How to Reduce Anxiety Every day with Mindfulness
Take Your Shoes Off
When was the last time you went walking barefoot in the grass?
Step out into your garden or journey to your nearest park for a mindfulness exercise that can radically reduce your anxiety in minutes.
Take off your shoes and socks and sink your feet into the grass. Just connecting our feet to the earth is grounding. Imagine you are pulling in healing energy from the earth up through your feet as you begin to take your first steps through the grass.
When we come in direct contact with the earth’s energy charge while walking barefoot, we experience a boost in well-being.
Relax your shoulders away from your ears. Unclench your jaw. Soften the face.
Bring your attention to the breath. Notice how the air is cool as you inhale and warm as you exhale. Inhale through your nose smoothly to the count of four. Exhale slowly through your nose or mouth to the count of eight. Making your exhalation twice as long as your inhalation will trigger the body to begin to relax.
Every time your thoughts pull your attention away from the breath, label the thought type and emotion, and then refocus your attention on your breathing. Inhale for four counts, exhale for eight.
For example, if thoughts swim into your brain about a deadline at work you can’t make, label it worrying and fear and then return your attention to your rhythmic breathing.
If the sun is out, feel the warmth of the sun’s rays on your face. Notice the feel of the grass against the bottom of your feet, your clothes against your skin, perhaps the feel of the wind as you walk.
Bring your attention from physical sensations of touch back to the breath. Notice how the air is cool as you inhale to the count of four and warm as you exhale to the count of eight.
Notice any sounds. Is it silent except for the wind? Do you hear children playing, people talking, the hum of traffic, the barking of a dog, the birds singing?
Notice any sounds, then bring your attention back to the breath. Notice how the air is cool as you inhale to the count of four and warm as you exhale to the count of eight.
What do you smell? Do you see any flowers? Stop and smell their scent. Do you see any trees? Walk over. Lean your back against the tree. Press your hands behind you onto the trunk of the tree, feeling the texture of the bark.
Trees have healing energy. According to research, time spent under a tree reduces your blood pressure and lowers the levels of cortisol in the blood. Imagine the tree’s healing energy flowing into your body.
Now check, are you still breathing long, deep, and slowly? Notice how the air is cool as you inhale to the count of four and warm as you exhale to the count of eight.
Walk once again through the grass, focusing on the feel of the feel of the grass with each step.
When you are calm and ready to end your barefoot walk, take a deep breath in and exhale through the mouth, releasing your shoulders from your ears, letting your head fall back gently, as you reach your arms out and you open your chest to the sky. Lift your arms straight up in a V and stretch on an inhale, then exhale smile. Close your eyes, and soak in the feel of standing in the open air with your feet in the grass.
Anytime anxiety arises in the future; you can close your eyes, and recall the feeling of walking barefoot in the grass as you inhale slowly to the count of four, and exhale twice as slow to the count of eight.
All the Colors of the Rainbow
Go to the nearest grocery store or farmer’s market and search for a red fruit or vegetable and place it in your basket. Next seek out orange, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, and purple. Notice the shapes, sizes, textures, weight, and feel of the produce as you pick up each item and place it in your cart.
When you get home wash all the fruit and vegetables and take out storage containers. Bring your attention to your breath as you begin to prepare the fruits and vegetables. Develop a conscious deep, even, and serene breath.
Breathe in a three-part breath. Breathe into your belly, then fill your ribs, and lastly feel the air expand your front and back lungs, lifting your chest. Exhale and pull the pelvic floor up and the abs in and as if they are sliding up under your ribcage.
Every time your thoughts pull your attention away from the breath, set your knife down on the counter. Label the thought type and emotion, and then refocus your attention on your breathing. Only then resume preparing the produce.
Notice the vibrant colors as you peel and slice. At the end of the mindfulness exercise note any patterns. Do your thoughts constantly tug you more into the past, or the future? Did you label, ‘planning’ many times? Did any emotion repeatedly appear, such as ‘sorrow,’ or, ‘fear’?
Observe your mental tendencies and patterns and write them down in a notebook. Compare a few different days or weeks of mental habits you noticed during mindfulness.
Buying and preparing all the colors of the rainbow is just the first step. Eating the fresh produce will reduce your anxiety as you fill your body with nutrition rich food.
You can repeat this ritual daily, every other day, or weekly. Play with different variations on the rainbow theme. One day you can search out only different hues of red, orange and yellow. Another day you could search out reds and greens, or produce in various shades of purple, blues and greens.
Get curious.
Try new fruits and vegetables. Pick up the produce and smell it. Feel its texture. Appreciate the beauty of the fruit and vegetables laying on your counter at home. Delight in the taste of a fresh cut orange or the crunch of a red pepper slice.