Is the sensation becoming bigger or smaller? And can you be aware of it knowing that it will pass away like all emotions do? You start to relate to that feeling in a different way - rather than avoiding it, you allow it, you're willing to feel it, so that you can continue to do whatever you need to do. Notice where the feel is in your body, notice the shape, the colour, the texture. You might even bring some curiosity into the experience. So although it feels really counterintuitive to stop trying to struggle, fight or push away that feeling of anxiety, what if you allow it to be there? What if you lie flat in full contact with that quicksand and allow yourself to feel the sensations. And then you're trying to push it away a bit more and it may work for a little bit but then you find there's another moment where it becomes even stronger or overwhelming. Well, what you may find is that when you have feelings of anxiety and want to get rid of them it almost becomes like a quicksand. This metaphor of the quicksand applies for dealing with anxiety. In fact, you completely stop sinking and are able to focus, look around. Instead of struggling you open your body out and, lo and behold, you actually stop sinking deeper into that quicksand. But you've got no other approach so you decide to try something radically different. So you're scared that if you stop struggling it's not going to work. This feels very counterintuitive because when you're sinking in quicksand the last thing you want to do is to sink even further. ![]() You'll then become unstuck and you can roll out safely." The more you can open your whole body out and be fully in contact with the quicksand without trying to struggle, then you'll stop sinking. Stop struggling and actually, not only stop struggling, but try and open your body out flat onto the quicksand. “Hang on a minute! Instead of trying to struggle, try something different. But the harder you try, the more effort you put into getting out of this quicksand, the faster you sink down the into it. And as you're using your feet and hands to get unstuck. ![]() You struggle, you fight, you try and push as hard as you can to try and get out that quicksand. And the natural reaction for how to get out is to try and push yourself out. And so the natural reaction when you start sinking is to try and get out. I don't know if any of you've been in quicksand before, perhaps not! But when you get into quicksand you start sinking in the sand. Imagine you are walking down on a beach and then suddenly you find yourself in quicksand. In this video I'm teaching you how to work with anxiety in a different way, using the metaphor of quicksand.
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