Dealing with Stress and Anxiety

When you are feeling stressed and anxious, begin by reviewing my Relaxed Breathing technique.

Then, while doing your relaxed breathing, imagine that:

  • your stressful thoughts and anxious emotions are flowing by in front of you, in a river that flows away and disappears in the distance....
  • while you are sitting on the bank of this river, quietly and calmly watching your thoughts and emotions flowing by.

You don't need to try to stop these thoughts and emotions, or manage them......

Simply allow these thoughts and emotions to flow by and gradually disappear....

When more new troubling thoughts and emotions appear, simply remind yourself:

  • "This is just a thought....."
  • "This is just an emotion....."

..and remember: you are not your thoughts and emotions. Instead, you are the observer or the witness of them....and allow these new thoughts and emotions to flow by....and float away....as well.....

Also, do not be discouraged if this doesn't feel completely natural the first few times you try it. Many of us have spent the majority of our lives caught up in whirlwinds of thought and whirlpools of emotion....so be patient with yourself.

This will require repeated practice....so take your time.....Do not pressure yourself.....

Just do this exercise briefly for just a few minutes....occasionally throughout the day.....whenever you think of doing it.....

Gradually it will become easier....and feel much more natural...and effortless....

Eventually you will find that, by combining (1) this new way of looking at troubling thoughts and emotions with (2) the Relaxed Breathing technique, you will begin to find (feel) a quiet space inside.....a still space of clear Awareness.....from which you can watch everything that happens.....without always being caught up in your thoughts and emotions.....

This quiet, undisturbed space is the heart of who you really are....and the more frequently you can relax into being the Witness and Observer of your experience, the easier it will be for you to be at ease.....with whatever is happening in your mind, in your heart and in the world around you......