When worry becomes a physical sensation in the body

Andy's answer:

Thanks for your question and great to hear you've been enjoying Headspace. In answer to your question, the trick is cut to loop between thought and feeling. At first that sounds like you have to do something extra or apply some kind of strategy, but that's not the case at all. Basically, once they get running with an emotion, the body and mind tend to feed off each other, but then you've probably already discovered this. So, the anxious thought arises, there's a physical response to this, the mind registers this response and thinks "oh no, I really am anxious..." and so on and so on. However, if you can bring a very gentle, yet focused awareness to the feeling itself, then the thoughts have no room to go anywhere. It is not that you need to try to stop the thoughts, it's just that by redirecting the focus, you skillfully steer the mind away from them, thereby allowing them to fizzle out. So, in short, as soon as you feel something physical — see it! Stop what you're doing if you can and 'look' at the feeling. Don't think about it... simply watch it. Identify where you feel it, what size it is, what shape is it, what intensity it is, etc., etc. When you do this honestly and openly, you'll find there is a natural sense of curiosity which seems to take over from the emotion. The important thing is that you approach it not to escape from the emotion, but to understand the mind. With the former there will always be resistance and tension. With the the latter, there will always be acceptance and openness.