Awareness That Heals Robert J Strock

The journey of focusing on emerging challenging emotions begins with the realization that you are the observer, which helps to bring immense freedom. Instead of being consumed by anxiety, you can observe it—an experience that helps lead to a deep recognition of the need to care for yourself. This transformative process opens the door to qualities, actions, and thoughts that enhance the quality of your life. By consistent practice, you can learn to address anxiety as it arises and ask questions from your heart. This practice allows you to transition from tolerance and acceptance to finally being able to embrace your anxiety. As we continue to ascend the metaphorical elevator of raising our spirit, we can utilize these tools and the 75 needs and qualities covered in the Introspective Guides. Take advantage of these guides to help you identify the most crucial areas to ground yourself. During moments of anxiety, trust and practice your awareness to care for yourself and recognize that your tone of voice is essential to improving the quality of your life.
The final floor on our metaphorical elevator is the questions you ask yourself and the statements you tell yourself. One example is to say, "Be kind." When you care about your thoughts, qualities, and needs, you enter a heightened quality of life. The Introspective Guides are tools for self-reflection and catalysts for personal growth and transformation. They do more than simply try to move you to be more compassionate or to meditate; they subtly enhance those practices. Through these meditations, the quality of your life will expand and significantly affect the people around you. Your inner work of opening your heart and caring can also help our deeply imperiled world and country. The essential message in all these meditations is “wherever you are is sacred, and your movement toward self-acceptance and self-care will increase your capacity to love yourself and others.” If you want to take steps toward self-acceptance and self care, we all need to find a place in our hearts that allows us to move in that direction. This requires devotion and practice, and the reward is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode on our YouTube channel

• Read the episode transcription at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Access our Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts

As we continue to discover ways to support ourselves during periods of anxiety, it is essential to remember the simple but elusive step of being aware of where you are, coupled with the desire to care for yourself, is a core foundation for self-compassion. The next level in the elevator metaphor is nurturing tolerance and kindness toward our anxiety. Whether or not we reach a bearable level of tolerance, maintaining the aspiration to evolve is essential for continual growth. Another level is learning to ask the right questions from your heart and what tone of voice you want to hear. Moving on further from tolerance and acceptance brings “welcoming,” which represents the pinnacle of self-acceptance. It’s the process of evolving both our hearts and wisdom.
This next elevator level helps us discover what qualities and needs are vital when confronting our anxiety head-on. To help determine your needs, the Introspective Guides on the Awareness That Heals website are helpful tools for dealing with challenging emotions—especially when you are anxious. These steps can help and support you to regain self-compassion and peace during challenging times.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode on our YouTube channel
• Read the episode transcription at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Access our Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts

When you are anxious, it's essential to be aware that you are both anxious and the observer of your anxiety. There is no need to compare yourself to anyone else. Simply start where you are—recognizing that awareness, or being the observer, can give you the capacity to mitigate your anxiety. Notice it clearly and give yourself the opportunity for self-care. Shifting your inner tone of voice during a period of anxiety can have a profound effect. The most underrated capacity in our lives is recognizing that we are the observer and the one who wants to care for ourselves. Understand your aspiration to tolerate and accept anxiety and develop the capacity to take care of yourself, guide yourself, and ultimately welcome yourself.
The next step in our metaphorical elevator is to ask questions to seek support for your anxiety. You can explore the questions, communications, and tone of voice, both inwardly and outwardly, of exploring how you will be supported, which will be most helpful in accepting and supporting yourself during periods of anxiety. Find the courage to help yourself by being assertive, setting boundaries, or being more generous. Asking yourself how to approach a situation in the most beneficial way when feeling agitated can lead to peace, relaxation, and trust. The reaction to avoid anxiety can lead to feeling stuck in withdrawal or an aggressive emotion, which can be like being caught in quicksand. But when you ask questions from your heart, with an intention to care for yourself in the moment of anxiety, you can begin to accept where you are and where you need to guide yourself. This will help bring you to your ultimate potential.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode: on our YouTube channel.
• Read this episode transcription: https://bit.ly/ATH-Episode-117
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Blog
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides: https://bit.ly/Introspective-Guides
• Access the Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Podcast
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/ATH-Apple-Podcast

