Seeing Health Anxiety and Hypochondria in New Ways

Overcoming Health Anxiety and Contamination OCD: Practical ERP Strategies for a Calmer Life

By John Glanvill, Author of The Calmness in Mind Process for Overcoming Anxiety, OCD, and Depression

Welcome to video forty-nine, part two in my Calmness in Mind series, where we explore common-sense solutions for your calmer life. In this video, I will detail actions you can take and new perspectives you can try to help lessen the grip health anxiety, hypochondria, and contamination OCD may have on you.

Can you ensure you have watched part one of this video, where I discussed that 4 out of 5 people don’t have health anxiety—therefore, what might we learn from how the calmer 80% live their lives?

I also discussed the common-sense perspective that if our health is important to us (rather than fearing sickness or contamination), then, surely, doing everything we can to enhance our fitness and natural immunity through diet, exercise, placebo, minimising medications—then walking towards our fears to normalise them—is the only sensible path to follow, even if it is initially scary and causes agitation in your body.

The Importance of Embracing Change

And, if you’re not seriously working on those aspects of your life, then you haven’t even begun to recover, as this is the first stage of ERP—exposure to positive wellness rather than negatively fearing illness!

It’s my observation from working with people who have complex anxiety for many years that those with health anxiety seem to have the biggest resistance to change and the greatest ability to sabotage themselves out of action.

I think it is because they rigidly stick to their existing beliefs (even if they are not working well) and look to others for reassurance and decision-making—and this is why my videos teach so many new ways of looking at life to allow you to become more courageous and flexible in how you think and behave.

The Role of Repetition in Exposure Therapy

This is why going back and rewatching all the videos, re-exposing yourself to the content, reading the books I suggest, listening to the audio meditations, and completing the workbooks are crucial to your transformation, and this repetition is the second tier of exposure therapy that I would advise you to embrace.

It’s my experience that people with health anxiety and contamination OCD are not silly, but they are doing silly things, and they need to break those patterns.

I don’t know who said it, but I like the quote, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone!” And that’s the zone you must get closer to and learn how to function within until that discomfort normalises—like the first week in a new job often brings a lot of discomfort, but after a couple of weeks of repetition, it just becomes normal.

Supporting Loved Ones with Health Anxiety

And a note here for any partners, parents, or carers of people with these conditions who are watching these videos because the person with anxiety (that you support) won’t watch them.

I suggest you get tough with them, stop reassuring them, stop driving them around, stop lending them money, stop limiting your life to appease them—negotiate with them, tell them you’ll help them in return for them watching these videos and discussing them with you, try to make them accountable for their own recovery.

The Effort Required for Recovery

Escaping health anxiety or contamination OCD will take a lot of effort, and there is no way to avoid that—it will take a new mindset of courage and determination to facilitate your transition into the type of person who can calmly accept what is, change what is possible, and remove yourself from that which limits your life.

It’s by deeply surrendering to what is, letting go of the Virtual Reality Stories of the brain, and selfishly re-engineering your life to break your old habits of procrastination, fearful worry, excessive checking, cleaning, and researching.

If you could spend 50% of the time you currently waste worrying doing daily ERP routines and learning new ways to be in this world, your life would change radically.

How will it change? Who can know? But surely that is the excitement of life—it’s not knowing (but still trying) where you’ll find adventures, meet people, fall in love, and find the ways you wish to express yourself—not by living your life trapped in your home worrying about everything!

Releasing Trapped Trauma

Another point I want to remind you of is the need to release trapped trauma from your body—because it’s my experience that most people with health anxiety (or contamination OCD) did experience trauma during their childhood or teenage years—whether they consciously remember it or not.

As I have said before—trauma can take many forms: being left alone on your first day of school, being ill as a child, sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, the breakup of a family, a person dying or being in hospital, being in an accident, changing schools, moving country, being frightened by religious stories, parents fighting, or being bullied—there are a million ways we might have become traumatised.

The energy and pain from that trauma gets stuck in your body, as I mentioned in video 9, and it must be released, as I teach in video 15 part 2, not held down and avoided.

You might say that health OCD is a childlike post-traumatic coping strategy developed in your formative years to unconsciously protect you from becoming overwhelmed by the (unresolved) unconscious pain of that old trauma.

Then, as time goes on—you suddenly find yourself as an adult who still has that unresolved traumatic energy stuck in your body, and all it wants to do is come up and be released from you.

