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Mindfulness helps you become aware of yourself, but mostly on your breath. Notice your breath again. Has it changed pace, or does it remain the same as when you started? Now, bring your attention to your thoughts. Remember, your thoughts are just thoughts. Your feelings are just feelings. You are not labeling them as good, bad, happy, or sad. You are not judging them as anxious or traumatic. Notice whatever thought that pops in your head and then bring your attention to your breath again. This type of meditation uses a word, phrase, or sound to help relax the mind and body. The mantra can be spoken aloud or quietly. Steady your breath and become in tune with it. This could be one word such as relax or one phrase such as I am here.

You Can Make It If You Try

Or, if you would prefer sound, think of a sound that calms you, like a bell dinging every three seconds or water dripping rhythmically from a tap. If you are more of a visual individual, you can picture a candle flame flickering slightly or a blade of grass blowing in the wind. With every inhale, repeat your mantra once and then exhale. Inhale, say, listen to, or visualize your mantra, and exhale slowly. For example, breathe in slowly, say, I am safe, and now breathe out. Inhale and say, I am safe, and exhale. Over time, during a panicky situation, you can repeat this mantra, and you will feel that all your anxious symptoms seem to disappear almost instantly. This type of meditation is also known as the body scan. It requires you to breathe in deeply and start from your head and work down to your toes. You are tightening the small group of muscles in each area as you breathe in, and as you exhale, you are releasing the tension. The body scan helps you understand what individual body parts feel like when they tense up as opposed to what they feel like when we are relaxed. It will help you understand how constricted you feel during an anxiety attack, so you don’t have to guess whether it’s anxiety, or something is actually wrong.

Its Hard To Be

Once you know this feeling by heart, you will know when you can do ‘in the moment’ breathing exercises. We will only go through the first few steps, as progressive relaxation is a long process. Ensure you are lying flat on your back, legs, and arms not touching your body. Close your eyes, and focus your attention on your face. Breathe in slowly and deeply while also scrunching your face together. Imagine you are trying to push your entire face onto your nose. Exhale, and return your face to normal and relaxed. On your next deep inhale, notice your shoulders and scrunch them up to your ears, flex your arms and hold while you breathe in. This may not be easy, but as you practice, it will get easier. Exhale and release all tension. Relax fully on your exhale. Continue working through each body part as you inhale and exhale through the exercise.

Everybody Out There

Next will be your hands and fingers, then your chest, stomach, back, buttocks, thighs, calves, ankles, and toes. As you work through each body part, notice the difference between constricted and relaxed. During this exercise, some people choose to go from their toes to their heads, while others choose one side then work up the other side of their body. There are many different meditation exercises to choose from, each bringing their own benefits and goals. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving that only you can give to yourself. These skills are great to cultivate in our lives because we feel better physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Most of these exercises take time, practice, and dedication to see results, but if you stick with the habit, you will see significant results. What your barriers are and how to fix them. Unfortunately, as we’ve all found, habits are incredibly hard to form. To ensure healthy mental health, we can create new habits to better our lives and become successful in our future goals – aka, less or no anxiety. It is no understatement to say your mental health has to be a priority in your life. The habits to achieve this need to be simple, achievable, and measurable in some way. This is difficult to start with, but it asks us to tell people when we are anxious. By talking to people around us when we feel anxious, they can help us identify patterns and behaviors that we adopt when we’re becoming anxious, which can help identify when our anxiety brains are taking the lead. The sooner we can recognize the changes in our behavior, the earlier we will identify when to interrupt the anxious brain thought processes and almost stop them before they begin. I have a close circle of people around me who notice when my behavior changes and I become a less vibrant version of myself. Sometimes they get it wrong, and I am just feeling overwhelmed! More often than not, they are right, and I can catch it early before I get into an anxious spiral. It can be tough to make changes when we are already so used to doing what we have always done. Before we dive into creating a schedule to develop some new habits, let’s take a look at what barriers we might come up against first. I forgot. It’s easy to forget a new habit when we are just starting because it’s something new we have to become aware of. Post sticky notes where our habit takes place After seeing your sticky notes every day or hearing a notification coming from your phone every day, you will get used to following your habit. You won’t need the reminders. I am overwhelmed with all this change. For most people, we get an idea in our heads and then become so excited that we start doing everything all at once.