Latest / Float: The Anxiety Podcast with Dr John Eaton PhD / 7 Micro Doses of Calm

Transcript

7 Micro Doses of Calm · Float: The Anxiety Podcast with Dr John Eaton PhD

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  One of the difficulties in cultivating mindfulness or awareness that many of
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  you might have is due to the fact that you have busy lives,
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  holding down, demanding jobs and building careers, tending to your relationships
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  and families and raising children,
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  managing homes, friendships, communities,
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  and even where you have a commitment to your own mental health.
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  And see the importance of staying calm and grounded, the question arises,
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  where am I going to find the time to practice all this?
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  For that reason, this episode isn't a 30-minute meditation session.
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  It shows you seven small things you can do in or around one minute.
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  And you can think of them as brief activities that interrupt those busy mind
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  loops, leaving you feeling more present,
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  more calm, more grounded than you were before.
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  Welcome back to Float, I'm Dr. John Eaton, and a quick word on what micro means here.
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  If you listen to some of my other podcasts, you may recall that the anxious
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  brain doesn't know when to switch off.
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  And the more it goes on, the better it becomes at going down that superhighway of threat and worry.
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  They interrupt it frequently in small doses and you're going to give it a chance to reset.
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  Over time, you can learn to go down the slow lane rather than the fast lane.
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  Now, you can do any of these activities that follow on their own or in combination with the others.
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  There will be short pauses during each one to enable you to dwell on them.
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  You don't have to work at any of them. That really would be beside the point,
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  The only thing that's required is for you to be present Here,
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  now, grounded and clear So let's get ready for the first exercise in clearing,
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  Sitting in your chair Roll your shoulders and upper arms Back and downwards,
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  twice Then shake out your hands and your lower arms for about 10 seconds.
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  Lift loose as if you were trying to fling water off your fingers. Go ahead with that.
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  And finish with one sharp intake of breath through the nose with a sharp exhale through the mouth,
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  a bit longer than a normal breath, as if you were spitting something out. Go ahead with that.
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  And now for the second grounding exercise.
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  Wherever you're sitting now, put both feet flat on the floor and press down
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  gently, as if you were trying to leave a footprint there.
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  Feel the chair underneath your bottom.
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  Feel the weight of your feet pushing down into the ground.
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  Maybe you can feel the desk under your hands or forearms if there's one there.
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  Feel your back pushing back again whatever is resting on pure awareness on.
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  The feel of those sensations in your feet your bottom your hands and your back,
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  and just stay with them now,
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  and still present here with me getting ready for our third exercise noticing what's here So,
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  open your awareness so that it fills the room.
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  So that the room is inside this awareness and you are in the room and yet the
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  whole thing is inside you.
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  So it's you holding the room and everything in it.
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  And now, let's look at three things that you weren't noticing a moment ago.
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  Maybe something on a desk, or on a wall, or maybe your hand,
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  or something you're wearing, or something else. Just look.
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  And register and notice one thing you can hear in or outside the room really
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  stay with that sound register the sound,
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  and notice one thing you can sense the air on your face maybe or the temperature
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  in the room or the movement of your breath and rest in awareness,
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  seeing, hearing, feeling and getting ready for number four,
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  the drop down and put your hands on your legs while slowing down your breath,
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  to the count of four of a fan in and out.
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  And let your shoulders drop and go loose, let your arm go completely limp and loose and slack.
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  And relax muscles in your neck, your back, nice and loose, limp and slack.
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  And then down into the chest and abdomen, let it all go loose.
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  And notice your breath, notice how slow it might be now and notice also whether it goes,
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  comes up from your chest or your abdomen or whether your breath actually starts
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  from lower down somewhere around your neighbour and notice also where the breath
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  goes to when you breathe out.
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  Really feeling that, here and now and for the next exercise we're going to continue
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  following the breath and start by noticing that it isn't you who is doing the breathing,
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  rather that the breath has a light rhythm of its own independently of you,
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  and notice for a moment how the breath is working for you now is it slow,
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  medium or a little faster?
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  Where does it come from?
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  Chest the abdomen or maybe now from somewhere below your navel and where does
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  it come up to where does it come up to as you breathe in and where does it go to as you breathe out,
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  and now follow this sequence four times breathe in through the nose to the count
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  of four hold your breath to the count of five,
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  and breathe out very slowly through your mouth to the count of six and do that four more times.
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  So, simply allowing, and in this exercise, notice right now whatever is present
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  in awareness, the breath,
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  the thought, the feeling, the sensation in the body, the sound,
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  or several of these at once.
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  You don't need to look for anything in particular.
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  All that is required is that you remain aware of the flow of the breath,
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  thoughts coming in and out, of feelings and sensations and sounds,
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  and without trying to change or improve anything.
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  From now on, as you notice something in awareness, just say to yourself,
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  this can be here, this can be here.
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  Say that to each perception, each breath, each sensation, each feeling,
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  each sound, each thought, allowing all of them to be exactly what they are in the moment.
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  And go.
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  And the final activity relates to witnessing.
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  And as you get ready for the next thing to do, after you've completed all these exercises.
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  Your eyes now and recall what you were working on just before you began listening
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  to this podcast episode.
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  Recall the work you were doing or the tasks you were engaged on or the people
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  you were with or the things you were planning or the things you were finishing,
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  whatever it was you were doing.
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  But with this difference, I want you to watch your mind I'm playing it back
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  to you on a very small screen from a long way away.
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  You don't need to visualize it all. Just get a sense of things being shown to
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  you, brought back to you on a screen, but very, very small.
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  And being shown what you were doing, what you were saying, what you were listening
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  to, what you were thinking, what you were feeling, and what you were engaged on.
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  I noticed whatever might have been bothering you at the time on that small screen.
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  And now shrink that small screen until it fades down to a single point, just a dot.
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  And then the dot disappears forever.
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  Leaving you clear back in awareness listening to my voice here right now fully
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  present and that's it all complete.
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  Reminder, before you go, you don't have to do all seven of these activities.
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  You can get the ones you like best and experiment with those,
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  singling or in combination with others.
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  If you'd like different versions of these exercises, then there are some more on my podcast channel.
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  If you'd like to know more about the thinking behind these activities,
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  you can find information about that in my book, float exiting the anxiety stress,
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  loop wishing you peace wherever you go.