But, each time it comes up, you think it’s anxiety and a bad thing—when all along, the release of this stuck energy out through you and the breaking of the associated childish and fearful (SLJs) Seemingly Logical Justifications you use—is the third form of ERP you’ll need to work on.

You’ll achieve this by learning how to sit with the agitation and let it just move through you and out of you—as I also taught in my breathing meditation in video 43—and how are you getting on with that?

Addressing Common Questions from People with Health Anxiety

OK, so let’s dive in.

In preparation for making this video—I asked quite a few people with health anxiety what they thought they wanted from me—and four main themes emerged—which I’d like to share with you.

Question 1: Reassurance and Scientific Facts

The first (and very common) question was: Would I give more reassurance and more scientific facts about the typical things feared, like germs, blood, vomit, and HIV—such as how long can infections, bacteria, or viruses in the blood stay alive (therefore possibly transmissible) outside the body?

And my answer is—NO, I won’t reassure you because only children need reassurance, not adults! Adults take responsibility for optimistically comforting (and tricking) themselves into positive action.

And, concerning looking for the science behind how long germs live and the like—my answer is—it doesn’t matter!

Because I think you are asking the wrong question.

Surely, the first question you should ask is—How might I make my natural immunity as strong as possible so I don’t have to hide from germs and viruses as my body will (in most instances) naturally fight them off—the way nature designed it to function?

I was on holiday last week, and on the plane, Jen sat next to a woman who had a cold; I took a picture of her with her scarf around her head as that other person kept sneezing and coughing!

Of course, a scarf won’t stop any viruses as they are so tiny they even pass through 99.9% of medical masks, though it might appear like you are doing something positive—and sure enough, three days later, Jen developed quite a bad cold. But in her defence, she’s been a little unwell recently and is due to have an operation this week, so her natural immunity may currently be compromised.

But my point is, I didn’t catch that cold from Jen, even though we spent all day with each other throughout the holiday! Why didn’t I catch that cold? Because my natural immunity was strong enough to fend off any attack from her bugs. My natural defences killed off those germs before they had a chance to take hold within me.

I didn’t even expect to catch it—because I’d heavily been placebo-ing myself (as I detailed in video 43)—I’d been saying to my body, “We won’t get this; we can stay healthy”—I silently talked to my body (in my head) and asked it to ramp up T-cell and white blood cell production; I imagined those cells moving to my nose and throat ready to kill off any germs or viruses as they tried to invade me—and I imagined myself continuing to be well.

I’m told that thumping your thymus whilst smiling and saying ha, ha, ha—causes more T-cells to be released; now, I’m not sure if that’s true because I don’t have the equipment to measure it—but still, I do it—especially if others around me are sick or I feel a little peaky just in case it is true—and maybe, just the positive placebo thought might work to some degree?

Now, twenty years ago—if somebody told me something like that, I’d have thought they were mad—but these days, because I now understand how intrinsically linked the mind and body are—how trickable both the unconscious mind and body are—and how crucial natural immunity and optimistic visualisation processes can be for human health—I think it’s mad if you don’t do it!

Building Natural Immunity

So, my first question for you is… Are you fit and healthy? Is your weight under control? Is your biology calm and rested? Is your diet healthy? Do you exercise? Are you looking after yourself?

Do you work 8 hours, play 8 hours, and rest 8 hours? Do you have balance in your life?

Because if not—yet you are afraid of illness or contamination—this doesn’t pass any common-sense test, which once again is childish OCD thinking—rather than a sensible adult strategy.

Acting Courageously in Emergencies

Secondly, I would hope that in an emergency, any person taking this course would step forward to help another person who was seriously injured until medical help could arrive, even if it meant becoming exposed (in some adjacent manner) to blood, vomit, or touching their hands (or head) to assist or comfort that injured or dying person.

To me, this would simply be the most natural and loving thing one human could do for another.

How would you feel if you were wounded and needed help and the only other person near you said, “Sorry, but I can’t help you as you are probably infected with some terrible disease that may infect me and thus restrict my already restricted life!”

And then ran off screaming to take a shower because they were in the vicinity of your blood and felt contaminated in some disgusted manner? Once again, this is what a child might do—especially if they were being triggered by an old (unprocessed) post-traumatic wound.

Can you see your story must change—who you wish to become has to become more desirable than your existing childish OCD, fearful, and avoidant stories?

