https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTojOzXTxig
Hi everyone in today’s video we’re going to be talking about ways of managing persistent and pesky worries about health that people often experience in health anxiety and I’ve talked in previous videos about how much how we pay too much attention to physical health symptoms and 00:00:19
how by focusing too much on those symptoms it actually makes the symptoms feel more intense kind of like a sneaky trap you know the tricky part is that when those symptoms feel worse it’s natural to start to worry even more about them and this triggers even more anxiety and it becomes
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this self-fulfilling cycle that keeps dragging the person down into worse and worse health anxiety the more anxious we become the more we feel the need to focus on our health symptoms because we’re genuinely concerned about them which
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just makes us feel even more anxious and it becomes this frustrating spiral so in today’s video we’re going to be talking about some strategies that you can use to help break you out of this health anxiety spiral and gain some control over your health worries
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now people who struggle with health anxiety often find themselves meticulously examining their bodies for any signs of illness which inevitably leads to worry about these bodily Sensations now being aware of bodily changes and potential health issues is normal that everybody does it
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to some extent however if you’re spending excessive time fixating on your physical symptoms or struggling to break free from the thoughts about your health or potential illness it can be helpful to direct your attention away from those symptoms
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too much into that I want you to think about what you tend to focus on when you’re feeling anxious about your health I often encourage my clients to make a list of the particular Sensations or areas of their body that tend to consume their attention during these health anxiety episodes
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and once you have this list of Sensations or health worries this becomes the list of symptoms or health thoughts that we want to redirect our attention away from but why is redirecting attention so important why is it so critical well as I mentioned earlier
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fixating on physical symptoms can intensify their impact and fuel high levels of worry and anxiety additionally when our attention is fixated on these physical symptoms it prevents us from engaging in everyday activities and fulfilling other important tasks have you ever found it
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challenging to concentrate on doing your household chores a work project or simply being present with your loved ones because your mind is constantly wandering back to a specific area of your body or particular Health concern that you’re focused on this symptom focused attention
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and health anxiety makes it really difficult for us to focus on any other aspects of life so by learning to retain your attention learning to retain your attention is a critical initial step in managing and addressing health anxiety not only does it reduce the amount of focus on
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the physical Sensations but it also frees up your attention allowing you to more fully engage in other activities and experiences that life has to offer so how do we do this how can we shift our Focus away from worrying about physical symptoms and bring our attention back to the present moment
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one way to approach it is by considering your attention kind of like a muscle and just like any muscle if we don’t exercise our attention regularly it becomes weaker and less effective so the key is to strengthen our attention and our ability to focus by giving it a regular workout
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and one way of doing this is to consciously sustain your attention during everyday tasks you see when we’re engaging in mundane day-to-day activities like washing dishes folding laundry or driving to pick up the kids from soccer practice it’s natural for our minds
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to often wander off we start thinking about other things like work uh what the weather is going to be like tomorrow the argument I had with my wife all sorts of other things we rarely take the time to fully focus on the experience of our day-to-day tasks like washing
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the dishes the activity of folding laundry or the actual route we take to the soccer field it’s during these types of activities that our minds tend to drift we lose touch with the present moment and we become disconnected from what we’re actually doing and what’s actually
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going on around us but the thing is these everyday tasks present a wonderful opportunity to practice strengthening our attention and the idea is to gradually train yourself to sustain focus on these ordinary activities for longer and longer periods giving your attention a solid workout
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so what I encourage my clients to do is to think about those everyday mundane tasks those household chores that you frequently engage in where your mind tends to wander it could be anything from doing the dishes taking a shower ironing gardening cooking eating walking driving anything you do on
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a day-to-day basis spend some time and write down as many of these activities that you can think of and once you have your list of potential activities to practice building your attention muscle the next step is to select one and plan when and where you’ll intentionally
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practice focusing your attention with that task this intentional practice gradually strengthens your ability to keep your attention centered which enhances your overall focus and a presence in the Here and Now so let’s take the example of washing dishes to illustrate
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this practice you make a conscious decision to focus your attention while washing the dishes initially people are usually quite good at directing their attention to the task at hand however after a minute or two their minds often start wandering off to something else
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and the Key Practice here is to notice when your mind has wandered and to gently bring your attention back to washing the dishes so in a way the muscle that we’re working on is more about the bringing the attention back rather than solely keeping it focused
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and to assist with bringing your attention back to the present moment I encourage you to engage your senses and to be mindful of the sensory experience you’re having while washing the dishes or whatever the task is so let’s think about the five senses the touch science sound smell and taste
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first pay attention to the sense of touch what does it actually feel like to wash the dishes take note of the texture and the temperature of the water and The Sensation of the soap in your hands notice which parts of your body are in contact with the dishwashing process
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next consider the sense of sight what catches your eye as you’re washing the dishes observe the interplay of light and shadows Contours and colors that unfold before you while you’re washing your spaghetti meal off the dishes moving on to sound listen closely to the different sounds associated
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with washing dishes pay attention to the sound of water pouring into the sink and the sound of the sponge scrubbing away the food particles take a moment to explore the sense of smell notice any distinct smells that arise do the smells change as the dishwasher because the dish water becomes
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dirtier what does the dish soap smell like see if you can detect multiple scents or changing scents as you do it and lastly consider taste now you may not necessarily taste anything if there’s nothing in your mouth but perhaps you’re chewing gum while you’re doing the dishes what
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do you know what do you notice about the act of chewing gum so you see by bringing your attention to these sensory aspects you’re anchoring yourself in the present moment and you’re cultivating a greater sense of the task at hand which is washing the dishes it’s through this
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deliberate practice of engaging your senses that you strengthen your ability to redirect your attention back to the present ultimately enhancing your overall focus and mindfulness now the nice thing about this type of attention practice is that you can do it almost any time
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because it typically involves things that we do every day anyway so I encourage people to practice attention on these mundane tasks at least two or three times a day you’re not doing anything extra by doing these exercises all you’re really doing is paying attention to stuff that you do anyway
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so it’s not like it’s going to take up any more time in your day now you might be wondering okay this makes sense I can use this approach to maintain my focus on mundane tasks such as folding laundry or mowing the lawn or doing dishes but how does this help with my health anxiety
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well the idea is when you notice yourself getting preoccupied with a physical sensation or a worry about a particular physical symptom what’s happening with your attention in that situation well your attention is focused on the physical symptom or the physical sensation
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and your worry and negative interpretation of what that physical sensation actually means so when you catch yourself focusing your attention all these physical Sensations the idea is to work on redirecting your attention to something else bringing your attention back in the Here and Now
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so for example if I notice that while I’m cooking dinner I notice some numbness in my fingers and start to worry about what does that mean if I’ve practiced this mundane task focusing what it can do is pull my attention away from the worry about the numbness in my fingers and put my
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attention more fully into what I’m doing while I’m cooking dinner it interrupts that negative spiral that happens in health anxiety where I focus on the sensation I notice it more intensely it makes me more anxious so I have to focus on it more by removing the focus on the physical sensation I’m
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interrupting this cycle and not getting so anxious or so worked up by it in that moment and if you’re interested in learning more ways of interrupting these worry Spirals and health anxiety or worry more generally I encourage you to check out this video so that’s all for today’s video as always
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