And welcome. To us all on this Sunday evening. And we missed last week and we're moving to fortnightly.

Now, so, Again, it'll be really helpful just to for you guys if you, if you like, just to, if you have any favourites like you did once before, the last time was lovely and So tonight, what I thought we would do is really just because there was the ICD report came out, the one came out a while ago on depression linked to COVID and it was suggesting that among the general population, That people experiencing clinical levels of depression had gone up. To 50% and I waited and nothing came out about anxiety, so I did a bit of a check and they lumped anxiety and depression together. But when I read the report looking into it with a bit more detail, what it tells us is that actually generalised anxiety is absolutely through the roof.

So a lot of the depression, if you said to a lot of the people in the study that they used, you know, if we took away the anxiety, would you still be depressed? My guess is that a lot of them would say no because I think it's this anxiety that's driving so much of the of the of the depression as well. So I just felt it might be really useful to have a session today where we really work with anxiety.

So I hope that's gonna be useful for people, bearing in mind that your profession is one which kind of lends itself to being, Being anxious, I suppose, because so much is expected of you. There is that sort of huge issue of expectation, isn't there? I think people watch the television and then watch these programmes about vets and they get it into their heads that, you know, that, that, that sort of anything is possible and I think sometimes those programmes are edited, probably, I'm just guessing this to perhaps only show most of the successes and one or two.

Operations or things that might go wrong, but I do think it probably gives a false perspective. And of course it's just a, a such a responsible, busy, very fast changing, always got to keep your knowledge base up, pressure to achieve, etc. Etc.

So yours is a, is a, is a profession where people do experience high levels of anxiety. So my hope is that we could use this evening. To really help a little bit.

And our first And our first slide tonight is just a little think really about how mindfulness can help us to calm anxious feelings. So as the first bullet says is we learn through mindfulness not to get into a real fight. With our own brain in order to try not to have anxiety because when we try not to have anxiety, when we find ourselves overanalyzing why do I feel this way, when we find ourselves suppressing or encouraging even some of the worries, the irritations, the painful memories, the other difficult thoughts.

And emotions and we really try not to have that stuff, then anxiety just gets worse because we are almost, you know, fighting a monster bigger than us, and that exhausts us. So what mindfulness does is it suggests that what we need to do is we need to allow ourselves to feel and acknowledge with curiosity. And explore holding it lightly, accepting that like bees with no stings, they're irritating, but they can't hurt us, these thoughts.

You know, they can make us feel uncomfortable, but they can't actually dictate to us. And one of the metaphors I love that I use sometimes in therapy is straight from The Wizard of Oz. And you know, when Dorothy and the lion and the scarecrow come sort of tremulously up towards the Great Oz, and then in that booming voice he, oh, you know, who dares come and disturb the great Oz, and our brain is a bit like that.

But then Toto sees the feet behind the curtain, and when the curtain is pulled back, there's just this little old chap there speaking into a megaphone, and our brain is just like that with anxiety. And once we know that and once we get that and we hone our mindfulness skill, we can just stay with this difficult start. And so the first way that we need to use mindfulness, I think, is as we're going to do in today's meditation is just to stay with.

Stuff, not immediately try not to have the experience of anxiety, but to meet it with curiosity. You know, and a and a half smile and an acceptance that this feels really unpleasant. And the knowledge that it will pass, you know, and the other thing about mindfulness is sometimes as we build our curiosity, as we start to go with what's happening rather than extending energy fighting or trying to turn away from it.

This is the time when we Meet our thoughts, our feelings, the situation, what's going on in our lives, the physicality of it, and we meet it with absolute curiosity. And this is when we have our huge road to Damascus light bulb moments when we suddenly realise, oh gosh, that's what my anxiety is about. Oh, how daft am I to be worrying about that.

But if we never stop and explore, we never really get to grips with what it is that's pushing us around and, bullying us and making us feel quite so terrible. And of course, as we've got very good at noticing is that mindfulness is absolutely wonderful at helping us to create space around our worries so that they don't consume us. So.

Mindfulness helps us to begin to understand that, The underlying causes of our apprehension. And what, what The real issues are Kind of allows us to get that sense of spaciousness and that sense of spaciousness and the freedom that comes with it gradually starts to emerge as we sit with this stuff exploring it. Kind of curiously, because in essence, as we practise our mindfulness, we're learning the process of trust and stay with feelings of discomfort, rather than desperately trying to escape or endlessly.

Analyse them because if we can do this, what it leads to is a remarkable shift, time and time again, our feelings will show you everything that you need to know about them. And we start to learn what we need to know about ourselves. For how we can live with greater well-being.

