What to do about anxiety? - A yoga perspective on it

For more than the last 15 years I have clients who say that they have anxiety or panic attacks. As not being a psychiatrist I will here look at what anxiety is and what tools yoga offers to deal with it . This is a more general yet possibly helpful sharing about my experience with clients I assisted with yoga counselling to get a different view on their situation and show them a way out of it. As everyone is different I would like to say upfront that I am not claiming to have a “cure” or anything magic.

So what is anxiety? Anxiety is a personal experience when you might become overwhelmed by anxious thoughts about the outcome of situations you are in right now or your anxious thoughts about things your mind tells you could happen - always painting the worst case scenario. Everyone has at times worries and thouhgts of fear, yet when experiencing anxiety you have difficulty managing these fears and thoughts.

One big focus in yoga is your mind - not your body as seen a lot on social media or any media. Suppressing the mind, all that bubbles up from the mind which is experienced as our inner chatter or inner “mind-cinema” is mostly not possible - and suppressing is not a yogic path as anything suppressed at some stage pops up with more force than ever. It is like when you hold a log (or only a stick) under water. You might even want to put it down to the ground of the lake, but when you let go or when where you fixed it to gives in, the log or the stick will pop out of the water like these dolphins do it for fun…. only with anxiety it is not fun.

BUT: DON’T MAKE FEARLESSNESS A GOAL, INSTEAD STEP INTO TRUST

Here is what helped my clients most :

  1. practicing yoga (asanas) followed by closing their eyes and observing their breath come and go and feeling the movement of the breath in the body (expansion with the inhalation and relaxation with the exhalation)

  2. daily 15-30 minutes relaxation practice of Yoga Nidra which goes through a scientifically proven program of relaxing the body AND the mind and not just asks you to relax (which again is kind of impossible if you are worried and stressed with fears)

  3. taking some time (best in the morning or in the evening) where they sit down with a notepad and in handwriting put down all the skills and strengths of themselves they have used lately, all the people who they have as support in their lives and feel grateful for as well as the situations they have experienced lately they are grateful for.

  4. make time for fun and light hearted activities

Relaxation and trust are the keys. Relaxation can be learned and trust can grow through reflection, gratitude and stepping out of your comfort zone and then having the experience that everything “is ok”, or even really fun.

Shaktiprem BlaschkeComment