You must learn to sit with (and accept) all forms of discomfort. Only children get bored or moan and complain—adults suck it up and respond to life’s challenges; they get on with what needs doing—regardless of how it makes them feel.

Shifting from Victim to Possibility

Now, I know I am being blunt—but somebody has to be honest enough to tell you this to help you change your story of yourself from victim to one of possibility.

How is it that some people experience disability and chronic pain yet never complain or let it stop them from fully living their lives? In fact, you might never know they are in discomfort as they never talk about it, and they don’t do drama—I wonder if you might try to do the same?

Can you try, for a week or two, to not complain about anything to anybody? If your joints hurt, don’t say ooh or arrgh as you stand up—just move silently (even if it hurts) because complaining is just your ego trying to get attention from another person, which, once again, is what an eight-year-old does.

Inconsistencies in Contamination Fears

I also think it is quite ironic that so many people with contamination fears often have pets who sleep in their beds or lick their hands—or they pick up their mess when out on a walk. Yet, they themselves worry about using a public toilet, a dustbin, or stepping on a discarded plaster.

OCD can be ridiculously picky and take you down specific rabbit holes that never make sense when viewed from a holistic (or sensible) perspective.

Think about it—assuming blood got on you but didn’t go directly into your mouth or eyes, and assuming you don’t have any gaping wounds on your hands (from overwashing them)—it doesn’t matter how long any germs or viruses live in that blood (if, indeed there are any, which is quite unlikely anyway!) I mean, how many people do you know who have HIV, or Hepatitis?

Can you see it’s possible to see things quite differently—especially if you wish to engage with life rather than continually running from it?

Moving Beyond Scientific Reassurance

It took me two decades to comprehend the last aspect of this question (which pertains to the science). I used to search for facts and all the scientific reasoning behind everything, believing that understanding it would help me control life and be safe. However, what I eventually realised was when it comes to psychology and biology, they can only be described as pseudo-sciences at best.

Why is it that one medicine may work on one person but not on another? Surely science is repeatable?

Why is it that thinking positively (which we call placebo) can be 40% effective in helping the body to fix itself? Yet scientific people won’t do it because science can’t tell them how it works (only that it works), and they often feel silly doing it!

Why do our doctors tell us all the things that could go wrong (which is an effective nocebo) rather than all the things that could go right (which is an effective placebo)?

And as I said—though science can prove that placebo works—so few doctors use it or teach it!

We really are living in an upside-down world where common sense is sadly hard to find, yet once found, it can be very productive and effective.

It will be by NOT following the science that you’ll be more able to modify your physical, biological, and mental health—modern science often gets in the way—because it’s so often manipulated, funded, and distorted by big pharma, medical institutions, and our food industries to serve their agendas.

And, if you don’t believe me, I’ve put some links in the notes section of this video to some documentaries I think are worth watching, which may reveal to you the depth of how you may have been unconsciously programmed to live in fear and metabolic ill health to remain a source of revenue to large corporations which often influence our governments to make decisions (about our lives) in their favour.

But don’t just blindly believe me (or even your doctors)—I say, open your mind, stop your rigid thinking, and do some research into what I am saying.

Question 2: Specific Examples for Managing Fear

The second question I was asked was… Can you give more specific examples of what to say and do to manage fear and retrain the brain?

Now, that is a great question, and I will give examples later in this video; then, next month, I will produce a series of short animations demonstrating how to go even deeper into using ERP effectively in many different scenarios.

Question 3: Differences from Medical Advice

The third question was… Why is what you teach so different from what my doctors tell me—and why are they so pessimistic about recovery and seem to do a lot of negative scaremongering?

Well, I can’t answer that question as I am not a doctor—but I would refer you back to my last answer and advise you to watch those documentaries.

But, what I can say is—my doctors couldn’t help me escape my anxiety and OCD, but what I am teaching is helping many doctors to overcome their anxiety and OCD! As I said, this is an upside-down world—and sometimes, common sense indicates that we may need to do the opposite of what the science suggests, no matter how unconventional it may seem.

Question 4: Making Death and Illness Less Scary

And the fourth most commonly asked question was… How can I make the concepts of death and illness less scary or see them differently?

Now, this one is both simple and tricky at the same time—and the most straightforward model I can give you is… If you believe in some higher power, why can’t you just completely surrender to God or the Universe and trust that it will protect you until it’s time for your transition to your next adventure—I have found the power of faith, trust, or a more spiritual connection can be quite liberating.