So Tonight's meditation is It's quite a long one. I don't think I would be doing it with a lot of the groups I work with, but because we've been together and exploring mindfulness for quite some time, and most of you guys, I'm pretty sure, have got to established practise going now, then I think this is, is, it is a challenging meditation, this one, but I think it's so, so important, and . I'll just slide over to tonight's meditation, and it's almost like the antidote towards this.

It's the antidote to being on autopilot whilst we struggle with work, money, relationships, because they're the big three, aren't they? You know, work, money, relationships, family, I suppose, if we were going to feel something, they might come under relationships, maybe. So the practise we're gonna do tonight combines mindful breathing, the process of body scanning.

It allows us to be mindful of thoughts by really, Flexing our mindful self enquiry. And what I mean by that is really investigating into the nature of our own minds and being. And the inquiry we're going to do looks into physical sensation, emotions, thoughts, and it allows us to really have A very helpful, I think.

Delve in to this hole. Phenomenon really of anxiety. So what I think I'll do is, as always, because I don't have a recording of a really Major meditation of Self inquiry into anxiety that I think we might as well create a file of it again, it'll be not quite of the quality of the ones that we use on the webinar that usually, but I think it will be, I think it will be a really useful addendum to all the other ones that we've got.

So, A meditation of mindful self. Inquiry of anxiety. So as we begin this practise, let's just take a moment.

And actually welcome. And congratulate ourselves for just being here. Congratulate ourselves that We are the sort of people that recognise the importance of taking time.

To be present To go inside. And explore our own lives. So Let's just get ourselves comfortable.

But not too comfortable. And take a few moments. Just to feel that we are in the mind and the body.

Together. A mindful check-in, you could say. Let's feel.

Any sensations that are showing up. Bring awareness to anything that we're holding on to. Whether that be physical, psychological or emotional.

Let's Grow an awareness of where. There is tightness in the body. Maybe tightness.

In our mind as we feel into our mood. Feeling into our emotions. And just acknowledging.

Whatever we find. Acknowledging whatever is being felt. As we engage with this meditation.

And just letting the. Just feeling how we are. With awareness.

I'm acknowledging whatever there is. That we find Now Very gently. We just withdraw the awareness from the mind for checking.

And let's escort our attention to the breath. Being mindful of the breath. In our abdomen.

Expanding on the inhalation. And falling On each exhalation. Mindfully breathing in.

And out with awareness. Just you And your breath, breathing normally, breathing naturally. Feeling the rise and fall.

Of the abdomen Knowing that this kind of mindful breathing can Calm us, when we feel anxious. When we feel fearful. So let us just be mindful of the breath.

As it comes in, And as it leaves, breathing in and out. With awareness. And if we find in a silence like The one we just had then.

But our mind wandered off. We compassionately. Gently just make a note, just wondering.

Just my mind wandering off. And bring your attention back to the breath. Find your abdomen.

Just breathing. With awareness. Slowing our lives down.

Living this life One inhalation. One exhalation. At a time.

Breathing in, breathing out with awareness. Moment by moment. Finding this present.

And now just gently. Withdraw your awareness from the breath. And that's shift our focus, escort our focus to our bodies.

And allow your mind to Feel into your body. Into the world of sensation. Bringing awareness to thoughts and emotions as they show up.

And acknowledging whatever. We experience. Just recognising that As we sit and explore.

And acknowledge Like a meteorologist. Objectively reporting the weather. And the outside we as mindfulness practitioners.

I like internal meteorologists. Reporting the weather objectively on the inside. So whatever it is that we feel in the body, And the mind We just report on it to ourselves.

We acknowledge whatever is being felt. And that be Just emotional weather. Just the weather of our thoughts.

Let's bring our attention now. To the souls of each of our feet. Pressing down, so he can feel the heels.

The bottom of the feet, the toes. Behind into the Achilles. Champ and moving up.

Into the ankle joints feeling. Each of the feet up to the ankles with awareness. Again, just like the meteorologists acknowledging.

Whatever it is we find. Feeling into the feet, into the ankles, the lower legs. Feeling as we move up to the knee joints.

Letting our awareness rise up from the lower legs. Into the thighs. Finding its connection into the hip joint.

Feeling sensation. The felt sense of the body. Moving into the hips and letting be.

Into the pelvic girdle into the centre of our bodies. Peeing into the centre of our body. With awareness.

Allowing whatever arises in the body. And perhaps at times in the mind. And emotion.

And acknowledging all But just let him be. As we move through the body. Moving onwards and upwards.

We may notice from time to time. Tension Tightness, maybe even aches and pain. And if we can allow Any of these areas to just soften.

Let it happen. And if we're unable, To soften Just let it be. And we lack whatever sensations.

Resonate Let them go wherever they need to go. And we move onwards, including the arms, the wrists, the hands. Moving up into the neck.

And the chest. And now let's Move our awareness again. To the tummy.

