really good. The somatographic imagery is. What you would do is you would explore it from lots of different angles. So you would see it, you would notice it, and then you would notice what color it is, the weight, the texture, the movement, and you would ask it questions like, how old are you? Where did you come from? What do you need me to do for you? And then we actually then work on breathing light into it and changing the temperature and changing the size and then dissipating it. So we, like, go through this, like, entire. Like, we're grabbing all the different parts of the brain, like the color and the sound and the creativity and the texture, and we're integrating all these parts of the brain. Because that's the key with trauma treatment is. Is by hemispheric integration, is that trauma often gets stuck in one part of the brain and you don't have access to being able to process it. Which is like the cool thing of emdr. Right. But. But what I like about somatic expansion is you're just giving it more space so that you're not getting these, like, little indurated, tenacious, really dense, awful, hard, uncomfortable, somatic experiences. You're making them, like, more supported and larger. Exactly.

Yes. Yeah. It's like when. When you have something that's like, super concentrated, maybe, like, if you have, like, pain that's super concentrated in one part of your body, if you're able to, like, make it a larger surface area in your body, then that pain can start to dissipate. So it's the same sort of. It's the same sort of idea here. And this is the same thing that. That happens once you do that, do that work. And you can do it anytime, like, you can do it anywhere. You do have to feel resourced. So a lot of times people are like, just feel the feelings. But feeling the feelings can sometimes, like, re. Traumatize you. Or like, if you're not in that regulated space. So you've got to do the regulation with this. But if you can do that, you can do that at any time. I love that specific practice. Yeah.

So we've been talking about thought anxiety, and we have. I feel like, a better understanding of how they can show up. As you said, that's pretty straightforward. Like the kapha, just to, like, refresh and recap, is this like maybe hopeless, depressed, slow, boggy, stubborn, stoic or words that you used. The vata can be inattentive, racing fast, intrusive, interrupting topic to topic. And the pitta can be more violent content, but maybe more of an extreme or intensely violent just way of manifesting. It can be critical, it can be negative, it can be feisty. So the flavors are different. And so noticing what flavor yours is and you know what can happen too is, you know, Hadley, you often talk about this is we aren't just like I'm a pitta. We're not just like one dosha. So you might notice like oh, I have all of these is so that's so good to look at the body too, not just the brain. And so take the quiz. Take the dosha quiz that you could find on both of our social medias and websites that are going to be linked in the show notes, notes and start to familiarize yourself like oh, this is when I'm a primarily of this with a secondary this. And then you'll know what solutions are going to work better for you. So I feel like that's really good. So we talked about like how the thoughts might show up and then we talked about what to do about it and I feel like as we like worked it out together and like talked through it, we were able to sort of distill it down into three main things is notice ground and the inquiry. The slash investigation.

Yeah, yeah, I love it. Yeah. And there are many different ways of investigation. Find the one that works best for you. But one other inquiry practice that you might or one other investigation practice that might be helpful is to move it through your body too. So like, especially if you've got a lot of kapha going on and you feel really stuck physically, it might be helpful to do some like just kind of like move around with your emotion and be like, okay, kind of like what's going with, with this emotion? How can I kind of actually physically like move my body and kind of. You can shake it out, you could jump around, you could just kind of like move, twist, do all of those, those kinds of things and then you don't feel as stuck with the kapha.

I love that. That's super good for kapha.

Yeah.

Because you want to create a pattern interrupt. You want to like break that stuck stickiness. So you want to. Exactly. Anti stickum.

Yes, yes, exactly. So good.

So good. So when we get together next time we're going to talk about neurological anxiety and endocrine anxiety. The whole purpose of the series Is y' all were asking if can this symptom be a sign of panic? Can this symptom be a sign of anxiety? Is it a heart attack? Or could it be chest anxiety? And so we've been hearing, talking about how anxiety and stress can show up in your body and then what you can do about it. And so I love this conversation on thought anxiety because we all have brains and our brains like to think. And so taking back the power and instead of your thoughts controlling you is understanding what your thoughts are trying to do for you. That can be pretty life transforming.

Yeah. There's nothing wrong with thoughts and we can be in control of our thoughts and then they can actually serve us. Yeah. Yeah. So good. Thank you everyone for listening. Really excited to talk about the next types of anxiety. Let us know if you have any feedback or if you're like, this is so me. We would love to hear from you. Tag us. You can take a screenshot of the podcast and tag us on Instagram or if you want to leave a review for our podcast. That really helps us to be able to get more people listening and learning about this stuff so that they can really be their own mental health and physical health experts. So please do that if you, if you feel, if you feel like you resonate with this podcast a lot and you want other people to be able to hear it. Thank you everyone.

Thanks everyone. So appreciate you.

Bye.

The recording you just listened to consists of the personal opinions of Dr. Nicole Kane, a naturopathic doctor with a master's in clinical psychology, and Happy Healthy Hadley, an Ayurveda expert with a master's in health behavior and health education. While these opinions are based upon literature, counseling, education, medical training, and clinical experience, this content should not be viewed as the definitive opinion on these subjects. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for any sort of medical, psychological or other form of treatment. If you are in a crisis, please call 911 or call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 1-800-273-825545. If you are in need of counseling, don't hesitate to make an appointment with a counselor in your area. Dr. Nicole and Hadley are passionate about you becoming the expert of your own emotional and physical well being. If this resonates with you and you think this podcast would help someone you love, please share it with them. We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of the Holistic Inner Balance Podcast.

Sam.