You wake up, and before your feet even touch the floor, your mind is already racing.
Already overwhelmed, already trying to live the whole day at once, the list, the noise,
the chaos of it all, before you've even opened your eyes.
If that is this morning, exactly as you are right now, then this 10 minutes is for you.
Hi, I'm Martin, clinical hypnotherapist, and former frontline paramedic, and this is calming anxiety.
I've spent so many mornings walking into chaos for a living, and what it taught me is this,
you don't calm a whole day at once.
You just calm the next 10 minutes, so let's stay there.
Wherever you are right now, still in bed, propped up against a pillow, sitting on the edge
of a mattress, just let your body stay exactly where it is.
You don't need to move, you just need to breathe.
We're going to use a simple rhythm to tell the nervous system that there is no emergency
this morning.
We breathe in through the nose, for a count of four.
We hold gently for two at the top, and then out through the mouth, slow and long, for a count
of six.
As you exhale, if you remember, imagine your shoulders dropping away from your ear, the
muscles in your face, just loosening a bit.
Ready?
Let's begin.
In, two, three, four.
Two, and out.
Two, three, four, five, six.
Good.
Did you notice your shoulders even half asleep as they dropped your jaw and clenching?
One more round with me.
Ready?
One, two, three, four, four, two, release, two, three, four, five, six.
That long exhale is doing the real work now, signaling as always to the vagus nerve that
there is no danger.
The whole body, the alarm, was waking up for, can stand down.
You don't have to chase calm this morning.
You are simply allowing your breath to find it for you.
Let's do one more round.
No rushing.
Ready?
In, two, three, four.
Hold, two, and out.
Let your breathing now settle into its own rhythm slower than when we started.
And in your mind's eye, I wonder if you could picture stepping outside into a quiet field
very early before the rest of the world wakes up.
There is a mist sitting low over the grass, soft, pale, covering everything.
You can't see the far edge, you can't see the road, you cannot see where the field ends.
And that is all right because this morning you don't need it.
Take one slow step forward into the grass.
Feel it, cool, and a little wet through your shoes.
As your foot presses down, notice that the mist right in front of you, just there, just
a few feet, gently parts.
Not the whole field, not the whole day, just one path.
That is all today is asking of you.
Not the to-do list, not the ten worries waiting at the edges, not the whole chaos of the morning.
Just this one path, this one next step.
If a thought rises, a worry, a deadline, something sharp or uncaligned about yourself, let it stay
where it is, out at the edge of the field, drifting in that low myth.
You don't have to fight it or chase it off.
It can simply sit there at a distance while you keep your eyes on the path right in front
of you.
Walk a little further now, each step you take a little bit more of the path appears, a
little more of the mist lips.
Whatever the whole field at once, only ever exactly enough for the next step.
This is how today is going to work as well.
One step revealing the next, nothing more required of you.
Now allow these words to settle, silently or out loud.
I release the chaos of this morning and choose my own quiet path.
I do not need to carry today's whole list, only this one small step.
Three negative thought is allowed to drift at the edge without becoming my truth.
My day does not need to be perfect, it only needs this one task done with care.
From chaos to calm, I am the one who decides which voice I follow.
Now let those words settle.
A little deeper, drifting down past the noise into the quiet part of you that already
believes them.
Breathe in, positivity, ambition, breathe in, happiness and smiles, feel it.
And with every out breath, just unwind, just practice that feeling of release, of letting
go and taking back control.
To keep this feeling of calm relaxation, of control over how you think, feel and react.
There are today's three daily caring tips.
One, the one path rule.
Before you check your phone this morning, choose just one task for today.
The smallest, meaningful one you can think of.
Say it out loud if you can, everything else can wait and it takes its turn in the mist.
Two, the two steps stop.
When a negative thought shows up today, picture it, stepping to the edge of your path, not blocking
it, acknowledge it quietly.
I see you and keep walking forward on your breath.
And three, the mist check.
Anytime the day starts to feel like too much again, pause for ten seconds and ask yourself,
what is the one true thing in front of me right now?
Answer simply, then take the next step.
Now gently, start to bring your awareness back into the room, wiggle your fingers and your
toes.
Take a deep breath in now and then as you release, feel how much light this morning already
is than when we began.
And then open your eye.
If you'd like to keep building mornings like this, do subscribe please.
Make calming anxiety part of your daily routine and please do share this session on your social
feed to help a friend, a family member, a colleague who may be needing this as well.
If you'd like to go further, why not check out the anxiety circuit breaker course at calming
anxiety.fm.
It's my own five clinical hypnotherapy sessions.
It's only sixty seven dollars and it's yours for life.
You can do it as often as you wish.
But more than that my friend, my hope is you never need this again.
You come here, you learn to speak kindly to who you are and then you become a beacon of
hope to others and we change the world one thought at a time.
Have a lovely day truly.
Take care of yourself.
Let's reconnect tomorrow and then in every thought, word, and deed.
Kind.