Anxiety Slayer™ with Shann and Ananga

Managing anxiety when facing a serious medical test

#483 We're talking about how to manage anxiety when facing a serious medical test, like a biopsy or blood test and how to support yourself getting through the test and while waiting for results.
 
Resources for this episode:
 
The SOS Tapping Sessions and guided Quick Anxiety Stopper 3 point tapping practice for calming high anxiety can be found in our First Responder Course for Anxiety Attacks 
 
And in our First Responder Course for Health Anxiety you will find our Guided Tapping Sessions for calming the fear that there may be something wrong with you, our healing affirmations, and a lesson on the Bach Flower Remedies that help most with Health Anxiety and how to create your own supportive blend.
 
You can find both courses at anxietyslayer.teachable.com

Anxiety Relapse: What to do when anxiety comes back

#482 We're talking about what to do when you experience an anxiety relapse.
Points covered in this episode include:
What causes someone to experience an anxiety relapse?
How to support yourself when you're having a setback
How to contain and calm anxiety flare-ups
Did you know that if you become a patron for Anxiety Slayer with Shann and Ananga, you'll immediately get 24 patron-only posts?Join today and you can listen to the Guided EFT Tapping session that accompanies this week's episode on our Patreon page.

How to develop resilience and live an intentional life with Neil Pasricha

#481: Today it’s our pleasure to introduce you to NYT Best-selling author and speaker, Neil Pasricha.
Neil thinks, writes, and speaks about living intentionally. All of his current work focuses on the themes of gratitude, happiness, failure, resilience, and trust.  
Neil is the author of six books including The Book of Awesome, a spinning Rolodex of simple pleasures based on his award-winning blog 1000 Awesome Things, and his new book, You Are Awesome, How to Navigate Change, wrestle with Failure, and live an intentional life. Neil’s books are New York Times bestsellers and have sold millions of copies across dozens of languages. 
Points covered in this podcastTen years ago, Neil’s life fell apart after his marriage ended in divorce and his best friend took his life. In the ten years since those heartbreaking experiences, he worked through his suffering and has so much to celebrate. How did you go from suffering these life-altering losses to living your life with intention?
Why do we need to learn resilience?
How can your nine steps or directional arrows help us cultivate resilience?
What can we do to support our children and adolescents who are struggling at an astronomical rate with anxiety and panic attacks?
If there was ONE thing our listeners could do today to start living more intentionally, what do you recommend?Neil’s Two-Minute Morning PracticeEvery day carve out a couple of minutes to fill in the following journaling prompts1. I will let go of…2. I am grateful for…3. I will focus on…
 
Get your copy of You Are Awesome at neil.blog or wherever books are sold. You Are Awesome is packed with research-based strategies, tools, and lessons to move from thin-skinned to thick-skinned, failure-prone to failure-proof, and anxious… to awesome
You can also The Book of Awesome for free when you share your email at 1000 awesome things.
We invite you to take a look at our New Beginnings Course which is currently on sale at 30% until the end of January off with the coupon code: newyear
Thanks for listening to Anxiety Slayer. Shann & Ananga

How changing your thoughts about anxiety can help you heal

#480: Today we're talking about how our thoughts and feelings about anxiety affect the quality of our life. We'll be looking at the benefits of clearing resistance and resentment towards anxiety, and how that frees up our energy to start taking action steps toward feeling less anxious and more hopeful.
 
This Anxiety Slayer podcast is brought to you by New Beginnings: Daily Steps for Self-Acceptance and Peace of MindSave 30% for a limited time. Review the course at https://anxietyslayer.teachable.com/p/new-beginnings
 
Thoughts that keep us stuck in anxiety
 
Some thoughts we often hear are: 
 
"I will never be free from panic attacks!" 
 
"I know I'm stuck with this anxiety for life."
 
"I've tried everything and nothing works."
 
 
These are beliefs, not facts, and beliefs can be changed. Freedom from anxiety begins when we challenge those beliefs and look beyond them. 
 
Breaking through the wall of anxiety
When you see anxiety as an enemy or personalize it by saying you hate it, you are giving anxiety power over you. 
 
It becomes something you have to fight, or you resent. Feeling this way about anxiety puts you in a victim mindset. You are feeding your anxiety and exhausting yourself.
 
We’ve all done it. It's the default setting of a suffering mind. You don't like how you feel, so you declare it. I hate this. I don't want to feel this way. But anxiety isn't personal. It's not listening and it's not going to back off and leave you alone - unless you make the choice to deal with it by taking action.
 
 
Two challenges for the anxious mind
The mind tends to form grooves. Like an old record, our thoughts carve tracks that our mind falls in to and plays over and over again.
 
The mind also has a negativity bias, which means it's particularly drawn to unhelpful thoughts and beliefs and likes to replay them and ruminate on them.
 
This replaying makes the grooves of negative thought even deeper and difficult to escape, but we can, with determination and support.
 
 
Changing our mind is easier when it comes from our heart
Changing the way you feel about your anxiety and switching your perspective to seeing it as an emotion, or a messenger that is trying to communicate something to you is a positive first step in regaining your power and sense of control over anxiety.
 
One way to do this is to ask yourself what would I love to do if I was free from anxiety?
 
When you practice looking for purpose and meaning in your life, anxiety becomes a hurdle between now and what you want to experience instead of a brick wall.
 
Using EFT Tapping to change unwanted thoughts 
Tapping is a quick and effective way to change our unwanted beliefs and, in doing so, change your entire experience of anxiety from feeling trapped to feeling hope and finding freedom.
 
You can try it by yourself via a book or course or work with a practitioner for support and to make sure you cover all the aspects of the thoughts that are affecting you. Read the rest of our show notes at www.anxietyslayer.com
 
 
 
This episode is brought to you by New Beginnings 
If you want to wake up each day feeling good about yourself. Energized. Happy & Peaceful. Join us on this journey of deep self-care work Special offer Save 30% for a limited time with the coupon code: newyear   Learn more at AnxietySlayer.teachable.com