Get Out Of The Mind And Into The Body

So You Can Have An Antidote To Anxiety

How much time do you spend in your mind?

If you're like most people, you probably spend almost half your day, if not more, caught up in your thoughts.

As a result, there's minimal connection to the present moment.

You've wired your mind to keep planning your next actions.

Unfortunately, that habit can be hard to handle and turn your life into a cycle of unnecessary suffering.

The Downside of The Thinking Mind

Picture this:

You wake up. Instantly, your mind starts racing about work. You're afraid of the evaluation your boss has planned for you. You worry about how unprepared you are. You need to relieve this feeling.

So, you hop into your car and slam the door shut.

You mash the pedal to the floor, knowing you'll have more time to prepare if you're early.

You weave in and out of traffic. You don't use your blinker to show you're changing lanes. You're five minutes away from work, and the anxiety turns to excitement because your plan is coming true.

Suddenly, you hear sirens and see the red and blue lights in the rearview, asking you to pull over.

So much for getting to work early.

Now you're going to be late to work, possibly miss the evaluation, and have potential consequences.

All because you let worry take the wheel.

The Truth About Anxiety and The Present Moment

We're unsatisfied when our minds are disconnected from the now.

A 2010 study done by Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert further illustrates that point.

They conducted a study that tracked people's mind wandering throughout the day through an iPhone app.

At specific points during the day, the app asked:

• What are you doing right now?

• How are you feeling right now?

• Are you thinking about something else?

Participants reported they were thinking about something other than what they were doing 47% of the time. With that, they also reported high feelings of dissatisfaction when they were thinking about something else.

Thus, Killingsworth and Gilbert concluded this:

A wandering mind is often an unhappy mind.

However, it's not your fault your mind wanders.

You cannot control the mind with brute force.

This is especially true with anxiety because it's a survival response.

The brain can't discern real danger from perceived danger, so worrying about getting fired from your job or not having enough money to pay rent when rent's due triggers the same response as if you were being chased by a bear.

I felt this recently.

In May, I wasn't sure if I had enough money to pay rent.

Medical bills had piled up. A fat car bill was staring at me in the face. Grad school fees were on the horizon. I also had to make sure I wasn't starving myself and picking up an adequate amount of groceries.

But that put me in jeopardy of not paying rent.

My mind went into worry overdrive.

• Will I get evicted?

• Will my landlord understand?

• Will I ever not have financial challenges?

Not a fun place to be.

All because I was letting worry try to solve my problems.

Many of us do.

But again, it's not our fault.

It's not just the primal brain but also the society we live in.

The Glorification of The Intellect

In Western culture, we've glorified the intellect.

Because the intellect - aka the thinking mind - is responsible for technological innovation and societal advancements, it can solve any problem and get us out of every sticky situation it got us in.

But its power is limited.

And we have a hard time believing it's limited.

That's why we try to think our way out of anxiety. However, trying to think our way out of anxiety is like trying to fight the wind.

Here's what I mean.

It's counterintuitive to think your way out of anxiety. You're trying to use a tool (thinking) to solve a problem that was created by the tool itself.

That process perpetuates anxiety because it creates a desired future that has yet to be achieved, which creates dissatisfaction with the present and fear that the future desire won't be fulfilled.

In that process, you lose awareness of your body because you're so fixated on a false, fear-based fantasy of the future.

In that space, anxiety is continuing to run the show.

Luckily, you can dissolve those anxious feelings.

Here's how to start doing so.

How You Can Cultivate Intimacy With The Mind, The Body, and The Now

The mind wanders, but the body is always present.

When you notice the mind is plagued by anxiety, there's a simple process I like to follow called RAIN.

RAIN stands for:

Recognize
Allow/Accept
Intimacy
Nurture

The first step, recognition, is how you begin. Recognize what's happening. Not just in the mind but also in the body. Notice the spiraling thoughts. Feel the sensations of the body.

Once you've recognized what's present, you've connected with the now.

From there, you can start to allow what's happening to happen.

Although allowing and accepting this experience sounds counterproductive, it's that acceptance and allowance that loosens the grip on the sensation of anxiety. That loose grip softens the sensations and makes them manageable.

When it feels manageable, we cultivate some peace.

When we cultivate some peace, we can get intimate with our experience.

Intimacy is essential to understanding anxiety. Getting intimate with the experience helps us understand our triggers. Those triggers can be specific thoughts or fantasies, which lead to specific feelings in the body.

When we know what anxiety feels like in the body, we can nurture ourselves.

Which brings us to N.

Nurturing can simply be mindful breathing. Slow, deep breaths to bring our heart rate down. Mindful breathing can be combined with affirmations that everything is alright. Nurturing can also be asking questions about what we believe.

There is no "right" way to nurture.

So I encourage you to experiment with wholesome nurturing and determine what works best for you.

The Peacefulness of The Present Moment

We spend so much time in our minds that we forget we have a body.

When we forget we have a body, we forget that's where we experience life and how we dissolve anxiety.

In the present moment, you can't be anxious because the mind is unified with the body.

It's not worried about a fake future.

That's what awaits you in this moment.

It can be scary at first, especially if we've habituated thinking about the future.

But wouldn't you like to trade that panic for some peace?

I know I would :)