Hi, this is Ron Huxley and welcome to this series on freedom from anxiety. If you're one of those people who are really tired of that anxious feeling that sense in your gut that just kind of each of them inside out if you're tired of missing opportunities at work or with friends or in relationships, if you are tired of waking up and being awake through the night ruminating on things that you should have done or could have done or the things in the past that continue to bother you, then it's time for you to gain some freedom from this anxious trap that has ensnared you. What I want to do is talk to you today about a few simple tools to open us up that will help you get some immediate control to deal with anxious and anxiety in your life. Anxiety by definition, is a state of excessive uneasiness or apprehension Typically mash with some compulsive behaviors or panic attacks that met and various ways in which you will affect you.

Physically in terms of your health, if it's chronic. All of us get anxious from time to time, we all worried about money we worry about loved one safety. We are concerned about how we're going to get through the the pressures of stressors of daily life and our jobs, how we're going to balance our work and family life. All these things are normal sort of worries. The average person worried about 50 minutes a day, but the excessive anxious person worries as much as 30 minutes or more a day, just a lot of wasted time, isn't it? And I think it's time for us to be able to move on and control anxiety so they controlling us.

It is a normal human emotion that we all experience. But it's one that can be completely managed. And if we use some of the tools that we're going to be listed in this series, you will be able to manage your assets. When you're in the heat of the moment as well as sustain that anxiety on from day to day. Some of the symptoms of anxiety disorder are feelings of panic, fear, uneasiness, problems sleeping cold or sweaty hands and feet, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and inability to be still or calm, just find a resting place to be able to be at peace, dry mouth, numbness, tingling in the hands or feet, nauseous, feeling nauseous, muscle tension, various muscle aches and pains, headaches and dizziness are just a few of the symptoms that occur. science doesn't really understand why we go through anxiety and why it's such a major issue.

My theory is that we are a very overstressed, over productive, high performance value society. And as a result of that, we get a lot of messages that tell us that we're only worth or valid You and love if we perform at a certain level, and maintain that level, which nobody really can. So we're, like doomed to be unloved and without much worth. And that's just not the kind of basis that we need to live our lives on a day to day, relationships at work and at home. So what I want to do is give you a few tools that will help you with managing the basics of anxiety. And then we're going to go into some more detail in some other videos that will help you regulate your nervous system and build a neuro resiliency.

Along with that there'll be several handouts that you'll be getting some exercises and tools that you can use at home. So don't worry about trying to take notes on everything in this video or the other videos, because you'll have plenty of things to use. Hopefully we'll have a membership site set up that you can interact with other people and talk with them about what's going on and get some natural support. Our goal ultimately regardless of the tools actually assizes that the community is to make sure that you find freedom from anxiety. So our first tool the day is to take care of your body. It's very simple, but it's one that we probably miss the most when we are anxious, we don't eat right, we don't get enough sleep we need to exercise we also need to take care of our nutrition or intake, need to avoid excessive alcohol or any alcohol.

If you have problems with that. Nicotine sugars, excessive caffeine, that's my big weakness. We need to make sure we get regular physical checkups. And if you're taking medications, you really need to consult with your physician about any adjustments that you may need to take that medication because we change our bodies change over time and things aren't as effective as they used to be. I recommend also that you utilize some natural natural path sort of tools like aroma therapy, essential oils, and that you utilize supplements. There's a lot of really great supplements not done Not doctors, I'm not going to recommend a lot of those things.

But there are some excellent resources out there that will help you regulate your body and just take care of this body because the body and where we experience anxiety. We'll talk more later also about my try you and model of the brain, spirit, soul and body, soul being mind will emotions. There's a lot that goes on and we'll talk about today and later that deal with the mind will emotions as well as some things that are concerning our spirit. If you believe that I do have like holistically we have to address that part of us as well. But right now we really want to focus on what goes on in the body itself because that's where the anxiety takes place. And that's where we experience so many of our symptoms and troubles.

