Health Anxiety SOS

When your health is changing, it's easy to feel anxious or overwhelmed. Your body can feel unreliable. When health feels unpredictable, your brain is doing what it is designed to do, searching for safety. It's a natural physiological response to try to solve the uncertainty. But for the next few moments, let's give your mind permission to step back. Wherever you are right now, allow your body to become still. You don't need to figure anything out right now. This time is for you. You can place your hands on your chest or your arms or on your lap and feel the warmth and the pressure of your touch. Notice the steady presence of your hands. When our health is uncertain or unpredictable, our body can feel foreign or frightening. Your touch is a gentle way of saying, "I am here with you." Take a slow, deep breath in and a slow breath out. Again, breathing in and breathing out. One more slow breath in and breathing out. Now, bring your attention to the places where your body is being supported. Feel your feet resting on the floor. Notice the chair beneath you, perhaps the support behind your back, your arms resting, your hands resting where they are. Take a few moments to notice each point of contact, feeling the weight of your body being held. The surface doesn't know your diagnosis or your uncertainty, but it holds you anyway. If your mind wanders towards appointments, test results, or question about what comes next, notice where your attention has gone. Whenever you notice you've drifted, gently return back to your feet, back to the chair beneath you, back to the warmth of your hands. Now, noticing what your body is doing in this moment, breathing, feeling, hearing, existing. Your heart continues to beat, your lungs continue to breathe. Health and certainty can make the body feel like it's working against you, but it's also the very thing carrying you through. Silently acknowledge whatever uncertainty you're carrying today. You don't have to make it disappear. You don't have to solve it. Just acknowledging it, that it's here and that you're here too. Remember, not knowing is not the same as not being okay. Uncertainty and safety can exist at the same time. Now, take one final slow breath in and breathing out. Thanks for joining me today. You've done a wonderful job caring for yourself in this moment....