And, if you don’t think anything happens after death, it would make sense to grab this life with both hands (if this is all there is)—so, why not hedonistically experience all you can before you are gone forever?

Now, I know this sounds blunt and simplistic—but could you think about living your life in one of those ways just long enough to break your OCD patterns and rewire your brain?

Do you remember from video 32, part 1—where I asked you to stop sitting on the fence and decide what you think happens when you die—because making that decision will guide you in how to live your life now?

Once again, have you watched it, and did you do that homework? Which option did you pick? I also discussed how I try to handle my unavoidable death in videos 24, 37, and various other ones too.

Now, another childish, upside-down facet of health anxiety is the person fearing the loss of their own life (or that of a loved one) to the degree that all their drama (while they are alive) and restrictive behaviours—ruin (or limit) the pleasure and quality of both lives!

Whereas an adult perspective would be to try and make your life as pleasurable as possible and to make your role in their life pleasurable, too, by not moaning, complaining, or doing drama—and both parties engaging with life more courageously.

Four Ways to Reduce Fear of Illness

And I can imagine four ways of making fearing illness less scary.

1. Get fit and healthy to minimise your chances of getting ill.

2. Focus more on enjoying your life between any bouts of illness rather than spending all day worrying about getting ill.

3. Foster a more loving attitude stating that no matter my health condition, I will still love myself and live as optimistically and joyfully as possible.

4. And finally, good old-fashioned ERP, where you desensitise the body and reprogram the brain from pessimism to optimism—which is what most of this course is about.

I know a man, who after thirty years of living with health anxiety and worry, was diagnosed with cancer. However, he surprised everybody (and himself) by accepting it rather than fighting it; he immediately modified his diet and began to do visualisation exercises and intense placebo.

Then, during his many weeks of radiotherapy—he told me—he made it his conscious mission to be polite, cheerful, and optimistic (no matter how he truly felt) so all the medical teams and people around him always had a calm and positive experience of him (and with him).

Now, I think that’s amazing—after thirty years of being well (yet worrying) when something terrible did happen, he has handled it with dignity and courage.

Now, that’s truly heroic, regardless of what might ultimately happen—and so my question to you is—how might you take a leaf from his book and start living that courageous way now, whilst you are well?

Addressing Excessive Washing and Cleaning

OK then, let’s jump into the core of this video, and I’ll start by talking about excessive hand washing and showering, which is often a large part of these conditions.

And, if you are thinking, that’s not me, I don’t wash my hands for 2 hours—remember, you probably do something else for 2 hours, like researching, checking yourself, procrastinating, or avoiding things—it’s all OCD, no matter how it manifests itself.

So, my first comment is this—no amount of washing and showering will get you clean—because your skin is already clean enough after 20 seconds or so, of washing it!

What you are trying to wash off is a feeling—and good luck with that, because a feeling is just a chemical reaction inside your body driven by the stories your brain is running—or trapped trauma trying to distract you from your past traumatic pain, which is called TMS, Tension Myoneural Syndrome, which I detailed in video 12 and which you would be crazy to ignore!

We remove that inner feeling of guilt, shame, lack, dirtiness, rejection, contamination, or whatever you have labelled it—not through external washing but through the mind and body trauma release meditations I teach in this course (especially video 15 part 2 and my meditation audio number 4)—and through forgiveness, increasing your self-esteem, and letting go of the negative stories of your past.

Your past does not define your future—it’s what actions to take in this moment called now that will influence what happens in your future—and if you’re not doing new things in new ways right now, your life will remain the same.

The Flaw of Ritualistic Cleaning

Now, when I ask people (who need to keep washing themselves—or cleaning inanimate objects like clothes and bathrooms) how do you know when you (or it) are clean enough? They always give me the same two answers…

It’s either—when I FEEL clean—or after I have followed a ritual through to its end, like a certain number of repetitions or a specific time limit—but even that can be overwritten if they still don’t ‘feel clean’ enough at the end of that ritual or get it wrong.

Well, obviously, both those strategies are flawed—because how does a feeling know if you are clean, or why does washing your body while you count down from 500 make you clean, but counting from 250 doesn’t?

Looking for the sensation of ‘clean enough’ is an OCD trap—because—there is no such thing!—It’s a trick—It’s just your OCD’s way of keeping you stuck.