So along with those with that I want you to the second tool, pause and breathe. Very simple. Just pause Take a deep breath when we're anxious, we hold her breath We don't take good deep breaths, very shallow breath. And oxygen is a basic part of our brain in our body, we need good oxygen. So take several occasions throughout your day, just the positive breathe, set your alarm clock, if you need to set your your phone to go off every so hour or so to remind yourself, take a good deep breath. And notice what happens inside you when you do take these breaths.

And if you have any judgments about people, any thoughts that are ruminating during these times, try to hold it off for just the length of that one Complete Breath. That can be very helpful and important way to breathe. It's called Foursquare breathing. And that's where you breathe in for four seconds, you hold it, then you breathe out for four seconds. Then you breathe in for four seconds to hold it. And then you let that breath out for four seconds and you keep doing this square the four seconds, four seconds, four seconds and fours Second, holding and breathing, inhaling exhaling.

And it has a very positive effect on our physiology. The third tool is called detect and redirect. It's important that you play detective and get clued into what it is you're thinking or saying to yourself when you feel anxious. We all talk to ourselves, everybody does. And what we say to ourselves, that's really important. People who are anxious, will say a lot of negative things.

They'll take in a lot of negative information news, they will worry about negative stuff or thoughts are always on a negative track. So get a clue about when you're feeling anxious. What negative thoughts were you thinking? Don't judge yourself that you're good or you're bad person, that's a negative thought. Just take note, and maybe even literally write it down. What preceded your anxious feelings you're trying to get?

We call the antecedent. Or detective approach to decoding what it is that you think about that makes you feel the most anxious? And what are you saying to yourself just before you start feeling anxious. Once you're aware of these triggers, you can disconnect them. And to help you avoid those negative thoughts and develop more positive thoughts. That's the redirect part.

You want to read yourself. redirect yourself physically and verbally and cognitively to disconnect that trigger from your life. You learn to move to another room, if you're in a negative conversation or with a negative individual. You want to take another course of action at the one you're taking is negative. You want to start making positive statements to yourself if you're making negative statements. If you have an anxious thought, having non anxious thought, I know it sounds simple, but it really is sometimes as simple as that.

What you're going to do is you're going to develop a hot list of your most anxious producing situations and thought that you need to avoid and you're going to write these things down. I suggest Just to make it simple, this five hotlist of anxious producing situations and thoughts that you can avoid. So, the next area which goes along with this is positive declarations, you have a negative thought have a positive one. Once you have this hot list of anxious thoughts you begin doing and thinking just the opposite, make a list of positive declarations to start with. I am I will, I can today I have I choose I live my life is I know and I take back and fill it in with a positive thought that's the opposite of your anxious hotlist. I am a courageous person.

I will talk to two people today. I can meet this deadline today. I have and you just keep on adding in the positive thoughts as you go along. At first it's gonna be very hard because our neurology is so oriented towards negative things that literally we don't know what it is. Feels like to experience a positive declaration and accepted. Many people who have anxiety can even take a compliment.

So even though it's hard come up with a list of positive statements, enlist the help of your friends and family to help you remind to do the declarations dude, as a couple dude as a family do with your child. This will help you stay on track. And the more you do them, the more you say them out loud, the less they'll become awkward, the more empowering it will become. Since we're writing things down, let's write a letter to ourselves. Is there a fifth tool I want you to write a letter to yourself that offers you so offers you some helpful hope filled advice on how you're going to manage your life. When twist on this is to write to yourself as a child maybe went to two particular trauma early in life and as an adult, you can write your to yourself in that younger person and talk to them about how they are going to survive, that they are going to make it.

There's a lot of good things that have happened to them and that they're not going to experience that intense pain that they used to experience that they think will get better. This will be helpful for you in the present as well. It's also important to realize that in your future, there is no anxiety. Because tomorrow hasn't happened. Therefore, there's no anxiety and there's no anxiety then you can begin speaking positive declarations and writing letter to yourself about what your future is going to look like and feel like. And then you can make that pull that into your present reality.

Code number six is to tool number six is to grade your relationships. Probably the biggest reasons we are anxious is that we are around very negative and or abusive people. Once you're able to grade them as a B, C or D A being an excellent healthy, supportive, loving person and then going down the line To someone who gets like a D or F like they are never positive, they are never kind to you they're never loving, they always speak critical things to you, you're going to begin to realize that there are people that I need to focus more time on your A and B list. And you're going to need to avoid those D and F less people who are always abusive and negative towards you. You can control where you go. This is part of that soul part that's my will emotions a will.

