A Hearty Method for Reducing Anxiety
Anxiety is trying to control something that feels utterly out of control.
Those of us with high levels of “trait anxiety” — meaning our anxiety can be about pretty much anything at any time— have certain electrical patterns in our resting brain.
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a set of brain areas that all connect and talk to each other (like Zoom conference but inside your skull).
Specifically, the DMN is the biggest “resting state network,” meaning that it’s most active when we’re not doing focusing on anything in particular.
Resting is when you’re awake, but you’re not in the mental driver’s seat. Your mind is throwing stuff together and seeing what fits. It’s processing information.
High anxiety individuals have lower levels of connections in the DMN (“internet connection unstable” message). It’s like we can’t fully let go and stop trying to focus.
In Aliveness terms, this is clearly what we’d think of as imbalance. Control is good, but letting go of control is also necessary. The more we balance those two actions, the more Aliveness we generate.
It’s in the Serenity prayer of the 12 step programs. “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
How do you practice letting go of the things you can’t control?
One thing about the brain is that it’s embodied. A brain as an entity makes no sense without a body.
We can use the body to change our brain by practicing sensing the rhythm of our heartbeat from the inside.
This is called “interoception,” of sensing the inside of your body with your mind.
Researchers found that training people to more accurately sense the rhythm of their own heartbeat, without taking their own pulse, reduced their anxiety levels.
Try it now. Pause, take a few normal breaths, and send your mind down into your chest.
You have to get really quiet to actually feel it from the inside.
Focus on the rhythm. Keep breathing normally, but focus on sensing the rhythm itself. Just follow the rhythm.
In the study, the researchers had participants practice this for one full week at 40 minutes per day. That sounds good, but probably is difficult to achieve and might not be necessary.
But you can focus on your heartbeat when you’re doing other things too.
When something doesn’t require your full attention, devote a little bit of focus to feeling fist-sized giant life muscle, sitting just below your neck tubes.
