Unwinding the Habitual Patterns of Anxiety
How does anxiety affect you?
Perhaps you worry about things that haven’t happened yet. Perhaps your mind races at night when you’d rather be sleeping. Maybe you find yourself short of breath, tense in your shoulders or jaw, unable to switch off.
For some people anxiety appears before a performance, audition or presentation. For others it’s always there in the background.
As a musician, it’s something I know well. At music college I developed stage anxiety which stayed with me for nearly twenty years.
I didn’t have shaking hands, instead I’d play out of tune because my ears weren’t working properly, I’d go to the loo, despite not physically needing to. My shoulders and arms became tense so shifting smoothly was difficult. At the same time, I couldn’t hold back the litany of negative thoughts, fear, inadequacy, shame and failure.
It’s a wonder I managed to play anything.
At the time I thought anxiety was something I needed to think my way out of.
What I discovered was more interesting…
Anxiety is not just in the mind
An emotion is not only a thought. It’s accompanied by a facial expression, breathing and a body pattern. These physical aspects create a feedback loop, amplifying a brief thought into something tangible: a sensation, a feeling.
When you’re anxious, what do you do physically?
- Do you tighten your jaw?
- Hold your breath, or does it get more shallow?
- Stiffen your chest?
- Pull your shoulders up or tighten your belly?
Next time you’re anxious, see if you can notice what you do, and where. These responses aren’t wrong. They’re the nervous system keeping you safe. The difficulty comes when they become automatic, or begin to interfere with your life.
Habits of anxiety
Like everything else we do, think and sense, we have habits around emotions too. Some are clear to us. Others become so familiar that we stop noticing them.
You can often see emotional habits physically.
- The person who always wears a little frown.
- Someone who never seems to stop to breathe, inhales and talks simultaneously
- Someone who always looks a little uncomfortable in themselves.
Your habits may be different:
- You might hold your breath.
- Criticise yourself relentlessly.
- Withdraw when things feel difficult.
- Become restless and agitated.
These patterns often become so familiar that we no longer notice them. The first step is learning to become aware of what you’re doing.
Response, not reaction
The goal is not to remove emotions, they all contain useful information, and move us towards action. For example,
- Fear prepares us to protect ourselves.
- Anger prepares us to push away or defend, or that something needs to change.
- Joy and affection open us to connection.
The question is whether we have any choice in how we respond to them. When we’re caught in an emotional spiral, our reactions are automatic. There’s little thinking involved. We’ve all had moments when we’ve been out of control.
We want to respond rather than simply react.
How do you start to find choice instead of compulsion?
Why start from your body?
I start with physicality. Not because thoughts aren’t important, but because it’s easier to change our physical responses than our thoughts. Your breathing, posture, muscular tension are things you can learn to sense directly.
Shift one, and the others shift too. When you can feel your emotional patterns, you can begin to unwind them. Over time, anxiety often becomes easier to recognise, recovery is quicker, and it’s less likely to take over.
Here’s Sarah’s experience after working with me:
“When I was invited to interview for a teaching position, I was horrified and incredibly anxious. As part of the interview I had to play the violin. When I started practising, the old tension patterns returned. My shoulders were up and I could hardly play a note.
Instead of pushing through, I took a step back and listened to my body. Using ideas from Emma’s classes, I could release much of the tension I was holding. Everything seemed easier and my sound improved as my bow arm wasn’t shaking.
As the interview approached, I felt more at ease and became more confident. Most of all, I was enjoying playing again.
The interview went well and I managed to let go of most of the tension that would previously have taken over.”
— Sarah
Working with me on Anxiety
My work combines ideas from the Feldenkrais Method, nervous system regulation, performance experience and practical self-observation. I offer 1-to-1 sessions, or longer courses.
Together we explore:
- breathing and anxiety
- physical habits of fear, tension and stress
- grounding and support
- self-talk and the inner critic
- emotions as whole-body experiences
- attention and awareness
- practical tools for calming the nervous system
- developing your own toolbox for challenging situations
There is no single solution that works for everyone, so together we’ll explore which approaches are most useful for you, Over time, you can learn ways to reduce anxiety, calm your nervous system, unwind habits and become less controlled by fear.
Get in Touch
If anxiety is getting in the way of your performing, work or daily life, I’d be happy to talk through whether this approach might be useful for you.
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