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If your mind has been scanning your body today, checking, worrying, searching for signs

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that something is wrong, this episode is for you.

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You are not going to Google anything for the next 10 minutes.

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You are just going to breathe and let me walk you through this.

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This is calming anxiety.

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And today we are going to do something simple and something powerful.

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I am Martin, clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic.

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I am here every single day with a 10 minute session.

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No pay-one, no catch, just you, your breath and a little bit of calm.

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If this is your first time here, there is a catalog of well over 2,000 episodes in the

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library.

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So subscribe now because I will be back for you tomorrow.

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But right now let's begin.

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Find somewhere comfy.

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You can sit or lie down.

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Let your hands rest open in your lap.

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And if it is safe to do so, gently close your eyes.

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Self-exhidity keeps us in the future, always anticipating the next symptom, the next worst-case

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scenario.

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Box breathing brings us back, back to the body, back to now, back to safe.

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This is called box breathing.

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There are four sides, equal and steady, like tracing the edges of a square with your breath.

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We breathe in for our nose for three.

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We hold at the top for three.

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Then slowly out through your mouth again for three.

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And then hold at the bottom.

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Let's do this together.

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Ready?

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Breathe in two, three.

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Hold two, three.

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Release two, three, and hold two, three.

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Beautiful.

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Let's do that again.

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Ready?

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With me.

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In two, three.

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Pulls two, three, out, two, three.

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Just release and relax.

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Notice what this does to your nervous system.

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Each cycle is a quiet, firm message to your body.

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There is no emergency here.

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The threat is not real.

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You are safe.

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Try and keep the rhythm going as I speak.

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You don't need to count now.

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Because understanding health anxiety is part of releasing it.

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When you feel a sensation, a tight chest, a strange ache, a flutter in your stomach, your

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threat detection system activates instantly.

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It was designed to do exactly that.

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My years as a paramedic, I saw this every single shift.

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People in genuine terror, convinced their body was failing them.

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And almost always, what we were treating wasn't a physical emergency.

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It was purely an anxious nervous system, doing its job far too well.

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The symptoms feel real because it is real.

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Anxiety creates genuine physical sensations, erasing heart, breathlessness, that heavy feeling

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within your chest.

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These are not signs that something is medically wrong.

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They are the body's stress response, fully functioning, slightly misfiring.

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In the more you check, the more it fires.

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So we are going to do something different today.

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One more round of box breathing.

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Ready?

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In.

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Two.

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Three.

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Hold.

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Two.

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Three.

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Out.

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Two.

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Three.

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Hold.

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Two.

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Three.

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Hold.

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Two.

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Three.

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Good.

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Stay here.

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Stay here in this breath.

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Now as you continue to breathe slowly, I want to offer you some words.

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Let them settle in.

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You don't have to believe every one of them right now, just allow them to land.

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My body is not my enemy.

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It is working hard for me right now.

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In this moment, I notice the anxiety.

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I do not need to act on it.

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Sensations are not symptoms.

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My nervous system is sensitive, not broken.

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I am allowed to feel uncertainty and choose not to search for answers right now.

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I release the need to check.

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The answer I am looking for is already here.

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I am safe.

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My mind has been working so hard to protect me.

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I give it permission to rest.

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I am not my fears.

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I am the quiet, the netherm.

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Self-exiting is common, it is treatable, and I am already taking steps.

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I am allowed to have good days.

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I am allowed to believe in them.

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In this moment, right now, I am okay.

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Stay here now, my friend, breathing slow and easy.

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Let the words settle as if in warm water.

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Every out breath carries a little more tension away.

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Every in breath reminds you.

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This moment is safe.

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And to keep this feeling going, here are your three daily caring tips for health anxiety

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relief.

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1.

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Give the worry a window.

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If anxious thoughts about your health return today, don't fight them and don't act on

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them immediately.

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Give yourself one specific five minute window, say 4pm, to acknowledge them.

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Outside of that window, gently return to your breath.

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You are not ignoring your worry.

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You are managing when it gets your attention.

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2.

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Notice the reassurance loop.

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Gling your symptoms, asking loved ones for the hundredth time, rechecking the same results.

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These feel like relief, but they feed the cycle.

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Each time you feel the urge, just pause, breathe, return to the affirmations instead.

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Reassurance feels like the answer, but it isn't.

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3.

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Move your body gently.

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A ten minute walk will give your nervous system real, accurate information about your

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physical state.

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Your legs work, your lungs breathe, your body is moving through the world.

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That is the most honest reassurance you can give yourself.

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Now gently, begin to come back.

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Wiggle your fingers and toes.

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Feel the surface beneath you, solid, real, present.

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Take one full breath in and as you let it go, gently open your eyes.

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What you did today took real courage.

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Even with health anxiety, rather than checking, searching or bracing.

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Back is one of the hardest things the anxious mind is asked to do.

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And you did it.

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Remember, there are over 2,300 sessions in the library.

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Every one of them free for you, every one of them ten minutes.

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If you're ready to go deeper, my anxiety circuit break, of course, is waiting for you.

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At calminganxiety.fm, it's 5 focus clinical hypnotherapy sessions and it's only $67, or

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by me, all for you.

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I'm Martin.

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This is calming anxiety.

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Smile off to my friend and then in every thought, word and deed.

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Be kind.

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