Hello Beautiful Soul!
I wanted to stop in today to say welcome to any new Your Highest Light Subscribers, and HELLO and thank you for being here to all existing subscribers! I am so happy you are here and ready to change your mind in order to lead a more miraculous life!
I hope everyone has had a great month or so and is ready for Thanksgiving next week! It has been a while since I have sent an update, and I have some plans in the works!
For now, I have a question for you. Do you ever feel stressed or anxious?
Well I do! One thing I found at the beginning of my wellness journey is that people would tell me in order to lessen my anxiety, I should focus on my breathing….
Okay, well, that didn’t work. In fact, oftentimes when I sat in a room alone and focused on my breathing, my anxiety increased! Eek!
Today I want to teach you a simple tip to help lessen your anxiety WITHOUT having to think about your breathing! Go ahead and watch the video below (from two years ago) for more information, or just keep reading below!
Anyone who has struggled with fear and anxiety probably knows the importance of breathing. When you feel anxious, your breathing gets shorter and more shallow, causing your body to tense. The amygdala (fight or flight response) in your brain gets fired up so you can’t remember things (test anxiety anyone?). I think this explains some of the unhelpful thinking patterns that can accompany anxiety. Literally, we are not in our right minds when our anxiety is too high (freak out mode).
So how do we lesson our anxiety? Simple! Breathe! (I hope you can hear my sarcasm through my writing…simple? uh huh, right…)
Deep breathing DOES work. It is just a fact. It slows down the fight-or-flight (sympathetic) part of your nervous system and activates the rest-and-digest (parasympathetic) part of your nervous system. When your body and mind are at rest, your body and mind can heal.
Well guess what? It may be simple, but it is not that easy. You can tell me to breathe deep until your face turns blue, haha. Simply knowing that I need to slow down and lengthen my breathing doesn’t help me to actually do it.
What many people may not know about anxiety is that when you’re in the midst of it, concentrating on your breathing CAN actually make it worse! Anyone who has struggled with severe or just everyday anxiety probably totally knows what I am talking about! All I can say is that the first time someone told me to concentrate on my breathing, my breathing totally freaked me out!
What a dilemma!
There is good news for those people who find that concentrating on their breath makes them more nervous. There are other ways…
Anxiety is when your mind is in the future. Depression is when your mind is in the past. I always tell my clients, they can handle anything that is happening right now. 99% of the time, there is nothing wrong in the present moment. And 100% of the time, we can handle what is happening in the present moment. What we can’t handle is all the possible things that COULD happen in the future, or all the things that we have to do in the future! That is why bringing yourself to the present moment will always help with fear and anxiety.
This is where a mantra can help you. There is A Course In Miracles lesson that says “My present happiness is all i see.” Since happiness might be a far reach for someone in “freak out mode”, I have changed this for my clients to say, “The perfect present moment is all I see.”
Look around you. Notice the colors, the textures, the smells, the sounds. Use all of your senses. We call this mindfulness or self-soothing. Let yourself be soothed by the present moment. “The perfect present moment is all I see.” There is nothing wrong right now. Allow your mind to quiet and find the stillness.
Accept that this moment is perfect. In the psychology field, we call this “Radical Acceptance”, accepting where you are and who you are right now. It is possible to completely accept where and who you are right now while at the same time improving your future. Accepting this moment as it is WILL improve your future.
The perfect present moment is all I see.
Once you allow this mantra to bring you peace, your breathing will naturally slow down and get deeper. Then you will definitely feel more relaxed and your anxiety will lessen. You can breathe fully again. You can think again. You can remember again. And most importantly, you can reach better thoughts, feelings, actions, and results.
I hope this serves you, and I would love to hear from you! Post below about your experience with anxiety, deep breathing, and how you might use the new mantra!
Peace, Love, and The Perfect Present Moment Is All I See,
Elizabeth
elizabeth@yourhighestlight.com
www.yourhighestlight.com