You can decide by making a positive declaration by writing positive things to your future. By grading your relationship to make it a choice about who you spend time with. You can change your very emotional state and you can decrease and eliminate those anxious feelings that are tearing you up. Tip number seven is to accept your needs and desires. All of our anxious feelings come as a result of needs that either are not fulfilled, or we're getting things that are We don't deserve. Everybody has needs and desires are not wrong.

But we begin to believe that affection attention, these are wrong things to have, and they're not wrong to have. But they are if they are conditional and or you're being abused on the process, if you're basically being treated like a victim, or a slave to somebody else, or blame for everybody else's problems, then these aren't relationships, again, that are going to be healthy, and you're not going to be able to get your needs and desires met from these individuals. So you got to ask yourself some really hard questions. To get to your underlying needs and desires. You have to ask yourself, what is it that I really want that I am not getting? And what is it that I need that is essential for my own self esteem?

And what are some things that I'm getting that I don't deserve to have? What is this behavior or this relationship Give me that I want or need or does it? What am I getting from having this thing or acting this way or having this person in my life and maybe a job Maybe your job is not meeting your needs and you need to really look at how you can find a different job. Again, use your wheel to your advantage. I know desires are things like love worth being known joy, comfort, belonging, peace, security, goodness, account competence, recognition approval, the list goes on justice, freedom, significant challenge, you're gonna have a lot of different needs. You can have physical needs safety, nourishment, rest, activity, all these things are important needs that you can have in your life.

My guess is you need them and they're not there. That's why you feel anxious. So write out your top three to five needs that you need to have more of in your life and begin looking at how you can get those in healthy ways. Number eight is to tell anxiety. Take a hike. I mean, literally go for a hike.

The more you get out in nature away from your screens more you get out in an environment that is peaceful that has sunlight that is Air, the moving your body, the more that you will feel alive. The hiking has advantage of when you're walking, that you are moving both sides of your body. We'll be talking more of this when we talk about some butterfly hugs and the karate chop into my other bodily based techniques. But the more that we move rhythmically, our right and left sides of our bodies back and forth, the more that has a profound effect on our nervous system and our brain. As we're thinking about positive thought and walking and taking in nature. We begin to feel physiologically healthier.

We start in graining into our nervous system that comes up with neuro resilience without which I'll keep talking about into our nervous system and experiencing what that feels like and we'll be able to literally commune with God. So this is a great thing to do if you are feeling anxious, starting Taking hikes. This nice tool is to put a lid on it. And this is a technique by a fella by the name of Eugene gimlin. And it's called his focusing method. This is really useful for rumination, probably one of the most difficult things for people who are anxious to deal with.

It's a way to manage your thoughts and not literally go over something Oh, again, and again and again, and keep replaying events that happened negatively in your life, trying to figure out if I had only done if I only said, and you can't go back and redo those things. So when those things happen, what I want you to do is to sit quietly, with your eyes closed. I want you to create an image in your mind of an open container of any kind. And be ready to receive every issue inches issue that comes to your mind, every image in your thoughts that you are ruminating on. And I want you to imagine that you're putting each of those images, each of those feelings each of those thoughts into that container. You're escaping And keep putting them in with no more issues can come up that you can put into that container, I want you then to take an imaginary lid and screwed on tight, lock it down, shut it so that they can't get out, then I want you in your imagination again, but the container up on a shelf or out of out of way location in your mind, where those where your anxious thoughts are going to live.

Now what you notice here is that we didn't like try to throw them away, because for some people, we have a hard time letting go of some of these anxious or worried worries that are we hold on to. So we're not actually asking you to do that right we'll be asking you to put them in a container, put the lid on and then put it away for the time being. If you get new thoughts or new anxiety or new feelings of worry then I want you to do is to open the container. Put those in, close it up, put it away. So this is Eugene good lens focusing methods for dealing with rumination. So I hope you're going to enjoy the tools that we are I'm going to be presenting in this series on the freedom from anxiety.