If you need a sensible starting boundary—surgeons wash their hands for less than 5 minutes before surgery, and during the pandemic, we were advised to wash our hands for 20 seconds!

So, initially, until you can commit to doing the repetitive ERP to terminate this fear—I would say wash your hands for between 20 seconds and 5 minutes at most.

If a surgeon’s hands are clean enough after 5 minutes—then yours will be too!

You must change washing to be a standard process, not a thing you do until an arbitrary feeling goes away—because that’s just a trap from your OCD thoughts and hyper-sensitive feelings.

Plus, if you are washing your hands until they crack and bleed—you are inviting infection in by breaking the natural defence offered by your skin—so it doesn’t pass any common-sense test either.

My Personal Hygiene Practices

One question I am asked a lot is—how do I wash my hands or for how long do I shower—so let me share with you what I do.

I am not saying what you should do—I am just telling you what a person who has spent 20 years researching wellness and natural immunity does.

I wash my hands for about 10 to 15 seconds by very rigorously rubbing them together under running water—I do this after entering my home from being in public places like supermarkets, using the bathroom, or before cooking.

And 9 times out of 10—I don’t use soap or detergents—just water—unless my hands are greasy or covered in mud—I then dry my hands on my own bathroom towel—or if I use the kitchen sink, I dry them with a sheet of kitchen paper.

I only use a scrubbing brush if visible dirt is stuck under my nails.

I shower most mornings for 3 or 4 minutes, and over the last year, I have been minimising the use of soap; because I don’t want to use it on my body, head, back, stomach, arms, or legs.

I’ve decided to avoid using soaps or strong detergents because my skin is home to a huge and diverse range of bacterial micro-biomes—some of which are very good for my natural immunity and some of which are bad and might try to feed from me parasitically.

So, my common-sense thinking is—to not kill off all my good micro-biome, so I avoid harsh chemicals and try to keep anti-bacterial sprays off my skin and not breathe in the harsh fumes from cleaning chemicals.

My strategy is—that by just using water, I’ll keep enough of the good ones alive on my skin for my well-being, and the remaining few bad ones will keep my natural immunity strong by my being exposed to them, but not overwhelmed by them.

If I had hair, I would use a very mild shampoo and wash my hair over the sink so the soap suds wouldn’t go all over my body—remember, our skin is the largest organ in the body, and it’s porous—and personally, I don’t want those chemicals going into me!

Can you see how my regime might sound crazy to you—whilst your regime might sound crazy to me—but I am looking for natural immunity, a strong skin protection barrier, and limited ingression of chemicals into my body so it remains healthy and able to fight whatever pathogens life throws at me as I am out and about enjoying life!

I’m not looking for an arbitrary sensation that ‘I Feel Clean’ I am just following a simple process each day, regardless of my thoughts and feelings.

Enhancing Immunity Through Lifestyle

Every other day, I shower with cold water to shock my cardiovascular system to ensure flexibility in the structural walls of my veins and arteries. Plus, I ERP myself by walking into that cold shower without flinching or making any noise—my body wants to tense up, but I keep it relaxed, then bravely (and silently) step in and accept the discomfort.

Though we can’t fully control the body, it is possible (for short periods of time) to consciously override many of its unconscious responses—until, with repetition, they become the new unconscious program that runs, which, of course, is what ERP is all about!

I do this because I wish to be able to detach from how my body feels and what my brain says—I consciously wish to have control of my intentions in each moment, regardless of what my little horsey and childish brain may be complaining about.

I never use hand sanitiser as I don’t want unfamiliar chemicals on my body—and I am (these days) brave enough to say no—even if someone tries to pressurise me into using it.

And have you noticed that people who are always cleaning themselves and avoiding busy places tend to catch every cold, flu, or bug going around?

I think it’s possible that some individuals may have unintentionally weakened their natural immunity by over-cleaning and avoiding common areas where the most current natural viral and bacterial pathogens exist. Ironically, exposure to those pathogens would otherwise help keep their natural immunity up-to-date, strong, and effective.

And because I take my natural immunity so very seriously, I chose not to be vaccinated—until I can be sure of the long-term safety of this new and relatively untested procedure—as I don’t want to accidentally compromise all the natural work I’ve put into developing my immunity.

Other things I do towards enhancing my robust immunity include—most of my life, I am barefoot (in my house and garden) as I think there are many health benefits to grounding. I wear shorts all year around, so in the winter my legs get shocked in the cold, like in the cold shower, and it also allows what little sunlight is available in winter to access my skin.

