Anxiety and Mindfulness-Centered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Welcome to the course!
I hope the information you find here is very helpful in managing stress and anxiety.
Please keep in mind that it's important to practice between lessons, using the worksheets I'll provide to apply what you learn. It doesn't have to be a lot of practice—just a few minutes a day can make a big difference.
If you have any questions or comments as we go along, please leave them in the Comments section of the lesson.
With all best wishes,
Seth
1. Grounding Practice - "Fourteen Breaths": This exercise gives you an opportunity to quickly check in with yourself and release unnecessary stress and tension. It also helps you to come into the present, which as we'll discuss is one of the most effective antidotes to overwhelming anxiety, stress, and worry.
Follow along with the video instruction, if you like, though your eyes will be closed for most of it. You can also download the audio to take with you. We'll open with this exercise each week.
2. Lesson: Today we'll go over what stress and anxiety are, how they're experienced in the body and brain, and how mindfulness-centered CBT can help to lower your stress and quiet your anxiety. We'll be applying these principles throughout the rest of the course.
3. Activity Plan:
- Repeat the guided meditation exercise three times over the next week. I recommend putting a note in your calendar to help you remember. You can do it without the guided instruction once you have a feel for it.
- Use the worksheet below to start to increase your awareness of how you experience anxiety and stress. Complete for three situations over the coming week, noting your thoughts, feelings, and actions in each situation.
- Print out the Individualized Plan below, and start to add anything you've learned that you want take with you. We'll come back to this Plan throughout the course.
Week 1 Worksheet: Thoughts, Actions, Feelings
4. Totally Optional Additional Reading (time and interest permitting)
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