How to Prevent and Release Needless Anxiety: Talk with Dr. Rick Hanson
Channel: Rick Hanson
Date: 2024-04-04

Anxiety is a normal human experience — we all feel anxious or afraid sometimes — but excessive or chronic anxiety can wear us down and be detrimental to our long-term happiness and health. Plus, many of us are anxious about things that we don’t actually need to be anxious about.

In my Wednesday meditation and talk from April 3, I shared some ideas on how to prevent and release needless anxiety.

Some key points that I covered this week are:

- We can feel undisturbed, undefended, and uncontracted in the moment — which is what we meditated on (see the meditation here: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-how-to-prevent-and-release-needless-anxiety/)
- In order to receive the present moment without fear, we have to recognize that the brain is a prediction machine and can be stuck in predictions, especially regarding fear.
- The scientific understanding of how the brain generalizes fear, including the biological and neurological mechanisms involved.
- Strategies for preventing and managing overgeneralized fear, including mindfulness, self-compassion, and self-awareness practices.

I hope you find it helpful. You are welcome to join my free Wednesday Meditations – which are open to everyone - by signing up for free, here: https://rickhanson.com/wednesday-meditations-with-dr-rick-hanson/

You can see the meditation that went along with this talk, here: https://rickhanson.com/meditation-talk-how-to-prevent-and-release-needless-anxiety/