Anxiety and mindfulness

Insights from a recent counseling session on anxiety.

While mindfulness as needed can be helpful, regular practice lowers baseline anxiety levels. As-needed can lower it a little temporarily, but from an already heightened state. Regular practice can help keep baseline from going higher altogether. Breathwork before bed and during breaks can be good. I do the 4-7-8 technique (inhale 4 seconds, hold 7, exhale 8). Got my voice to not shake during a presentation for once.

A metacognition aspect is preference-based language. Restructuring from ruminating or catastrophizing by simply framing the situation as “I would have preferred that not happen, but I’ve dealt with this before. And I’m still here.” A reminder that anxiety arose as a survival mechanism, and reminding yourself that you are safe and that an email is of no threat to your life (see: memes about people’s bodies not knowing the difference between running from a tiger and sending an email).

See memes about people exercising to convince their bodies that they outran “the tiger” it is convinced exists (otherwise, to it, why would all this stress be here?). Helped me get good quality sleep and not wake up in the middle of the night. When I stopped, I went back to waking up in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep.

A reminder on acceptance because anxiety over getting anxiety is a vicious cycle, like stress only increasing mortality if viewed negatively.

A reminder on why breathwork works: it physiologically tells your body you’re safe and your life isn’t under threat. Also grounding.