Buddhist Lessons on Anxiety | Leslie Booker (2021)
Leslie Booker, a leading Dharma teacher, discusses anxiety, emphasizing that connecting with others, understanding anxiety's impermanent nature, and bringing awareness to our bodies are life-saving tools. She shares practical strategies for managing anxiety, external pressures, and burnout.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
Booker's Introduction and Taming Anxiety Series
Booker's Personal Anxiety and Coping Strategies
Anxiety from External Pressure and Desire to Perform
Navigating Pandemic-Related Anxiety and Social Connection
The Importance of Social Support for Anxiety Relief
Consequences of Succumbing to External Pressures and Burnout
Managing the Comparing Mind and Social Media
Embodiment and Somatic Practices for Anxiety
Skillful Ways to Work with Breath and Anxiety
Coping with Workplace Stress and High-Functioning Anxiety
Anxiety Linked to Systemic Racism and Historical Trauma
Buddhist Three Characteristics and Impermanence
5 Key Concepts
Embodiment
This concept emphasizes connecting with the body to gain vital information and settle anxiety. It suggests that everything one needs to know can be found through the felt sense of the body and the quality of the breath, rather than solely through the brain.
Social Support
This refers to the value of connecting with other people, which is known to be the strongest buffer against mental illness, including anxiety. Humans are biologically wired to belong, support each other, and not live in isolation, making collective connection crucial for well-being.
High-Functioning Anxiety
This describes individuals who experience anxiety symptoms but are still able to perform well and maintain their responsibilities in high-stress environments, such as certain professions. It acknowledges the internal struggle despite external competence.
Social and Collective/Historical Traumas
These are traumas experienced by historically marginalized groups due to prejudice, discrimination, or large-scale historical events like genocide or enslavement. These traumas can impact individuals on a personal level and be passed down through generations, affecting the nervous system and contributing to anxiety.
Three Characteristics (Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta)
These are three fundamental markers of existence in Buddhism: impermanence (anicca), the unsatisfactory nature of things (dukkha), and the concept of no-self (anatta). Booker simplifies them as 'not permanent, not perfect, and not personal,' highlighting that all experiences, including anxiety, are constantly changing and not inherently fixed.
7 Questions Answered
Yes, anxiety is common and often situational. Strategies include somatic movement to process energy, or pausing to observe the changing nature of the anxiety and understand its underlying causes, such as ego-driven desires to do things perfectly.
Sharing anxieties with others can make overwhelming fears vanish, help find humor, and reveal deeper underlying issues that are hard to see alone. Social support is a strong buffer against mental illness and is biologically wired for human connection.
It's helpful to remember that everyone, including those who appear flawless, experiences internal struggles, suffering, and is subject to the same human conditions. This perspective fosters compassion and helps let go of the delusion of perfection.
Instead of focusing on the breath at the nostrils, try dropping the breath lower into the belly, feeling it expand and deflate like a balloon. This provides more space for the breath and helps settle the nervous system. Also, try to feel the breath moving through the entire body, or notice the beginning, middle, and end of each breath as it changes.
For high-stress jobs, it's crucial to intentionally prepare and ritualize letting go of work stress. Practices like 'resourcing' can regulate the nervous system in seconds. It's also important to recognize that such intense work often has a shelf life, and listening to the body's signals about capacity, rather than ego, can indicate when it's time to transform one's work or move to a different role.
Historically marginalized individuals carry social, collective, and historical traumas in their bodies, passed down through generations. Experiences of prejudice and discrimination directly attack one's right to exist, impacting the nervous system. Witnessing community suffering also contributes to an unbelievable level of anxiety, making it crucial to acknowledge, name, and talk about these impacts for healing.
Recognizing that anxiety, like all experiences, is impermanent and constantly changing can be liberating. It helps to remember that unpleasant feelings will not last forever and are not solid or fixed, allowing for curiosity and observation that can break anxiety into smaller, more manageable pieces.
38 Actionable Insights
1. Challenge Beliefs: Permanence, Perfection, Isolation
Reduce suffering by challenging the beliefs that things are permanent, that life should be perfect, and that you are alone in your experiences; instead, remember that you belong to each other.
