Do you ever catch yourself overthinking about something you said or did that you wish you could go back and tweak? Do you wonder what could have been if your previous experiences played out in different ways? Do you ever feel as if you are drowning in worry about what lies ahead? Do you get caught in thought spiral after thought spiral, stringing together all of the potential “what if’s” and worst-case-scenarios that may jump onto the timeline of your life story? Anxiety can often present itself in the form of past- or future-oriented rumination. Like a tangled ball of yarn - it manifests as distracting thoughts that pull you away from the present moment.
As humans, our bodies and minds crave safety, predictability, and control. Anxiety can serve an important purpose in motivating us to learn and grow from what has happened and prepare and protect ourselves for what’s to come. However, when anxiety becomes all-consuming and pulls you from the present moment, it ends up hurting more than it helps. It disconnects you from your true self, others, your logical thoughts, and your other emotions, which are all resources that can aid in the preparation for the future that your anxiety was hoping to conduct. By working to stay connected in the current moment, you can utilize all of the parts of yourself and your support system to get a larger variety of ideas of how to best protect and take care of yourself. Having that harmonious team of internal parts (various emotions, thoughts, beliefs, values) and external parts (relationships with others, self-care practices) contributing to the nurturance of your well-being can be so freeing, while relying on anxiety alone to come up with approaches can be quite exhausting and limiting.
One way to go about staying present and working to not let anxiety fully take over is through mindfulness. So often, we mistake mindfulness for achieving ultimate levels of calmness and the complete absence of anxiety-provoking thoughts. But how are you supposed to reach that state of mind when anxiety is so present, so real, and so valid? The true concept of mindfulness lies in simply being present and aware without judgment. It involves turning your attention to yourself and/or your surroundings in the here-and-now. Doing this does not make the anxiety entirely disappear, and it is not meant to. Rather, the goal of this partial shift of your focus is to help to give you a break from the all-consuming stress and split your attention between multiple thoughts and emotions. For example, as you mindfully observe the tree outside of the window, anxious thoughts may still be there, but they are not the only thing taking up space in your mind. You can utilize mindfulness as a tool to practice holding space for multiple cognitive and emotional experiences at once.
Another way mindfulness can be helpful in navigating anxiety is through giving you some sense of control in those moments when life feels uncontrollable. There are no rules to mindfulness, and there is no “wrong” way to do it. You get to decide how you go about it. You get to choose where your attention goes. Mindfulness is a way to regulate the anxiety-related symptoms, hold space for your other parts, and reconnect with your body and your current environment in a way that works best for you.
Now that you’ve read a bit about how being present is helpful and how mindfulness can be utilized in navigating anxiety, I hope that you feel encouraged to give mindfulness a try. Below is a grounding activity that you can use, or you can explore various mindfulness activities to see which ones resonate the most with you. If you are wanting more support or resources in navigating your anxiety struggles, feel free to reach out to info@thecouchtherapy.org to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.
Tool To Being Present with Anxiety
The 5 Senses Grounding Technique is one mindfulness technique that you can use when you notice yourself getting stuck in the past- or future-oriented anxiety. It is a quick, easily accessible approach to grounding yourself and interrupting the anxiety-riddled thought spiral that removes you from the present moment. All you have to do is focus your attention on 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.
-Moira
(Learn more about Moira)
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