Just feeling into the tummy with the awareness of. This is where so much of our anxiety sits. Just acknowledging whatever we find there.

And letting go. That's good. And as we move into the throat.

And up into the jaw. A home of communication I had. Where our senses sit.

Just moving into the temples, the head, the forehead. Feeling into the eyes. Just Feeling into this body.

And this mind. And as we get into the minds. We might experience some anxious thoughts.

Worries or fears. And what we do with this is we just make space. Just make space.

Just like on a hot day. We want to go swimming and we put our toes into the water. And we react with such coldness.

I just dipping the toes in and out of the water. But if we do this gently. Repeatedly easing in and easing out.

We have climb to the temperature. We become accustomed. And so In the same way, let's just feel into this experience of feeling anxious.

To him So just easing in. There's anxiety that it got. Just easing in again, whatever arises.

Just acknowledging whatever shows up. And letting be But listening with Great compassion so that we don't push ourselves. Harder than we need to.

But just working with the edges of this feeling into our anxiety. Acknowledging what we find. And let him go.

Staying with whatever. We learn Are the underlying causes of our fear. And our difficulty and just tonight.

Putting your toe in Exploring I'm coming back out, no shot. Gradually acclimatising ourselves that it's OK. To reach in and allow anxiety.

And now we just let go of this. Level of inquiry and come back to the breath. Anchoring our attention once more.

Just like we're watching the breath now coming. And going And in the same way we can even begin. To perhaps watch the thoughts that show up.

As we sit with our breath. I notice that it's like clouds moving by in the sky. Like sitting on a river watching leaves.

Beginning to observe the mind as we breathe. From that observing self. Noticing that even fair thoughts.

Are just passing mental phenomena. Just watching Let him go. I'm breathing.

As we become aware of thoughts. We get lost and then we smile. We've had enough of this.

We withdraw our awareness from the thoughts. OK. We anchor our attention.

Back to the brain. Mindfully breathing in. And out.

And we noticed that over the last 10 or 15 minutes we've been Dipping our toe into this. Place where anxiety sits. We have been exploring our bodies, our minds.

And we Just worked with anxiety. That's the meditation. Begins to gently meander its way towards the end.

Let's just take a moment to remember. But We don't need To constantly be challenged, you don't need to live with fear and worry. We just find the ability to stay.

To focus, to meet with curiosity. To move between attention from the body. And the breath To sit with anxiety.

And to learn And may we take these moments now. To just congratulate ourselves for Proactively Turning towards the fears. Proactively working with the stuff that makes us feel uncomfortable.

And maybe a firm. As we have climatized ourselves to these fears, these anxieties. But We don't need to be so challenged.

Can we remember to just. Allow ourselves to be held. By attending just to the body.

Just to the breath. And as the meditation very gently. Comes to be Last few moments, let's just see.

And enjoy Just sitting And breathing. When ready Very gently. Bring us back.

To our Sunday evenings. And That was a Mindful inquiry into anxiety, as I said before, that incorporates many of the tenets of mindfulness-based stress reduction. And the bit I really like about that one is where we Just get that sense of cold, cold swimming pool, and if we jump straight in, we get a terrible shock.

But if we choose to Dip a toe in out in out in out, we become acclimatised and we're able to. Sit with the anxiety. Stick with the experience and manage it better.

So thank you all so much for, participating tonight. Catriona, that was quite challenging and interesting, yeah, and I think it's like never being so fidgety. Yeah, it's a long one, isn't it?

And it also is quite challenging. But, it's one to keep practising, I think, because especially if we are struggling with anxiety because it's a real lovely dip in, dip out, explore, but it's, Really encapsulates for me that mindful stance towards anxiety. You know, which is using what we have, and we always have our body and we always have our breath.

And so it's beginning to use that stuff to be brave enough to gentle ourselves in and out of that frigidly cold pool of water that sometimes is our anxious mind and body. So, well done, everybody. If anybody has any particular, meditations that they would really like us to do in 2 weeks' time, just let me know or let Dawn know at the webinar that, and, we'll gladly reprise some of the ones we've done before.

So thank you. Oh, like bees with no stings, is this not rare? Having a husband who started beekeeping and regularly gets stung.

Really, so, apparently, there is a bee without a sting. It's, I think it's called a partimmona South American bee. So there are such a thing as a stingerless bee, and I use that very often as a metaphor for the sort of thoughts that show up in a meditation that can sort of butt into us like a bee with no sting.

So it produces discomfort, but, no pain. And maybe this occasional pain is what we need to acknowledge and accept in order to get on with life. Absolutely.

But rather than the pain, I, I think I'll, I'll have the, the discomfort of the bees with no sting. That's my particular preference. So thank you all so much.

Have a lovely Sunday evenings, and I'll see you all in two weeks' time. Thank you.