And for the last 8 months, I’ve expanded my Ketogenic diet to the carnivore diet—whereby my aim is to primarily eat meat and dairy products with just a few vegetables, no fruit, and minimal carbs and sugar.

Once again, I am not telling you what to do, but I am sharing what I found to be both surprising and incredible from my experiential research of trying things that others won’t because their brains might say, “That’s silly!”

However, at 59 years old, my weight now is the same as when I was in my twenties; I only require two meals a day, I rarely feel hungry, I have lots of energy, and a clear and fast brain.

If you are interested in this—I did a blog post about my diet in the course—and though it may sound mad—it has absolutely amazed me!

Interestingly, the carnivore diet doesn’t agree with Jen’s biology—though she can fully understand why I am following it as it seems to minimise metabolic and neurological illnesses.

Like I said before we are all different and you need to try things out to see what works for you.

I think the role of diet in overcoming anxiety and emotional well-being should not be underestimated, and it may be that the diet you follow, though important to you—might not actually be effective for you.

Certainly, I highly recommend abstaining from fruits, carbohydrates, and sugars for a period of 60 days as studies have shown that sugars may contribute to metabolic ill-health and hyperglycemia, which are often underlying causes of anxiety—So, give it a try and see what happens.

The Trap of Negative Storytelling

Last week, on an aeroplane, the woman sitting next to me told me her life story. She was clearly a hypochondriac, and she seemed to enjoy telling me all the stories about her various health maladies (though I found it rather self-absorbed and boring)—she also told me that her adult daughter had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and how dreadful that was.

I said to her that I had recently watched a video about very favourable results (that seemingly halted the progression of MS) that had been measured in those who had switched to a strict diet of beef, water, and salt—and I could email the video so she could pass it to her daughter.

And, she replied, “Oh, there’s no need as she loves her food too much, she would never cut out carbs and sugars, and what can you really do about a disease like that anyway?” Then, she continued to tell me about her exhausting fibromyalgia.

But, my point is, if it were me, I’d try anything and everything, firstly to avoid it developing it in the first place through my healthy and unstressed body, and, secondly, I would try any potential remedy, regardless of how it might impact the convenience of my life—and even if my brain was telling me it wouldn’t work, because how would my brain know until I had tried?

And the reason I am telling you this is because—you must change your negative story of having health anxiety (the fear of getting ill or continuously focusing on what might be wrong with you) to a positive story of Health Resilience.

Embracing Health Resilience

Health Resilience is the kind and loving art of accepting and positively being in love with yourself and your body and generating the most optimistic and favourable psychological, biological, physical, and chemical environment within you and externally around you—so you can live life and not avoid it.

Breaking the Checking Addiction

Now, another big problem with health anxiety is the constant checking of your body to see what’s going on inside of it and how you feel about it—now, this addiction needs to be broken and replaced with a new one.

And, to give you a model that will help, I’d like to refer you back to video 28, where I introduced you to the Myers-Briggs personality profiling process and, in particular, the role of emotional stacks, which detail how each personality type tends to operate emotionally and what their bodies emotional default settings tend to be?

Now, one pattern that jumps off the page (to me) is that if Introverted Sensing, Introverted Feeling, or Extroverted Feeling are in the top few positions of their profile—then that person is more likely to fall foul of health anxiety rather than any other type of anxiety.

I think this is because—it’s their brain’s predisposition to keep sensing what is happening within the body and checking how it feels about emotions and sensations in each moment—which, of course, may easily lead to an obsession with checking and worrying about those overly monitored internal sensations and feelings.

Though this may be a default setting—it can be changed just by knowing this fact and ERP-ing the brain to an alternative perspective.

Practical ERP Exercise: Shifting Awareness

Let me give you an example—if you catch yourself checking sensations within your body—try to consciously move your awareness to extroverted sensing by scanning things outside of you—what is the air temperature in the room? Are there any external noises? What are other people doing? What tasks do you have to get on with?

Then, accept the discomfort of the OCD trying to pull you back into that old checking routine—this is a great example of ERP in action.

Try this: put your hands up like this, then close your eyes and listen to me—(((slowly))) place your attention (your awareness) on your hands and see how they feel.

Don’t think about anything—focus on your hands and feel any sensations in them.

