If your mind has been scanning your body today, checking, worrying, searching for signs
that something is wrong, this episode is for you.
You are not going to Google anything for the next 10 minutes.
You are just going to breathe and let me walk you through this.
This is calming anxiety.
And today we are going to do something simple and something powerful.
I am Martin, clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic.
I am here every single day with a 10 minute session.
No pay-one, no catch, just you, your breath and a little bit of calm.
If this is your first time here, there is a catalog of well over 2,000 episodes in the
library.
So subscribe now because I will be back for you tomorrow.
But right now let's begin.
Find somewhere comfy.
You can sit or lie down.
Let your hands rest open in your lap.
And if it is safe to do so, gently close your eyes.
Self-exhidity keeps us in the future, always anticipating the next symptom, the next worst-case
scenario.
Box breathing brings us back, back to the body, back to now, back to safe.
This is called box breathing.
There are four sides, equal and steady, like tracing the edges of a square with your breath.
We breathe in for our nose for three.
We hold at the top for three.
Then slowly out through your mouth again for three.
And then hold at the bottom.
Let's do this together.
Ready?
Breathe in two, three.
Hold two, three.
Release two, three, and hold two, three.
Beautiful.
Let's do that again.
Ready?
With me.
In two, three.
Pulls two, three, out, two, three.
Just release and relax.
Notice what this does to your nervous system.
Each cycle is a quiet, firm message to your body.
There is no emergency here.
The threat is not real.
You are safe.
Try and keep the rhythm going as I speak.
You don't need to count now.
Because understanding health anxiety is part of releasing it.
When you feel a sensation, a tight chest, a strange ache, a flutter in your stomach, your
threat detection system activates instantly.
It was designed to do exactly that.
My years as a paramedic, I saw this every single shift.
People in genuine terror, convinced their body was failing them.
And almost always, what we were treating wasn't a physical emergency.
It was purely an anxious nervous system, doing its job far too well.
The symptoms feel real because it is real.
Anxiety creates genuine physical sensations, erasing heart, breathlessness, that heavy feeling
within your chest.
These are not signs that something is medically wrong.
They are the body's stress response, fully functioning, slightly misfiring.
In the more you check, the more it fires.
So we are going to do something different today.
One more round of box breathing.
Ready?
In.
Two.
Three.
Hold.
Two.
Three.
Out.
Two.
Three.
Hold.
Two.
Three.
Hold.
Two.
Three.
Good.
Stay here.
Stay here in this breath.
Now as you continue to breathe slowly, I want to offer you some words.
Let them settle in.
You don't have to believe every one of them right now, just allow them to land.
My body is not my enemy.
It is working hard for me right now.
In this moment, I notice the anxiety.
I do not need to act on it.
Sensations are not symptoms.
My nervous system is sensitive, not broken.
I am allowed to feel uncertainty and choose not to search for answers right now.
I release the need to check.
The answer I am looking for is already here.
I am safe.
My mind has been working so hard to protect me.
I give it permission to rest.
I am not my fears.
I am the quiet, the netherm.
Self-exiting is common, it is treatable, and I am already taking steps.
I am allowed to have good days.
I am allowed to believe in them.
In this moment, right now, I am okay.
Stay here now, my friend, breathing slow and easy.
Let the words settle as if in warm water.
Every out breath carries a little more tension away.
Every in breath reminds you.
This moment is safe.
And to keep this feeling going, here are your three daily caring tips for health anxiety
relief.
1.
Give the worry a window.
If anxious thoughts about your health return today, don't fight them and don't act on
them immediately.
Give yourself one specific five minute window, say 4pm, to acknowledge them.
Outside of that window, gently return to your breath.
You are not ignoring your worry.
You are managing when it gets your attention.
2.
Notice the reassurance loop.
Gling your symptoms, asking loved ones for the hundredth time, rechecking the same results.
These feel like relief, but they feed the cycle.
Each time you feel the urge, just pause, breathe, return to the affirmations instead.
Reassurance feels like the answer, but it isn't.
3.
Move your body gently.
A ten minute walk will give your nervous system real, accurate information about your
physical state.
Your legs work, your lungs breathe, your body is moving through the world.
That is the most honest reassurance you can give yourself.
Now gently, begin to come back.
Wiggle your fingers and toes.
Feel the surface beneath you, solid, real, present.
Take one full breath in and as you let it go, gently open your eyes.
What you did today took real courage.
Even with health anxiety, rather than checking, searching or bracing.
Back is one of the hardest things the anxious mind is asked to do.
And you did it.
Remember, there are over 2,300 sessions in the library.
Every one of them free for you, every one of them ten minutes.
If you're ready to go deeper, my anxiety circuit break, of course, is waiting for you.
At calminganxiety.fm, it's 5 focus clinical hypnotherapy sessions and it's only $67, or
by me, all for you.
I'm Martin.
This is calming anxiety.
Smile off to my friend and then in every thought, word and deed.
Be kind.