It seems like everyone I know has been feeling a lot of anxiety lately —- my friends, my clients — I’ve been experiencing it too. The truth is that we’re living in some pretty intense times right now. Things are changing rapidly and there’s a lot going on in this world. It’s only natural that we would feel the effects of it. However, too much anxiety can be paralyzing. It can prevent us from moving forward toward our dreams and keep us from being fully present in our lives.

In my experience in my own life and working with clients, anxiety is generally a manifestation of one of two things: unexpressed emotion that is trying to surface or excitement that’s being misinterpreted as anxiety. The good news here? If we pay attention and tune into what our anxiety is telling us we can actually start to use it to our advantage. Pretty awesome, right?

Note: If you are struggling significantly with anxiety I strongly recommend working with a qualified therapist or coach who has experience in dealing with anxiety-related issues. That said, here are a few tools you can use to help to decrease anxiety on a daily basis.

Meditate

I heard Marianne Williamson say something in one of her lectures a couple weeks ago that really stuck with me. I’m paraphrasing here, but it was something to the effect of the divine light is coming to us in every moment but if we don’t prepare ourselves to receive it then we become overwhelmed with anxiety. She then went on to talk about the importance of grounding ourselves in our spiritual practice so that we are open to receive this guidance. In other words, by meditating on a regular basis we build the spiritual and emotional strength necessary to receive and follow through with divine guidance. How cool is that?

I believe in building a strong meditation practice (with any method that works for you) to help keep you grounded throughout the day. When anxiety does pop up, the following kundalini meditation is a quick and easy one that you can do just about anywhere that will help reorganize your energy and bring you back to center.

Inhale through the nose in 8 equal strokes. Exhale powerfully through the nose in one long stroke. Repeat this for one minute or longer if desired. At the end of the cycle, take in one long deep breath through the nose and hold for 15-20 seconds then exhale powerfully through the nose.

Move

When you’re feeling anxious sometimes all that’s needed is to allow the anxious energy to move through you. For me, that can be as simple as focusing on the space in my body where I feel the anxiety (often my chest or abdomen) and just breathing into it for a moment or two. Other times  putting pen to paper and journaling it out, playing the piano or going for a run is helpful. By working with our anxiety (instead of resisting it), we allow the anxious energy to move through us, rather than keep us stuck.

Dancing is another awesome anxiety buster, particularly when you have something really exciting or important to do. I often put on some music and dance around my living room while preparing for coaching sessions. (Yep, it’s true.) This simultaneously grounds me and gets me totally pumped to chat with a new client. It also gives that anxious energy (which is really just excitement in this case) some positive direction. Seriously, try this! Next time you’re feeling nervous or anxious about something really important, throw on some Beyonce or Alicia Keys and get after it. You can thank me later. 😉

Mantra

When you can recognize that your anxiety is just old energy needing to be shed or divine guidance coming through, it makes it a little less, well, scary. To remind yourself of this it can be helpful to repeat a mantra. When you feel anxiety creeping up say to yourself, “I allow myself to receive the magnificence that is coming through.” Don’t you feel better just saying that? You can even take it one step further and imagine yourself in the energy of what it is you want to create/do/experience. You may not experience an instant shift (although you certainly can) but this daily practice of visualization and affirming can help to transmute anxiety over time.

I hope you’ve enjoyed these tips. If you have any anxiety busters of your own to share I’d love to hear them in the comments below!

Kundalini Meditation Resource: https://www.3ho.org