And what you’ll find is that one hand will feel bigger or has a larger sensation of pressure than the other…

And, whichever hand feels more reactive—just focus on that hand.

Then, with your mind, try to make that sensation throb or increase (or expand in pressure) and size…

Then—will that sensation to move from your hand down towards your wrist—or up out to your fingertips? (((Pause)))

Perhaps, even pause this video and play around with observing and interacting with these sensations.

OK—open your eyes.

So, what do those sensations mean? Well, they mean ABSOLUTELY, BLOODY, NOTHING!

Wherever your awareness goes, energy flows, matter becomes energised, and the sensation in that area grows—it’s just how nature works.

All it means is—you energised that part of your biology by focussing on it—like if you stare at your sleeping dog, he’ll open its eyes and look at you—or if you look at the back of a person’s head, they’ll often turn around and look directly at you.

We are energetic creatures living in an energetic world, and it’s my guess we are not designed to monitor every sensation within our body.

Think about it: should you be feeling and sensing every change in heartbeat, every release of each hormone? I don’t think so; equally, we shouldn’t have to feel our food being digested or our blood pumping around us.

What happens within us is automatic and 99% of the time, none of our conscious business—because it’s all unconscious and natural—and we need to get out of its way and trust our natural biology to do what it naturally does, which is keep us well—if we let it!

We were designed to focus on what is happening outside of us—our job is to make the outside environment and our conscious thoughts and attitudes as positive and optimal as possible—thus lessening our internal stress.

I hope this is making sense.

Desensitisation Through Walking Meditation

In video 23, I introduced you to my desensitisation walking meditation. The purpose of this exercise is to help you learn how to ignore the thoughts of your hyper-vigilant protection-focused brain and its associated hyper-sensitive bodily responses.

To do this, you walk around busy areas wearing noise-cancelling headphones and intentionally avoid making direct eye contact with people, shop windows, or anything else that might catch your attention.

Though a bit weird and scary initially (with repetition), it trains your brain to be less overly vigilant and more accepting of feeling out of control, which in turn reduces the anxiety and stress on your body.

And have you tried this yet? And if not, listen to any excuses your scared, childish little 8-year-old might offer—then ignore them and go do it (as a brave adult might).

Becoming decisive doesn’t mean you know what the right decision is—and being brave doesn’t mean you don’t feel scared—but they do mean you get on with facing life rather than hiding from it.

If a person has a very serious injury, often they are placed in a medically induced coma—and guess what, they are not consciously there to worry and stress, which allows the body to repair itself much faster!

You must learn to trust your body and do the best for it by working on the outside world to make it as loving, happy, engaging, creative, and calm as possible—your body will love you for doing that, and it will recharge and energetically come back online—just as nature intended!

Positive Self-Talk for ERP

Now, if you need some conscious verbiage to use to overwrite your negative, unconscious, fearful dialogue—I would suggest phrases such as:

“I will always walk towards my fears with optimism and trust.” “If others can do this, so can I.” “This ridiculous and childish behaviour ends now.” “Cleanliness is a process not a feeling.” “My rider can be calm, though my horse is scared.” Or my favourite phrase, “I surrender to this as it is out of my control!”

The “Bring It On” ERP Technique

Or perhaps try my favourite method of ERP—which is the “Bring it on” technique, which I detailed in video 18—and have you mastered it yet?

Where quite simply, you consciously ask your unconscious for MORE anxiety; you ask it to release more adrenalin, and you consciously request to have more random intrusive thoughts—though you don’t try to change them or analyse them—just become intrigued by what your OCD throws at you, watch them, accept them, and give no meaning to them.

You do this in order to learn how to be comfortable with that agitation; it’s only a strong feeling—plus, the anxiety in that moment will be following your commands rather than you trying to avoid them—the roles become reversed, and you become empowered.

So, as your anxiety starts to arise, you sit down, sag your body, and place your attention on wherever you feel the discomfort.

Let’s say your heart is racing, so that is where you place your awareness—stay out of the stories because if your attention is on what your brain is saying, then it’s not on what your heart is doing.

Or if you are placing your awareness on the brain’s thoughts—then don’t focus on the body’s feelings—keep your awareness on one or the other—but not both.

Remember, you are honing the skill of being able to (as the observer) consciously keep your awareness in one place—regardless of what your unconscious is saying and regardless of what your body is doing.

Let’s say your attention is on your heart racing, so what you do, with gentleness, love, and care, is say… (and out loud is best.)

