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You are sitting at your desk, or maybe you are driving home. Out of nowhere, your throat gets tight. Your shoulders move up toward your ears. Your mind starts spinning. You begin to replay a conversation from this morning, or you start worrying about a meeting tomorrow. Within three minutes, you are planning for a disaster that has not happened yet.
Do you know that feeling?
Most people think this is a thinking problem. They believe they just have an overactive mind. They try to argue with the thoughts. They try to think positive thoughts to cancel out the bad ones.
It does not work. You cannot fight the mind with the mind.
What is actually happening is much simpler. Your body felt a sensation first. Maybe it was a sudden drop in your energy, or a reaction to a loud noise, or just physical exhaustion. Your brain, which is always looking for reasons, felt that physical tension and decided to write a scary story about it.
Your brain takes you to the past and the future. Your present brings you home.
When you try to fix a physical panic with mental arguments, you are trying to solve the wrong problem. The mind is not always your friend. The monkey mind wants you to give up right when you are closest. It wants to keep you busy with fake emergencies so you do not have to feel what is actually happening in your physical frame.
Most people try to push through. They drink another coffee. They scroll on their phone for twenty minutes to distract themselves. Or they tell themselves they will deal with it during their scheduled therapy slot next Thursday.
That is too late.
The moment the pain comes up is the moment to work on it. Not next week. Do it at the moment the pain comes up. If you know how, it is flawless and easy.
You have to change the story to change the feeling. But to change the story, you have to go through the body first.
Here is what actually helps. It is a simple three-step physical check. You can do it in thirty seconds, right where you are sitting.
First, drop your jaw. Let your mouth hang slightly open. We hold massive amounts of tension in the jaw, which signals to the brain that we are under attack. Drop it.
Second, look at the physical room you are in. Name three things you can see that are blue or green. This forces your eyes to change focus from the internal screen of your mind back to the physical reality around you.
Third, place one hand on your chest and one hand on your belly. Breathe so that only the hand on your belly moves.
This is not about relaxation. This is about safety. You are telling your nervous system that there is no tiger in the room. You are bringing more consciousness, more respect, more love, more patience, more connection to your physical self.
I worked with a man named Marcus. He was a business owner who lived in a constant state of mental loops. He came to me because he could not sleep. He was spending three hours every night running scenarios in his head about his business failing. He was exhausted.
We did not analyze his childhood business fears for six months. Healing does not have to take long. And it does not require suffering. A lot of doctors and healers say months and years of bullshit. It's just not true.
I taught him to catch the physical tightness in his chest the exact second it started during his workday. Instead of opening a new spreadsheet to fix the anxiety, he would stop, put his feet flat on the floor, and breathe into his belly for sixty seconds.
He changed the physical story. The mental loop stopped on its own. One and a half hours with me and people walk out feeling liberated. Marcus stopped his night loops within two weeks because he stopped letting his mind run his body.
The emptiness you feel when the loop starts is real. Find where it comes from. Give yourself what you tried to fill it with. Usually, it is just a need for safety and presence.
Which one hits closest for you? Tell me in the comments.
DM me the word BLUEPRINT on my Instagram (@chenzo.holistic.coaching) and I will send you The New Life Blueprint mini course.
<h3>Listen to The Purpose Path Podcast</h3><div style="position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UQMreB557H4" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:12px;" allowfullscreen loading="lazy"></iframe></div>
More episodes and free resources: <a href="https://www.chenzoholisticcoaching.com/en/the-purpose-path-podcast">The Purpose Path Podcast</a> and <a href="https://www.chenzoholisticcoaching.com">chenzoholisticcoaching.com</a>.
With love, Chenzo Holistic Coaching Founder of The Purpose Path Podcast

You are sitting at your desk, or maybe you are driving home. Out of nowhere, your throat gets tight. Your shoulders move up toward your ears. Your mind starts s

The moment your throat tightens at three in the afternoon

Read essays on somatic healing, emotional trauma, sensitivity, and finding purpose. Written by Chenzo, holistic coach, empathic healer, tarot reader, and founder of The Purpose Path Podcast. New posts weekly.


Chenzo Holistic Coaching Blog: Somatic Healing, Sensitivity & Purpose

Read essays on somatic healing, emotional trauma, sensitivity, and finding purpose. Written by Chenzo, holistic coach, empathic healer, tarot reader, and founder of The Purpose Path Podcast. New posts weekly.

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The moment your throat tightens at three in the afternoon

The moment your throat tightens at three in the afternoon

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