Buddhist Lessons on Anxiety | Leslie Booker
Dharma teacher Leslie Booker concludes the Taming Anxiety series, emphasizing community connection and body awareness as key tools. She explains how understanding the Buddhist 'three characteristics' can help skillfully manage anxiety and demonstrates a somatic experiencing technique.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
Introduction to the Taming Anxiety Series and Guest Booker
Booker's Personal Experience with Anxiety and Coping Strategies
Understanding Anxiety's Messages from the Body and Breath
Navigating Anxiety in the Current Pandemic Environment
The Paradoxical Role of Social Support in Anxiety Relief
Addressing External Pressures and Burnout in Daily Life
Strategies for Managing the Comparing Mind and Idealized Lives
Embodiment and Somatic Experiencing for Grounding Anxiety
Skillful Breathing Techniques to Address Physical Anxiety
Coping Mechanisms and Limits for High-Stress Professions
Anxiety's Deep Link to Structural and Systemic Racism
The Buddhist Three Characteristics: Impermanence, Suffering, No-Self
5 Key Concepts
Three Characteristics (Marks of Existence)
These are the Buddhist principles of impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness or suffering (dukkha), and impersonality or selflessness (anatta). Booker explains them as 'not permanent, not perfect, and not personal,' meaning anxiety, like everything else, is constantly changing, inherently imperfect, and not a fixed part of one's identity.
Somatic Experiencing
A practice to bring a sense of containment and holding to the body during anxiety. It involves placing one hand on the forehead and the other on the back of the neck with slight pressure, while resting the eyes to focus inward and connect with the body's felt sensations and intuition.
Resourcing Practice
A technique used to regulate the nervous system when entering a new environment, especially a stressful one. It involves pausing, feeling grounded, and visually scanning the surroundings (colors, shapes, textures) with open eyes to establish a sense of safety and presence, allowing the nervous system to settle before engaging in activity.
Social Trauma
Trauma caused by personal experiences of prejudice and discrimination related to one's gender, race, sexual orientation, or disabilities. These experiences directly impact the nervous system, feeling like an attack on one's right to exist and be free.
Collective and Historical Traumas
Traumas caused by events targeted at a group of people, such as genocide or enslavement, which are passed down through generations. These traumas are embedded in DNA and impact individuals through their community's shared experiences, contributing to elevated anxiety levels.
8 Questions Answered
Yes, anxiety is often situational. Strategies include engaging in somatic movement like walking or biking to move energy, or pausing to feel into the experience, noticing breath and body sensations, and watching the anxiety dissipate as it changes and flows.
By pausing and checking into the felt sense in the body and the expression of the breath, one can gain information about the underlying cause of anxiety, such as too much caffeine, a need for movement, or insufficient sleep, allowing for course correction.
Social support is a strong buffer against mental illness because humans are biologically wired to belong and support each other. Sharing anxieties with others can help break them down, find humor, and reveal underlying core issues that are difficult to identify alone.
It's important to remember that everyone, including those who appear flawless, experiences suffering, fear, and pain. Recalling 'just like me' for others can foster compassion and put things in perspective, acknowledging that all humans face non-negotiable laws of aging, illness, and death.
Instead of focusing on the breath at the nostrils, which can exacerbate anxiety, try dropping the breath lower into the belly. Place hands below the belly button and feel the belly expand and deflate like a balloon, allowing more space for the breath to move and settle the nervous system.
It's crucial to care for oneself twice as much, mentally and emotionally preparing to enter stressful spaces and ritualizing the shedding of that stress afterward. Practices like 'resourcing' can help regulate the nervous system before engaging in demanding work.
High-intensity work often has a shelf life. It's important to reflect on whether ego is driving the desire to 'suck it up' versus the body signaling a need for change. The body will provide information if the current work environment is no longer the right fit, and it's vital to honor those signals.
Historically marginalized groups carry social, collective, and historical traumas in their bodies from experiences of prejudice, discrimination, and targeted events like genocide or enslavement. This inherited trauma, combined with ongoing societal threats, elevates anxiety levels, impacting their nervous systems as a direct attack on their right to exist and be free.