In the two prior episodes, we've explored practical tools to help address anxiety. The initial steps helped you become aware of your anxiety and care for it, while the subsequent step has you move into developing tolerance, kindness, and a welcoming attitude toward anxiety itself. While this may seem counterintuitive, the aim is to view anxiety as having the potential to awaken self-compassion. If you can apply this to your life, you will begin to free yourself from being dominated by anxiety and move up one more floor on the elevator metaphor. 
This shift can foster a natural sense of openness and even positivity. As you recognize the anxiety, though real, it is ultimately a natural human feeling. This mindset offers you the best opportunity to achieve your desired quality of life. It's crucial to listen to your capacity to care for yourself while you are feeling this normal emotion. Imagine supporting kindness towards your anxiety and learning how to respond to what's around you in the ways that most serve you and your significant others—increasing tolerance and acceptance wherever you are now, even if your capacity to care for yourself happens more slowly than you would like. If you are not ready to welcome the anxiety, at least let it be stored as a seed or aspiration, which itself is a tremendous evolutionary step toward self-compassion. No matter where you are, embrace it and let it guide you toward ever-increasing acceptance and caring.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode: on our YouTube channel.
• Read this episode transcription: https://bit.ly/ATH-Episode-116
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Blog
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides: https://bit.ly/Introspective-Guides
• Access the Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Podcast
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/ATH-Apple-Podcast

In this second guided meditation focused on managing anxiety, we continue using the elevator metaphor. As we proceed to the next "floor," we reach a place where you will learn to care for yourself and develop self-compassion. You can gently say to your anxiety that you wish to recognize and continue to increase your capacity to bring heart and wisdom into your life. It will be helpful to recall the moments when you've been anxious in the past and remember how tolerance and kindness have been absent during most of those moments. The key theme of this elevator floor is to remember to be more tolerant and kinder to yourself when you are anxious. 
One way to develop greater tolerance and acceptance is to first recognize anxiety and then gradually learn how to dis-identify with it. This practice allows you to observe anxiety without being overwhelmed by it. Dis-identification helps increase the desire to care for yourself and become more tolerant and accepting of your anxiety. Try adopting an internal tone of voice that is kinder,  sweeter, more tolerant, and more accepting. Create the space to breathe and view anxiety as a passing feeling. For more severe anxiety, it will be necessary to co-exist with the anxiety with continued tolerance and acceptance.  You need to remember that being anxious and caring simultaneously is a depth of maturity that will support you to live your life with your heart and wisdom no matter how long it lasts.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode: on our YouTube channel.
• Read this episode transcription: https://bit.ly/ATH-Episode-115
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Blog
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides: https://bit.ly/Introspective-Guides
• Access the Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Podcast
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/ATH-Apple-Podcast

Welcome to season three of the Awareness That Heals podcast, dedicated to exploring and healing specific challenging emotions.
In this episode, host Robert Strock focuses on anxiety. He offers a series of guided meditations to cultivate self-compassion and improve your ability to navigate anxious moments effectively. Using the metaphor of an elevator, Robert illustrates the progression from an unconscious state of anxiety on the first floor to acquiring tools for self-support and healing on subsequent levels.
On the second floor, the focus is on becoming aware of your anxiety and developing the capacity to care for it. By taking on the role of an observer, you not only perceive anxiety but also gain insights and tools to care for self-care. Recognizing yourself as the observer introduces a sense of freedom from your experiences, empowering you to pause during anxious moments while reflecting on the observation and increasing the capacity to tolerate and accept yourself as you are. The observer is independent of the anxiety itself and is a central point of being able to care and increase your acceptance. Through listening and practicing this guided meditation, you will learn to embrace the observer role. Don’t forget to download the free Introspective Guides for additional support.
Further explore the resources available to you at Awareness That Heals:
• Watch the video of this episode: on our YouTube channel.
• Read this episode transcription: https://bit.ly/ATH-Episode-114
• Explore our Blog at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Blog
• Download the (free) Introspective Guides: https://bit.ly/Introspective-Guides
• Access the Podcast at AwarenessThatHeals.org: https://bit.ly/ATH-Podcast
• Visit "Awareness That Heals" on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/ATH-Apple-Podcast