Control how you react 

I often look for meditation practices to control anxiety when the news feels heavy, which is why I so frequently return to this story about Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. He was asked, “Aren’t you worried about the state of the world?”

A moment for your heart

“I allowed my self to breathe,” he answered. “And then I said, ‘What is most important is not to allow your anxiety about what happens in the world to fill your heart. It is about easing my internal anxiety so I can stay present and actually be of use to this world instead of spinning in fear about things I cannot touch or change. He was right. If your heart is filled with anxiety, you will get sick and you will not be able to help.

This small shift, this a necessary emotional reset, is what allows our weary spirits to keep going when everything feels like too much to carry alone, and it is available to us in any moment we choose to return to the breath.'”

To that end, I want to offer you a short, impactful exercise, just five minutes long, one of my own meditation practices to control anxiety that I reach for when I need to pull myself out of a bad feeling place and remember who I am beneath all the noise.

Even this gentle daily meditation can create a profound shift in how you feel, especially on the days when you think you do not have even five minutes to slow down.

Yes, we can’t always control what happens to us. But we can control how we respond to it, how we react to it and what we do from there on out. This helps with managing those emotional triggers before they spiral into something larger than what is actually happening, before they take over the rest of your day and color everything else with their particular shade of fear.

You can read how breath affects the brain to see what researchers are finding about controlled breathing and nervous system regulation, how something so simple can shift your entire physiology in a matter of moments and bring you back to yourself.

And that’s a lot of power and that’s a lot of control actually. This power is part of reclaiming your own self worth in a world that feels heavy on our hearts, a quiet way of remembering that you matter enough to pause, enough to breathe, enough to come back home to yourself.

So I invite you to engage with this short, potent practice that includes a self-care breath and grounding mudra.

Do it any time you feel the call, and it will be good medicine. I promise. 

With Love,

Becca