Your mind is going 100 mph. Your heart is racing and your muscles get tense. You feel a knot in your stomach or in your throat. Your thoughts begin to spiral and suddenly you feel so overwhelmed and out of control. 

Anxiety can feel like it takes complete control over us and there’s nothing we can do. It might feel very unsafe as it takes us out of the present and into the past or future – it takes us to places outside of our control. At the same time we feel a sense of urgency to return to a state of calmness and peace and so we often find ourselves struggling and fighting with our Anxiety to get rid of it. 

Anxiety is not our enemy. Anxiety is an emotion that comes with certain thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behaviors. It is an experience and we can allow ourselves to be open to our experience, and observe it nonjudgmental, compassionately and with understanding. Let’s not set ourselves up to fight this part of ourselves that is just frightened and reacting to some story that is reflective in our personal history or future. It isn’t you in the here and now. Anxiety takes us into our mind, into this story and out of the here and now. So it is important to bring our focus to our present moment. How can you remind yourself to return to the present moment?

Look over a couple of these mantras and try out the ones that resonate with you to remind yourself to get back to the present moment and connect to your life with presence and resilience.  

1. I can accept that this is how I feel at this moment, and it won’t last forever
2. I don’t have to resist this feeling
3. This moment too will pass
4. I am not my anxiety
5. I don’t have to believe the anxious story created in my mind
6. I am not my thoughts
7. My body and mind are just trying to protect me 
8. I am safe and secure
9. Anxiety is a habit, I now choose peace instead
10. I can soothe my system
11. I invite peace and calmness at any moment. 
12. I can access stillness at any moment
13. I can always return to my breath
14. This part of me is so frightened, how can I treat it with dignity and compassion at this moment?
15. I invite love and compassion to myself
16. Things are always working out for me
17. I see beauty and abundance out of my window and in the world
18. I choose calm and peace, here and now
19. I accept myself and all my experiences as I am
20. I connect with **insert your divinity/spiritual/religious here** (God, the Divine, the Universe, my ancestral spirits and their power)

What are other mantras you use when Anxiety shows up?