When Anxiety Becomes Story

Anxiety often begins in the body—a tightness in the chest, heaviness in the stomach, tension in the shoulders, or a vague sense of foreboding.

But for most of us that energy is almost instantaneously hi-jacked by the mind. We rush to explain it, solve it, or make it go away.

More often than not, the stories we create inflict far more suffering than the anxiety itself.

Today I learned a simple practice from an Instagram creator, Yang mun, that helped me interrupt the cycle the moment I noticed anxiety rising.

It's super simple. Just count down:

5...
4...
3...
2...
1...

Use each number as a stepping stone back to the body, back to the breath, back to what's actually happening in the present moment.

The invitation is not to force anxiety away, but to stay present with the experience of it instead of getting swept away in the mental torrent.

And that shift—from projecting, suppressing and rationalizing to Presence? That shift is the doorway to peace and wholeness.