5 Mindfulness Techniques to Cope with Anxiety

1. Coping with Anxiety
5 Mindfulness Techniques
www.mindfulspring.com

2. Mindfulness is …a beautiful practice that helps
in connecting and being rooted in life as it flows by. It
involves getting our minds back to the present and
paying attention to the life that is unfolding right now
within us and around us.

3. Our Intentions for you
• Understand the nature of Anxiety
• How to apply mindfulness to cope with Anxiety
May you be well, may you be free from anxiety
Before you proceed set 1 intention for
yourself

4. Self Reflection
• Do you experience intense fear and worry accompanied by
breathlessness, a racing heart, sweaty palms or other physiological
symptoms?
• Does this stop you from leading a regular life? Does it affect your
performance at work or your day to day functioning?
• Are you known to be a worry wart?
OR
• Do you get a little stressed from time to time?

5. It is normal to have some amount of Anxiety.
When is it a psychological concern?
When it interferes with;
• Work or school
• Relationships
• Daily activities
• Health
• Mental state
Types of Anxiety Concerns;
• Social
• Panic
• Obsessive Compulsive
• Phobias
• Generalized Anxiety
If you don’t relate to the above, you probably just have occasional worrying spells. The techniques that
follow could be applied to mild anxiety too. For example flight anxiety, work performance anxiety,

6. You are not alone
• The rates vary, but in western countries
between 14-29% of the population are likely
to suffer from an anxiety problem in their
lifetime.
• Every fifth Indian suffers from anxiety
disorder, or so goes the unwritten belief
among India's psychiatrists.
• One in every 4 Mumbaikars suffers from
Stress or Anxiety.

7. What exactly is Anxiety ?
• Anxiety is an emotional state .
• It can range from a subjective experience of mild
worry and restlessness to a sense of dread and
panic.
• It is a response to a real or perceived threat.
• If it is a real threat, it is meaningful as the body
needs to fight it or flight it.
• If it is an imagined threat, the body still goes into
fight, flight or freeze.

9. Identify your response to the threat.
Do you….?
• Fight it - battle with it by using
thinking or behavior
• Get into freeze- get paralyzed
and have no idea what to do
• Flight it – try your best to escape
it
Instead you could apply 5
Mindfulness Techniques
Anxiety
flight
fight
Mindfulness
Technique's
freeze

10. Mindfulness helps you STAY with the anxiety
Mindfulness helps to break habitual patterns like
avoidance of difficult situations, perfectionism etc, that
we have formed to cope with the imagined threat.
Initially it may be overwhelming as old patterns break
and new are established.
If you persist it will help in coping with and managing
the anxiety.

11. 5 Mindfulness Techniques
1. Being fully present
2. Watching thoughts
3. Rain Method
4. Body focus
5. A regular meditation practice

12. 1. Being Fully Present
Time required: Between 5-20 minutes
• Sit in a comfortable position
• Take a few deep breaths to settle in
• Pay attention to one sense at a time.
Notice 3-5 things with each sense.
• Sense of sight – 5 things you can see
around you. Just notice without thinking
about the object
• Sense of hearing – simply listen to sounds
• Sense of touch – become aware of the
ground underneath your feet, physical
sensations, clothes against your skin
• Sense of smell- notice any aroma or
absence of any smells.
• Sense of taste – notice any taste or
neutral taste
When you are feeling very stressed
or overwhelmed the tendency to be
thinking about the past or future is
high. Thoughts tend to race.

13. 2. Watching Thoughts
Time Required: Between 5-20 minutes
• Sit in a comfortable position.
• Take a few deep breaths to settle in.
• Pay attention to breathing where you
feel it the most in your body. Do this for
5-10 minutes.
• Begin watching your thoughts. All you
need to do is simply witness.
• You are the blue sky, the thoughts are
clouds.
• As the thought arises, watch them arise
and watch them pass .
• You may label the thoughts as “this is
just thinking”.
• You can also individually label each
thought; “worry thought”, “planning
thought”, “memories”.
• Come back to paying attention the
breath.
Useful on the day when there are
several racing thoughts or
repetitive thoughts.
Here is an audio of a
guided meditation on
thoughts.

14. Between stimulus and response there is
a space. In that space is our power to
choose our response. In our response
lies our growth and our freedom.
-Viktor E. Frankl

15. 3. Rain Step Method
R Recognize what is happening
A Allow life to be just as it is
I Investigate inner experience with
kindness
N Non-Identification
When there are difficult
emotions surfacing for you
Watch this video to more fully
understand the RAIN Step
Method.

16. 4. Staying with difficulty
• Take a pause from your day
• Sit in silence
• Take a few deep breaths
• Bring your attention to the body
sensations
• Breathe into the sensations that are
strongest.
• Slowly expand your awareness to the
areas around the main area of
sensation.
• Breathing into the surrounding areas
• Expanding awareness to the rest of
the body
A technique when anxiety
surfaces as physical
sensations in the body which
are overwhelming. Here is
what you can do.

17. 5. Daily Meditation
Practice
Practice mindfulness meditation
regularly
- Breath meditation
- Body scan meditation
- Metta meditation
20 minutes a day over 8 weeks has
been proved to help reduce anxiety.

19. Questions For Personal Guidance
What is your main takeaway from the presentation?
________
The 2 steps that you will take to cope with anxiety or stress in your life.
1.
2.
Write down reasons for adopting the mindfulness method of coping with anxiety.
________
Note down how you will remind yourself to practice.
_______

20. Download a free e-book on beginning a
mindfulness practice:
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21. THANK YOU
For any question write to us
info@mindfulspring.com