Anxiety and other emotions are fed by our thinking. We can get caught in a thinking feeling thinking feeling loop. Thoughts make more of the feeling and the feeling then makes more of the same vein of thought.
To step out of this loop we need to remember we have a body. We need to step out of thinking and inhabit our direct, present moment body experience. We need to anchor ourselves deeply in it. We need to come out of our thinking and into our breath, into our sensations, into our physical senses.
This way we slow the mind, have our focus outside of the narrative, which creates space and eases the feeling.
When we can simply and without judgement, focus on our body sensations, emotion can be safely expressed and released. Like a wave it can pass.
If your body’s experience with intense emotion is too difficult to be with, practice alternating between the not nice sensations and a neutral or even pleasant sensation in the body. Find a part of the body that feels ok/nice. Focus your attention there for five breaths, then go back to the difficult emotional sensation for three/five breaths. Pendulate back and forth.
This gives us a way to gradually feel more safe with yucky feelings, to regulate their intensity and gain some control.
RATNA DYER 