my favorite exercise to stop anxiety and calm down, fast
"Emily Garcia (00:01.358)
Hey guys, it's Emily and I wanted to share with you an exercise that has been helping me so much lately. I have recently found that I'm struggling a bit more with anxiety. I'm wondering what causes you guys to experience anxiety. For me, it's often my kids starting to disagree with each other. And right now we are just shifting into
our homeschool routine. We're going to be homeschooling for two months and then they do part of the year in a Spanish school in Costa Rica where we live part of the year. And it's like 105 degrees here with millions of mosquitoes. And so I'm finding that they have so much pent up energy and
that energy turns into restlessness and some irritability and they really do need to burn off so much energy and we're having a hard time doing that. And then as their energy kind of escalates, I feel the anxiety inside of me escalating and escalating and escalating and escalating. And I get to a point where I kind of just leave my body and I cannot get back into it for like the rest of the day or for a couple of days. And,
I found something that's really helping me.
Emily Garcia (01:27.372)
And it's basically an exercise to remind myself that I am safe. And so I'm recording this, hoping that it helps you when you're feeling any sort of anxiety attack or when you're feeling like you can't get into your body. And.
A lot of people also struggle with anxiety because they're never in their bodies. So this is also an exercise that you can use to get into your body. It's called grounding. And I know that sounds like a kind of like a loose type of term, but it actually is.
super important to get into your body as you go about your day. A lot of people start their day and they're doing a million things and they're getting the kids out the store to go to school and then they're on social media and there I see the energy in that situation like confetti. People's energy is like exploded in a million different directions and they start to feel anxiety because they're literally energetically pulled in a million different directions and being affected by the energy of all those different experiences.
So.
Maybe you experience anxiety on a regular basis or maybe you just have certain moments when it pops up, but I hope this is helpful to you. And I start out by sitting down and putting my hand over my heart.
Emily Garcia (02:56.566)
and taking some deep breaths in through your nose. And you can start box breathing. So it's four breaths in your nose, hold for four.
Emily Garcia (03:09.996)
and then exhale for four. So continue to breathe like that while you listen to my voice and you will begin to say to yourself, am safe, I am safe, I am safe. I am safe, I am safe, I am safe.
Emily Garcia (03:28.908)
I am safe. I am safe. I am safe.
I am safe. I am safe. I am safe.
Continue breathing, four breaths in.
Hold for four.
Emily Garcia (03:50.026)
Exhale for four.
Emily Garcia (03:55.294)
Repeat breathing like that. Continue breathing. You should feel your body, your heart rate begin to slow. When I hold for four, I like to really feel that tension in my chest breaking apart.
Emily Garcia (04:15.608)
Good, and now you'll say, you should begin to feel yourself arrive into your body. I am in my body. It is safe to be in my body. I'm here. I'm present.
Emily Garcia (04:33.506)
we're gonna begin to move our attention up to different parts of our body.
Emily Garcia (04:41.098)
So I feel my toes, I feel my feet on the ground, I feel the tops of my feet, I feel my ankles, I feel my shins, I feel my calves. You can just say in your brain what I'm saying to you. I feel my knees.
tops of my thighs, the backs of my thighs. Feel my butt sitting on the couch.
Emily Garcia (05:16.014)
Feel my hips.
Emily Garcia (05:28.046)
Feel my waist, the front of my stomach and my back.
My upper back, my chest, my heart, my shoulders, my neck, my face, my head, top of my head.
my arms.
My fingers.
I am safe, I am safe, I am safe. I am grounded in my body and I am whole and complete.
Emily Garcia (06:09.046)
I now command that anything that was causing me so much anxiety leave my field. I am in complete and total control of my field of energy and my physical body.
Emily Garcia (06:21.292)
I am whole and complete.
Emily Garcia (06:26.168)
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Emily Garcia (06:32.492)
So now that you have gotten back into your body, this would be a great time for you to try the snow globe exercise. You will find it linked as another recording in my podcast playlist, or you can search snow globe on the website.
Emily Garcia (06:52.192)
Another thing you can do is move into some inner child healing if you really want to take this to the next level and you can say, show me the piece of me that was absolutely terrified and experienced all that anxiety and you may see yourself at a different age and you can tell them it's safe to come forward. I see you, you are safe.
and offer them that comfort that you were not offered during your real life experience. So maybe you're three, maybe you're seven, maybe you're 17.
Emily Garcia (07:33.6)
Maybe it was last week and you don't like the way that you handled something, but you can go back and talk to yourself with compassion and love.
Emily Garcia (07:47.214)
and just offer them the comfort that they needed and the love and the understanding and the feeling of safety.
Emily Garcia (08:00.352)
If you guys want to work with me or send me a situation that you need help with, you are welcome to email me. I would love to hear from you. It's haywiseandwild at gmail.com. Or you can find me on Instagram at haywiseandwild.
Emily Garcia (08:22.094)
All right guys, this is Emily Garcia. I hope this was helpful to you. Thank you so much for listening. I know there are a million resources out there and I cannot thank you enough for sharing your experiences with me. Love you guys.