For several months now, I’ve been working with groups on the theme of anxiety management and how to prevent and stop panic attacks.
Not only the work with participants offered me – once again – moments of great satisfaction, but it has also taught me a lot about the strategies we develop to avoid… feeling ourselves.
This is nothing new, but it’s always touching to observe how what we feel in our bodies can be perceived as something too invasive, too uncomfortable and dangerous to be contained within us.
When this happens, we feel overwhelmed by negative sensations that we don’t want to feel, and also we don’t recognise easily.
As a result, in order to protect ourselves from this potential experience we tense up, reduce our breathing and sometimes restrict ourselves in rigid and limited postures.

It’s a protective mechanism that may have been very useful in the past, but which today keeps the body in a constant state of tension and stress.
And in this physical state where we’re already under pressure, managing insecurities or fears – real or imagined – can be a challenge, which can end in the feeling of being overwhelmed by what we perceive in the body.
So it’s important to give yourself the means to achieve a state of relaxation, so that you can physically make room to new inputs.

Practising simple breathing exercises, or those that combine breathing with movement, helps us to release muscular tension, to soften rigid or withdrawn postures, and to focus more on ourselves by paying attention to our bodies. And last but not least, it calms the mind so that instead of being occupied with things to do – or things already done – or other aspects that lie outside us and beyond our control, it can focus on the here and now through physical sensations.

‚Unfortunately‘, all these benefits can only be experienced by practising 😉
So, at the bottom of this article you find one of ‘my’ simple exercises for getting back in touch with the body and creating space in the chest. This space will accommodate moments of greater intensity, such as fears, so to feel that they are no bigger than us, and can be contained within us. This will allow you to experience that what you feel can be contained within your body!

As always, I’d be happy to support you in creating more connection with your own body..

Interlace the fingers behind the neck. Keep the back straight and the elbows open without effort during the movement. As you inhale turn right. As you exhale return to the centre. You turn to the left with the following inhalation and then return to the centre as you exhale. Repeat. 10 slow movements on each side.