Mindful Somatic Awareness for Anxiety Relief

Book excerpt: Quiet the fear in your body before it hijacks your mind—all while restoring resilience and vitality! Anxiety is a modern epidemic, and unfortunately it just seems to be getting worse. If you’re one of the millions of people who suffer from anxiety, you probably already know that trying to control your anxious thoughts and worries won’t work. That’s because fear doesn’t begin with your thoughts. It begins in the body. So, how can you calm your body so your mind will follow? Written by a psychologist and Reiki practitioner, and based on cutting-edge research, this book shines a much-needed spotlight on the role our bodies play in generating and perpetuating anxiety. Using the SOAR model—Sense, Observe, Articulate, Reflect—you’ll learn to connect more deeply with your body, observe your senses, and articulate and reflect on what you observe. By shifting your attention to bodily sensations, you’ll actually reduce activity in the fear-generating parts of your brain. You’ll also find simple body-based exercises that allow you to cultivate insight into your anxiety response, so you can strengthen your relationship with your body, and, over time, cultivate a lasting, regulated response to the various anxiety triggers in your environment. Give yourself the gift of mindful body awareness. It has the power to ease the suffering that comes with chronic anxiety and will help you connect with a deeper sense of self—so you can pursue the pleasures and passions of a truly authentic life!