2. Remember Impermanence of Suffering
Apply the Buddhist characteristic of impermanence (anicca) to your suffering, remembering that discomfort, stress, and unpleasant feelings are not permanent and will eventually pass, which can be liberating.
3. Share Fears with Others
When feeling overwhelmed by fear, quickly reach out to friends or your community to name the fear, as sharing it can make it vanish or become more manageable.
4. Talk to People About Issues
Avoid sitting in ‘a soup of chaos’ by actively choosing to talk to somebody about your issues, rather than overlooking this obvious solution.
5. Openly Communicate Anxieties
Engage in open communication with family and friends about anxieties, especially regarding how to interact and show up together in uncertain times.
6. Use “Just Like Me” Mantra
When observing others, mentally repeat ‘just like me’ to remember their shared humanity, struggles, and susceptibility to universal laws, which helps put things in perspective and cultivate compassion.
7. Extend Compassion to Difficult People
Apply the ‘just like me’ mantra even to those who cause harm, considering their potential past suffering or lack of support, to open your heart to compassion.
8. Intensive Self-Care for Stress
For high-stress professions, practice intensive self-care, mentally and emotionally preparing before entering stressful environments, and ritualize shedding that energy once you leave.
9. Ask “I Can, But Should I?”
When faced with opportunities, especially in busy times, pause and ask yourself, ‘I can, but should I?’ to assess if there’s enough space and capacity for refueling and nourishing your body.
10. Pause & Drink As You Pour
For those in direct service or constantly giving, it’s crucial to pause and replenish yourself (‘drink as you pour’) to ensure you have enough energy and capacity to continue giving.
11. Resource to the Room
When entering a new or potentially stressful environment, pause, feel your feet on the ground, notice your body’s response, then turn your head from side to side, observing colors, shapes, and textures to ground yourself and activate your animal brain for safety.
12. Five-Second Nervous System Reset
Before engaging in high-stress work, take five seconds to feel your feet, place a hand on your belly to feel your breath, and look around to get your bearings; this can transform your interactions and work.
13. Somatic Containment for Anxiety
To create a sense of containment and holding during anxiety, place one hand on your forehead and the other on the back of your neck, applying slight pressure.
14. Self-Soothing Touch & Pep Talk
When feeling anxious or self-critical (e.g., while writing), step away, place a hand on your chest, gently rub it, and give yourself a reassuring pep talk, acknowledging your feelings while offering encouragement.
15. Acknowledge & Tap Chest Anxiety
When feeling tightness or gripping in your chest due to anxiety, bring your attention to it, hold it, acknowledge it, and try gently tapping the center of your chest to break up the sensation into more manageable pieces.
16. Belly Breathing for Anxiety
To skillfully work with breath and settle the nervous system, focus your attention on the breath low in your belly, placing hands below the belly button and feeling it expand and deflate like a balloon.
17. Rest Eyes to Feel Body
When trying to drop into your body and feel its sensations, rest your eyes (look down or close them) to reduce external information and allow your body to ‘wake up’ as a sense gate.
18. Access Gut Intuition by Resting Eyes
To access your gut intuition and primordial wisdom, rest your eyes (look down or close them) to reduce external sensory input, allowing your body to become a sense gate for internal information.
19. Bring Awareness to the Body
Settle anxious moments by bringing awareness to your body and getting out of your head.
20. Proactive Somatic Movement
If you know when anxiety will arise, engage in somatic activities like walking or biking beforehand to move the energy through and meet it before it escalates.
21. Observe In-Moment Anxiety
If anxiety arises unexpectedly, pause and feel into the experience by noticing your breath and body, then observe it move, flow, and eventually dissipate.
22. Pause & Check Body/Breath
Pause and check in with the felt sensations in your body and the expression of your breath to gain information about what’s happening inside you.
23. Course Correct with Body/Breath
Use the information from your body and breath to course correct in real-time or for future actions, ensuring regulation and a grounded starting point.
24. Let Ego Take a Backseat
When anxiety stems from wanting to do things perfectly or say the right things, recognize it as your ego and consciously let it take a backseat.