31 Actionable Insights
1. Understand Three Characteristics of Existence
Learn and internalize the Buddhist ’three characteristics’ (impermanence, unsatisfactoriness/suffering, and impersonality/selflessness) to deal with anxiety more skillfully by recognizing its transient, non-personal nature.
2. Embrace Impermanence to Reduce Suffering
Remember that all experiences, including discomfort, stress, and anxiety, are impermanent and will eventually pass, which can be liberating and reduce suffering caused by the belief that negative feelings will last forever.
3. Align with Reality of Change
Instead of constantly fighting against the inherent impermanence and unsatisfactoriness of existence, strive to see these truths clearly and align yourself with them, which is more skillful than perpetual resistance.
4. Leverage Social Support for Anxiety
Actively engage with other people as a crucial tool for dealing with anxiety, as they can be a significant source of alleviation and perspective, even though they can also be a source of anxiety.
5. Share Fears to Uncover Core Wounds
Share your fears and anxieties with trusted friends or a ‘squad’ to gain external perspective, break down the issue, and potentially uncover underlying core wounds or recurring themes that you might not see on your own.
6. Bring Awareness to Your Body
When feeling anxious, bring your awareness to your body to help settle yourself, as the body provides crucial information about your internal state.
7. Check Body & Breath for Information
Pause and check in with the felt sensations in your body and the expression of your breath, as this provides crucial information about what is happening inside you and can help you course-correct.
8. Pause and Observe Anxiety’s Flow
If anxiety arises in the moment, pause, feel into the experience by noticing your breath and body, and observe how the anxiety changes, moves, and eventually dissipates, which can be liberating.
9. Practice Resourcing for Nervous System Regulation
Before entering a new or stressful environment, pause, feel your feet on the ground, and perform a ‘resourcing’ practice by slowly turning your head from side to side, observing colors, shapes, textures, and nature elements to orient yourself and signal safety to your nervous system.
10. Practice Belly Breathing for Calm
To settle the nervous system and avoid exacerbating anxiety, focus your breath low in your belly, placing hands just below the belly button to feel it expand and deflate like a balloon with each inhale and exhale.
11. Use Deep Breaths to Reset
When feeling tense or constricted, take a break to engage in a few full, deep breaths to reset your body, allowing the breath to find more rhythm, flow, and continuity.
12. Cultivate Curiosity 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 constant, which can make breathing a more embodied experience.
13. Expand Breath Awareness
To alleviate tightness and restriction, practice feeling the breath move through your entire body, including your feet and hands, rather than solely focusing on the nostrils.
14. Move Anxious Energy Somatically
Engage in somatic activities like walking, biking, or lifting weights to physically move and process anxious energy through your body before it escalates.
15. Use Somatic Touch for Containment
When feeling anxious or disembodied, place one hand on your forehead and the other on the back of your neck with slight pressure to create a sense of containment and holding, and rest your eyes to enhance internal body awareness.
16. Self-Soothe with Touch and Pep Talk
When experiencing anxiety as tightness in the chest, place a hand on your chest and gently rub it while giving yourself a reassuring pep talk, acknowledging the feeling but reminding yourself that you are capable and making progress.
17. Tap Chest to Break Up Anxiety
When anxiety manifests as a tight mass in the chest, gently tap the center of your chest to help break apart the sensation, allowing you to identify and work with the individual components of the anxiety.
18. Let Ego Take a Back Seat
When anxiety stems from wanting to perform perfectly or say the right thing, recognize it as ego-driven and consciously let your ego take a backseat, remembering that sharing practice doesn’t require perfection.
19. Ask “Can I, But Should I?”
Before committing to new tasks or responsibilities, especially when already busy, ask yourself not just ‘Can I?’ but ‘Should I?’ to ensure you have enough space and capacity for refueling and nourishing your body.
20. Integrate Self-Care into Daily Routine
Make self-care practices, like resourcing, an integral part of your daily rhythm, similar to brushing teeth or having breakfast, especially in high-stress jobs, so they become a foundational part of how you prepare for and move through your workday.
