Still Waters: Mindfulness to Soothe Your Anxious Heart

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heart. What is mindfulness for anxiety mean? “One of the most common definitions of mindfulness is the awareness that comes from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally,” explains Eric B. Loucks, Ph.D. associate professor and director of the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. “That’s a definition by Jon Kabat-Zinn.”

Therefore, it involves noticing the thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations at-hand, he adds: “It’s almost like we’re a scientist, just observing the data coming in through our senses.”

I started using Jose Silva Mind Control a little over a week ago. I would suggest buying some of his books because it really has helped with my anxiety.

I’m sleeping through the night. Before, I would wake up at least 2 or 3 times for no reason. I practice mindful thinking at least 3 times a day.

4 T’s of Mindfulness

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heart. Mindfulness for anxiety is a practice of being present in the moment and paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.

As a result, it is a way of living that can help us to be more aware of our thoughts and emotions, and to respond to them in a more mindful way.

Hence, the 4 T’s of mindfulness are tools that can help us to cultivate a mindful state of being.

Tune In

The first T of mindfulness is to “tune in” to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.

Altogether, tuning in means to be aware of what is happening in the present moment.

This includes noticing our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations without judging or trying to change them.

Basically, it is about being open to whatever is happening in the moment, without trying to control it.

Take a Step Back

The second T of mindfulness is to “take a step back” from our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. This means to observe them without getting caught up in them.

As a result, taking a step back allows us to gain some distance from our thoughts and feelings, and to see them more objectively.

This can help us to be more aware of our thoughts and feelings, and to respond to them in a more mindful way.

Although, this is particularly more effective when attending a meditation retreat.

Take Care

The third T of mindfulness is to “take care” of our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations.

This means to be kind and compassionate towards ourselves, and to treat ourselves with respect and understanding.

At length, taking care of ourselves can help us to be more mindful of our thoughts and feelings, and to respond to them in a more mindful way.

Trust Yourself

The fourth T of mindfulness is to “trust yourself”. This means to trust that you know what is best for you, and to trust that you can make the right decisions for yourself.

At this point, trusting yourself can help you to be more mindful of your thoughts and feelings, and to respond to them in a more mindful way.

Mindfulness Exercises

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heartwith precision in meditation.

Mindfulness techniques can also aid an undiagnosed individual who suffers from occasional (or not-so-occasional) anxiety.

So, to begin applying mindfulness to your anxiety, Mindful.org has provided a short description of 10 attitudes that will help build the foundation for successfully addressing anxiety:

Volition or Intention

Comparatively, this is the building block of all other attitudes. First, you must bring your focus to the intention of working with your anxiety.

Beginner’s Mind

This refers to a mindset that is ready to see from a new perspective and consider new ideas with regards to dealing with anxiety.

Patience

This is a very important attitude to cultivate since it can broaden your perspective and help you persevere when you run into obstacles on your journey.

Acknowledgment

Having the mindset of acknowledgment means that you take each experience for what it is; therefore, you accept what is happening and are secure in the knowledge that it will pass.

Non-judgment

This attitude involves experiencing your present moment without evaluating and judging it. Furthermore, it means you let go of value judgments about yourself and how you are feeling and allows you to begin your work from a more balanced starting point.

Non-Striving

This attitude refers to the willingness to accept a situation or experience as it is, without trying to change it. Henceforth, to combat your anxiety, you must first be present with it and accept your current state.

Self-Reliance

The mindset of self-reliance is characterized by trusting yourself and your ability to handle your feelings.

Basically, cultivating your self-reliance will allow you to more easily acknowledge, experience, and let go of your anxiety.

Letting Be or Allowing

Similar to the attitude of non-striving, letting be or allowing refers to the mindset of allowing yourself to feel anxiety.

Due to this, it is often more effective to work with anxiety than expend energy trying to deny or fight it.

Self-Compassion

As mentioned earlier, showing yourself compassion is an important part of mindfulness.

Being kind to yourself, as you would be kind to a dear friend or family member, can help you to decrease your anxiety by being a support for yourself.

Balance and Equanimity

These attitudes allow wisdom to develop through a broadening of perspective.

Identically, they require an understanding that your whole experience is more than your current feelings, whether positive or negative.

Short Mindfulness Exercises

 Box breathing

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heart with short, mindful exercises. This is a great exercise to do whenever you’re waiting, for example:

on hold on the phone
at a traffic light
in the doctor’s office

It’s a highly structured type of breathing exercise that requires your full attention.

Therefore, you breathe in specific counts, while visualizing a box:

Inhale to the count of 4 as you visualize the top edge of a box.
Hold your breath for a count of 4, as you go down along the right side.
Exhale for a count of 4, moving from right to left along the bottom edge.
Hold for another count of 4, going up along the left side, back to the top.
Repeat for several cycles for at least 1 minute.

 Free-range meditation

“Free-range meditation” is a term from the book “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics” by Dan Harris, Jeff Warren, and Carlye Adler.

Even more, it refers to co-opting daily activities for your meditation practice.

Use the example of a shower:

Firstly, pay attention to the action of turning faucets, standing under the spray, putting on soap.
Feel the warm water, trying to feel each individual stream.
Switch to cooler water for a couple of seconds, then back to warm water.
Keep your attention on the present. If your thoughts wander, gently bring them back.
Lastly, keep doing this for a minute to start, and you may eventually extend it to include the entire shower, and drying off as well!

Mindfulness Worksheets

https://www.storyboardthat.com/create/mindfulness-worksheets

https://brooklynactivemama.com/mindfulness-activities-for-kids-free-printable/ (for kids)

Affirmations.

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heartis helpful with affirmations. Dr. Gibson describes affirmations as positive mantras that offer an optimistic dream for the future, such as:

“Good things happen to me.”

“I am deserving.”

“I am finally safe now.”

If it feels silly saying things like these out loud, you can either repeat them internally, or, tweak them into what Dr. Gibson calls “iffirmations.” “As a mental health educator on TikTok, I was surprised when this video blew up!” she says. “It’s basically taking an affirmation and adding the hopeful words ‘what if’ to the front end. Iffirmations plant seeds of possibility. They create mental flexibility.”

Using the above statements, that shift would look like:

“What if good things could happen to me.”

“What if I could believe that I am deserving.”

Lastly, “What if I am finally safe now.”

Conclusion

Still waters: mindfulness to soothe your anxious heart is so good for anxiety. So, are you going to practice mindfulness now?

I just started and I can feel a change already with my anxiety.

The mindfulness skills you learn will turn your life around. You’ll start to feel like you’re back in control of your life.

Therefore, I’m looking forward to the day when I have no (or minimal) panic attacks since I pretty much get them everyday.

I have only had a couple since starting the meditation and mindfulness.

Well, that’s going to do it for me. I hope you learned a little bit about mindfulness for anxiety and maybe practice it in your life. Until next time…