25. Distinguish Ego from Body’s Wisdom
When considering career changes or major life decisions, intentionally reflect to distinguish between ego-driven beliefs (’this is who you are’) and the subtle wisdom of your body signaling what’s truly right for you.
26. Allow Space for Growth
Avoid becoming fixed and rigid in your identity or work, and instead, give yourself the space to grow, transform, and move into new ways of working that align with your evolving needs.
27. Integrate Coping into Daily Rhythm
Instead of just coping, integrate practices like resourcing into your daily rhythm, making them as routine as brushing your teeth, especially for high-stress jobs, so they become part of who you are.
28. Honor Life’s Changing Seasons
Listen to your body for information on whether a job or situation is still the right fit, honoring that you move through different seasons in life and may need to transform your work or location.
29. Normalize Fear and Anxiety
Actively talk about your fears and anxieties to normalize them, counteracting the collective tendency to hide these experiences and helping others feel less alone or ‘broken.’
30. Present Realistic Life Views
Counter the curated, photoshopped versions of lives on social media by presenting a more realistic view of your own life, including mundane or embarrassing moments, to foster a healthier collective perspective.
31. Share Struggles Authentically
Be willing to share your struggles and imperfections, even when they are still raw, to normalize human experience and counteract the pressure of presenting a perfectly polished life.
32. Acknowledge & Discuss Historical Trauma
Acknowledge, name, and talk about collective and historical traumas, such as those related to racism, to facilitate healing and prevent downplaying their ongoing impact.
33. Expand Breath Awareness
To alleviate tightness from focusing breath only at the nostrils, try to feel the breath moving through your entire body, including the bottoms of your feet or palms of your hands.
34. Get Curious About Each Breath
Approach each breath with curiosity, noticing its unique qualities, beginning, middle, and end, and how it changes, rather than expecting it to be static.
35. Flow with Breath Rhythm
By feeling the expansion, contraction, rising, and falling of the breath, you can flow into its rhythm, creating more space and capacity to be with whatever arises.
36. Take Full Breaths to Reset
When feeling tense or constricted, pause to notice your breath, then allow a full, deep breath to enter your body to reset and restore rhythm, flow, and continuity.
37. Find Active Rest Outlets
Discover and engage in activities like riding a bike or cooking that serve as active outlets to nourish and replenish your body and mind.
38. Use Laughter for Somatic Release
Incorporate laughter, such as watching stand-up comedy, as a somatic rest strategy to shake and move energy out of your body, providing a sense of release and replenishment.
7 Key Quotes
The only thing to fear is fear itself.
Booker (quoting)
Stress is caused by giving a F.
Jerry Colonna (quoted by Dan Harris)
We want to teach from the scar and not from the wound.
Booker
We don't fault the sun for setting at night. We don't fault the clouds for raining. This is just what happens in nature.
Booker
It's not permanent, it's not perfect, and it's not personal.
Ruth King (quoted by Booker)
We are a microcosm of the natural world. And what happens in the natural world is that things are constantly changing.
Booker
Our suffering comes from believing that things are permanent. That they're going to be this way forever. Our suffering comes from believing that things are supposed to be perfect. That we're never supposed to get sick or get old. That we're never supposed to have a bad day. And our suffering comes from believing that we are alone in this world. That other people don't have these same experiences. It comes from forgetting that we belong to each other.
Booker
2 Protocols
Somatic Experiencing for Anxiety (Hand Placement)
Leslie Booker- Place one hand on the forehead.
- Place the other hand on the back of the neck.
- Apply slight pressure with both hands.
- Rest the eyes (look down or close them) to focus on the felt sense of the body rather than external information.
Resourcing Practice for High-Stress Environments
Leslie Booker- Enter the new environment and pause.
- Feel your feet rooting on the earth.
- Notice how your body is responding (e.g., belly tightening, heart flipping, breath tightening).
- Turn your head from side to side with eyes wide open, noticing different colors, shapes, textures, and elements of nature in the environment.
- This helps get your bearings, understand your body in space, and feel safe, allowing the nervous system to regulate before engaging in work.