21. Prepare & Shed Stress for High-Stress Work
For high-stress professions, intentionally prepare yourself mentally and emotionally before entering challenging environments, and ritualize the process of letting go and shedding the stress once you leave.
22. Investigate Job for Chronic Breath Issues
If your job consistently causes tightness, constriction, or shortness of breath, investigate whether the work environment can be shifted or transformed, or if it’s no longer the right fit for your health.
23. Listen to Body for Career Changes
Pay attention to your body’s signals to determine if a job or career path is still the right fit, honoring that you move through different seasons in life and may need to grow, transform, or shift your work.
24. Combat Comparison with Shared Humanity
When comparing yourself to others’ seemingly perfect lives, remember that ‘just like me,’ they too experience suffering, challenges, and imperfections, which can foster compassion and reduce self-blame.
25. Let Go of Perfection Delusion
Release the belief that anything or anyone can be perfect, recognizing that perfection is an impossible standard and embracing the reality of shared human experience, including suffering and imperfections.
26. Normalize Anxiety by Speaking About It
Speak openly about your fears and anxieties to normalize these common human experiences, countering the collective failure of hiding the reality of being human and reducing the feeling that ‘something’s broken’ in individuals.
27. Acknowledge & Discuss Collective Trauma
For those impacted by social, collective, and historical traumas (e.g., racism, discrimination), acknowledge, name, and talk about these experiences, leaning on and caring for each other, as continuous dialogue is essential for healing.
28. Find Space Between Anxious Moments
Recognize that even during periods of persistent anxiety, there are always moments or ‘spaces in between’ where there is alleviation or a pause from the feeling, and seek to notice these gaps.
29. Join Challenges for Accountability
Participate in shared challenges, like meditation challenges with friends or family, to foster accountability through mutual notifications and support.
30. 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 replenishment.
31. Engage in Enjoyable Physical Activities
Find and engage in enjoyable physical activities like riding a bike or cooking as personal outlets to nourish and replenish your body and mind.
6 Key Quotes
Everything that we need to know can be found in the body and the breath.
Booker
Stress is caused by giving a F.
Jerry Colonna (quoted by Dan Harris)
Social support is known to be the strongest buffer against any mental illness, including anxiety.
Dr. Luana Marquez
We are wired not only for survival, but we're wired to be together. We are collective beings. We are not meant to live in isolation.
Booker
We don't see people who are suffering out on social media. We don't hear a lot of teachers talking about their struggles with things. We kind of talk about, and now look at me, everything is great.
Booker
It's not permanent, it's not perfect, and it's not personal.
Ruth King (quoted by Booker)
4 Protocols
Booker's Personal Anxiety Mitigation Protocol
Booker- If anxiety can be anticipated, engage in somatic movement (e.g., walk, bike ride) to move energy through the body.
- If anxiety arises unexpectedly, pause and feel into the experience, noticing what's happening to the breath and body.
- Wait a moment and observe the anxiety as it moves, flows, shape-shifts, and eventually dissipates.
- Let the ego take a back seat, especially when the anxiety comes from wanting to do things perfectly.
Somatic Experiencing for Anxiety
Booker- Place one hand on the forehead and the other hand on the back of the neck.
- Apply slight pressure with both hands to create a sense of containment and holding.
- Rest the eyes (look down or close them) to reduce external information and allow the body to become a sense gate.
- Feel into the felt sense of the body, allowing primordial wisdom from the gut to come forth.
Mindfulness of Breath for Anxiety
Booker- Place hands just below the belly button.
- Feel the belly expand like a balloon as you breathe in.
- Feel the belly deflate like a balloon as you breathe out.
- Alternatively, try to feel the breath move through the bottoms of the feet, palms of the hands, or the entire body to reduce tightness and restriction.
- Get curious about each breath, noticing its beginning, middle, and end, and how it changes.
Resourcing Practice for High-Stress Environments
Booker- Enter the new environment and pause.
- Feel your feet rooting on the earth and 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.
- Allow your nervous system to regulate, establishing a sense of safety and being okay in that moment.
- Proceed with your work from a regulated space.