Ep.13: Managing Anxiety In Sobriety Using Rain Mindfulness

Do you use drinking to shut off your mind? Do you use drinking as a coping mechanism to push away your feelings? Many women, just like you, who drink have underlying anxiety issues they might be coping with, and they use drinking to make those feelings go away.   Anxiety is the number one side effect from drinking. If you drink often, you may have anxiety more deeply and more pronounced than you would have otherwise.   Jessica Foody and I are discussing anxiety and the tools to cope with anxiety that you can take away and implement in your life.    Jessica is a registered nurse, a recovery coach, and a She Recovers signature coach. Her expertise is in working with women who struggle, both with addiction and with anxiety. She helps women not only drink less, but transform their relationship with anxiety.   Jessica shares her favorite mindfulness techniques and how to unconditionally love and accept yourself, anxiety and all. Jessica believes that recovery is the return to the joy of living.   In this episode, you’ll learn about a Buddhist mindfulness technique that can help you work with any difficult emotion for anxiety. This technique is called the Rain technique. The rain technique can be used either in formal meditation practice or when a strong emotion is coming up.   Rain stands for RECOGNIZE, ALLOW, INVESTIGATE and NURTURE.   RECOGNIZE - Recognize what you’re feeling. With anxiety, this can be something that you are very attuned to and are very good at recognizing it.   ALLOW - Allowing your anxiety to be here just as it is. The more you resist something, the more you’re trying to get rid of it, the more you’re trying to push it away, it actually gets stronger, it gets bigger. You can't push away feelings, you can't get rid of feelings outside of numbing. So when you allow your anxiety to be here, just as it is, it's like you give your anxiety space to breathe.   INVESTIGATE - Investigate your body. Investigate with kindness. Get out of your head and get into your heart. Ask yourself, what's happening with me right now, where am I feeling this anxiety? Is there a tightness in my chest? Is my back getting tense? Step out of the mind and actually be in your body and sometimes taking a few deep breaths can really help because something that makes anxiety worse is the more you think about your anxious thoughts the worse it gets.   NURTURE - You embrace yourself with love and compassion, and you provide that comfort to yourself. You’re allowing our anxiety to be here, but you need that comfort. Be kind to yourself, especially when you’re hurting.   If you’re looking for tools to help you cope with your anxiety, listen to this episode. Show notes: https://hellosomedaycoaching.com/13/ Links and Resources Mentioned   Connect with Jessica Foody Website: Jessicafoody.com   Connect with Casey McGuire Davidson www.hellosomedaycoaching.com Casey @ Hello Someday Coaching (@caseymdavidson) Get The Free Sober Girl’s Guide to Quitting Drinking – 30 Tips For your First 30 Days Listen to more podcast episodes to drink less + live more.   Tara Brach www.tarabrach.com Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN