Most Replayed Moment: Instantly Calm Your Anxiety - Dr. Martha Beck
1. Treat Anxiety as Frightened Animal
Do not fight or try to “end” anxiety; instead, approach it with gentleness, space, and time, similar to how you would calm a terrified puppy. This prevents the anxious part of yourself from becoming more afraid and allows for self-compassion.
2. Practice Sensory Imagination
When feeling anxious, vividly imagine a sensory experience, such as eating a ripe orange, focusing on smells, tastes, and textures. This engages the right hemisphere of the brain, shifting it from verbal, anxiety-producing thoughts to a relaxed, sensory state.
3. Engage in Expressive Writing
Write for 15 minutes about something upsetting without showing it to anyone or rereading it. This allows the frightened parts of yourself to be heard, which can reduce anxiety and improve overall well-being over time, even if it causes temporary turmoil.
4. Approach Conflict with Calm Curiosity
When facing conflict or another person’s tension, first calm your own nervous system, then approach the situation with curiosity and empathy rather than fear or control. This allows for a more effective and peaceful resolution by not triggering the other person’s ‘frightened animal’ amygdala.
5. Engage in Creative Making
Regularly engage in activities that involve making things, such as painting, crafting, or building, regardless of professional skill. This acts as a toggle switch, shifting the brain from an anxious state to a creative one, as anxiety and creativity cannot coexist simultaneously.
6. Practice Mirror Writing
To engage the right hemisphere and create new neural pathways, practice writing your signature or name backwards in mirror writing, ideally using tactile tools like pencil and paper. This forces the brain into deep learning, akin to ‘power lifting’ it into a new state.
7. Cultivate Non-Judgmental Learning
Seek out activities that allow for learning and exploration without the pressure of right or wrong answers, similar to how children learn in nature. This helps reclaim innate creative genius often suppressed by conventional, judgmental learning environments.