#2 is juicy
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What anxiety wakes you up in the morning?
Do you have an “oh sh*t” moment as soon as you roll out of bed?
I’ve gotten really good at pinpointing and softening my anxieties. It’s second nature now.
Thankfully I’m a lot better at living stress-free than I was 5 years ago.
I’m enjoying the benefits of less stress. I’m smoother and softer, literally. My muscles are relaxed. I’m mentally healthier, so I take better care of myself. I stay hydrated, so my skin is plump.
I still wake up with the occasional anxiety. Here’s my go-to protocol.
Sense into the tightness
You may already be working with somatics, aka the practice of feeling bodily sensations. Noticing our body’s sensations helps us understand our experience and pinpoint the anxiety.
I notice that there’s tightness in my upper right belly.
2. Sense into the thought
Muscles respond to the brain’s cues that danger is present. When we identify the thoughts that are present, we can identify the trigger to the tightness.
When I focus on my belly tightness, I notice that I’m feeling dread around going to work today. The thought is “Work is going to hurt today.”
3. Sense into the limiting edge
From here, we find the Doomsday arc. Somewhere there is a belief enforcing surviving, not thriving, and we want to identify it. We can ask questions to investigate.
“Why do you think work is going to hurt?”
“Because I have to overwork myself.”
“Why would you have to overwork yourself?”
“To make enough money to survive.”
The limiting edge is “to survive as a human being I have to cause myself pain by overworking.”
4. Sense into the leading edge
Now we find the Superhero arc we deserve. To relieve anxiety, we flip the limiting edge to the leading edge. The leading edge is thriving, not surviving. The leading edge stretches our idea of what is possible. A good leading edge requires wishful thinking and faith. Thankfully, the body doesn’t need evidence from the outside world that a belief is real. It can’t tell the difference.
“You believe that to survive you will have to overwork while you coach?”
“Yes”
“What would allow you to thrive instead?”
“Coaching stress relief is my favorite thing in the world. I would thrive if I could feel that I was abundant and secure without overworking.”
“You’re right — you don’t have to overwork to be abundant.”
Usually I dose my leading edge up!
I might say,
“You can do what you love and don’t have to worry about money, because you’re an infinitely abundant child of God! You will always have what you need, and if you don’t have it, you don’t need it!”
This is where personal style comes in. Have fun with it!
If the leading edge doesn’t come easily to you, don’t panic. Faith takes practice.
We think that we need evidence from the outside world before we can believe something to be true. Unfortunately, because we never believe something is possible, we never act like its happening, and then we never watch it happen.
The brain controls our belief system, and the body prepares for it. When our brains are preparing for mere survival, our body braces, and we get stressed. That is why the body loves the leading edge, which prepares for thriving.
Even if our outside reality is contradictory, when we prepare for thriving, our body is nourished, and we experience less stress.
With these four steps rooted in somatic practice, we’re able to find the body’s tightness and then flip the script on the limiting belief to relieve our tightness.
Questions? Fire them off below!
Cheers,
Reyna
Who am I? Hi! I’m Reyna Park.
I’m a biologist, stress relief coach, and intuitive. I can help you live with less stress. I can help you relieve pain. I can help you improve your intuition and speak with your spirit guides. Do you have questions about your future? I can help you with this as well.
Let’s chat. You can contact me here for a 30-minute discovery call.
Curious what else I’ve written about? You can subscribe to my Medium here.
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I’d love to answer your questions. Drop a comment and I will join the conversation!
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Flip the Script on Stress in 4 Steps was originally published in Mindful Mental Health on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.