Stress

• You can’t stop the waves of stress but you can learn to ride them. External circumstances remain as they are. But what we can do is to change the way in which we react to the situation so that the stress does not control us, which means seeing things as they really are. We must discover from our own experience what gives rise to our anxiety, how we feel it and above all what we can do to cope with it. Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If allowed to do so, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained. You can’t think of anything except what you fear. It does not help to try to suppress or deny it or merely to try to distract yourself from it. You cannot run away from it because it will follow you wherever you go. You have to face up to it.

• We can face our stress through mindful awareness. Mindfulness is a process of healing the wounds in the mind which life brings to all of us. In all of us there is a silent observer that keeps track of our mental and physical states, of the contents of the mind (what we are thinking about) and of our feelings. Unfortunately we frequently ignore it, because the quality that it embodies – “mindfulness” – is not generally known in our culture, yet it is an essential tool for coping with anxiety and stress. Mindfulness stops us projecting anxious thoughts into an imagined and quite likely catastrophic future that can only too easily become a present but illusory reality. It does not dwell on painful memories of the past. It is awareness of what is happening NOW. This is not to say you cannot think about and plan for the future, but rather that you do so in a completely realistic way.

• By working with mindfulness we are able to re-train ourselves to observe and more skillfully react to our anxiety and the stress that comes with it. This happens through the development of the skill of attention and moment-to-moment awareness without negative reactions to your anxiety and its symptoms. Mindfulness brings calm and stability.

• When thoughts or feelings come up in your mind, you don’t ignore them or suppress them, nor do you analyze or judge them as either “good” or “bad”. Rather, you simply note any thoughts and observe them intentionally but non-judgmentally, moment by moment as they occur. They are simply events in the field of your awareness. Paradoxically, this noting of thoughts and feelings that come and go in your mind and body stops you from getting caught up in them.

• I work with clients to help them strngthen the mindfulness skills that they already posses and to understand fully the impact of their anxiety on their lives so that they can make more skillful choices to live their lives in a more present and open way.

• Some useful links
• Mindfulness Workbook