Dear Aislynn:

Good to see your thread today! I was wondering about you after your regular posts on one of the threads ended: I followed those and thought you were doing an excellent job there. When I thought of adding something … I noticed you already attended to that point.

To this thread. You wrote: ” I might plan to walk slowly, to make sure I am going to the right room, getting all the things I need, but my anxiety takes a hold of me and I do things faster than I intend to and sometimes forget to do other things I had intended to.”

I know anxiety very well, unfortunately. OCD, Tourette Syndrome, two clusters of symptoms fueled by my ongoing anxiety. Any and all insight I had before the start of my therapy in 2011 did nothing at all to alleviate my anxiety. Insight into the past is very important but it is insight of a different kind that is necessary to train the brain to function differently.

When anxious the brain is rushing. So even though you plan (as in your quote) to walk slowly to class, while you take that slow first step with your legs, your brain already is 100 steps ahead in a rushing mode and all hell broke loose already, on your first step with your legs.

The training of the brain is about slowing down the brain while you slow down your legs, in this example.

No easy and fast way to do it (certain drugs will do it easy and fast at first before you build tolerance and otherwise side effects and addiction and complications come into play).

Training takes time and attention (also called mindfulness). I found slow yoga (there is a current article on the home page here on restorative yoga) and Tai Chi are excellent practices of slowing body movements and brain at the same time.

Over time, with attention, you learn to distinctly see when your brain starts rushing, that very moment and you slow it down before it is 100 steps ahead of you.

Deep breathing, hot baths, all these help but the operation of the brain has to be changed all day long and that is a lot of work. You can learn how to do it. Over time, months or a few years, you will notice great improvement. It is a long term goal and practice.

What do you think so far?

anita