Ask Uttara: How do I quiet the anxious voices in my head . . .

Question:  How do I quiet the anxious voices in my head without Lexapro . . . ha ha, I know you will suggest yoga.

Dearest Reader:

 

You know, people joke about those who hear voices in their head; I worry a lot more about people who DON’T hear voices in their head.

And, yes, doing some yoga poses will help -- to ease tension in your body, to bring awareness to your breath and to achieve a state of mindfulness.   

Mindfulness helps a lot with anxiousness and worry because it brings you into present-moment consciousness.  If you’re not churning the past around in your mind, nor leaping ahead to spin through all the possibilities of the future – if you are truly living, breathing and thinking in the here-and-now; there is no anxiousness.

Becoming more aware of those voices can actually be helpful because you can separate yourself from them.  Always remember YOU are NOT your mind and that’s what those voices are -- a manifestation of your mind.

Thing is that there are also positive voices in your head – voices that might even have some great advice and encouragement if you can hear them over the din of the negative thoughts.

Think of your mind like a radio – what channel are you tuned into?  Is the self-hatred channel?  The oh-crap-I-am-overwhelmed channel?  How about the self-empowered channel?  Or the I-access-the-Goddess-within channel?  Spending time observing the patterns of the thoughts will tell you which channel you’ve tuned into, and then it is up to you to change the patterns so that you only direct YOUR energy towards the highest and best thoughts.

I used to be so much of a worrier that I had panic attacks; being stressed was part of my identity.  Yoga changed that for me, but I still hung onto anxiety when speaking in front of groups – a serious problem when I was in yoga teacher training!  A book that helped me enormously was The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.  That book literally changed my relationship with worry.

Try a few moments of sitting and watching your breath; maybe even something as simple as starting at 36 and counting backwards as you breath and think “inhale 36, exhale 36; inhale 35, exhale 35 . . . “ all the way back to 1.  If you mess up the count, begin again.

Maybe journaling to move the negative thought patterns out of the mind and onto paper – ritually burning the paper that lists the negative thoughts might be helpful too.

Practice a couple yoga poses and as you practice moving your body you can also practice working with your mind – first bringing the awareness deeply into the physical body; then to the breath; and then finally to the mind; layer by layer going inward to become aware of the inner workings of your mind and its patterns.  And slowly; mindfully; changing the patterns. 

Deepest blessings, let me know if this is helpful,

Shanti (peace),

Jill