“Come on, anxiety, is that the best you can do? Feels like about 100 beats per minute; I’d like more, perhaps take me up to 120?”

“Come on, you started this; at least do a good job. I want more; I demand more!”

Now a couple of things to be aware of as you do this. Firstly, don’t be angry at yourself or aggressive; be calm and playful, and gently tease your unconscious self.

“Come on, is that the best you can do? Really, you expect that to scare me? Sweaty hands, these are not sweaty enough; come on, I want more. Trembling, I laugh at your attempts to make me tremble. Come on, really, make me shake.

“Call that an intrusive thought—you can do better than that; come on, get creative; in fact, I challenge you to offer me a positive thought.”

See what I am doing? Lovingly, playfully, goading and challenging, but always done with a soft, calm, and gentle voice.

And secondly, these sensations often do increase because you have energised them with your attention (as I showed you earlier) and because your unconscious blindly listens to what you consciously say.

And if they increase, you accept it—then calmly ask for more!

The rider is no longer scared of whatever is happening to the horse! The rider is more interested in how to get that nervous horse back out into the real world, to live a real life.

Reprogramming the Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Now, I won’t go deeper explaining that process as it’s detailed in video 18—along with how to retrain the brain’s Reticular Activating System it’s RAS—which is how you reprogram the brain to stop it from looking for that which is negative and fearful into automatically becoming aware of everything around you that is optimistic and positive.

I can’t stress enough how important Reprogramming your RAS is—it’s an absolute game changer—and once again, did you watch that video? And are you daily doing the RAS brain training routines?

It’s not knowing this stuff that makes it work; it’s applying this knowledge with intense repetition until it becomes the new unconscious program that runs in your head—that makes it work.

Making Broader Life Changes

You must recognise that your anxiety won’t go away until you learn new skills and make the appropriate changes to your life, like moving away from controlling parents, leaving an abusive relationship, learning how to be your true self in an existing relationship, getting a job, changing your job to one you might like, becoming more dominant and playful, becoming more comfortable travelling, finding your voice—and breaking free (where possible) from any state, company, or parental (incapacity) welfare benefits so that you can be more self-reliant.

Reversing Negative ERP

Now, if we jump back to ERP—it’s just a process—think about it—there was a time before you had these issues, then something happened, you developed your anxiety, and now you are living with it. That was just a process, and that process can be reversed and, by doing so, will rewire your brain and desensitise your body.

When you were younger, you probably didn’t mind touching the kitchen bin; however, at some point, something happened that made you scared of it. You hated feeling that fear, so your brain started imagining all the bad things the bin might bring, which made you even more anxious. These negative thoughts moved the bin into your amygdala’s unsafe database, which triggered your sympathetic fear response in your body to warn you.

As a result, you started avoiding the bin and looking for ways to calm yourself down, such as washing and cleaning. Over time, these patterns became increasingly ingrained in your amygdala’s unsafe database and flooded your body with stress chemicals each time you were close to the bin or thought about it—as I mentioned in video 8.

You had unknowingly caused yourself to transition from a state of normal calmness to one of anxiety through Negative ERP—but it is possible to reverse this process with Positive Exposure Therapy!

Detaching from Thoughts and Feelings

It’s the same with checking your body to see how it feels or checking to see if anything is wrong, or thinking that unless you think about a certain thing, something bad will happen to you—there was that time before it started when you didn’t have it—therefore it’s only an unconscious habit that feels real—but it’s not!

Consider this… If you could consciously ignore your unconscious thoughts, and if, no matter what emotions you experienced (in your body), you could detach from and accept those feelings and let them pass through you—and if you could stop caring what others thought about you—you’d be able to do almost anything!

But, actually, this is probably your biggest problem: What would you do if you could do anything? And how do you move towards becoming that person (and doing those things) from the exhausted and fearful life you are currently living?

Typically, people who function at an average to high level tend to prioritise taking action towards improving their lives regardless of any discomfort—whereas those with health anxiety seem to think they have to manage their thoughts and emotions before progressing, which is just another OCD trap.

Your feelings and thoughts must be recalibrated by exposing yourself to the life you wish to live and your conscious thinking moving to a more optimistic mindset as you do this.

Challenging Contamination Fears

Let me give you an extreme example: I often hear from people with contamination OCD who deeply believe that inanimate objects (or people) might contaminate them and thus devastate their already devastated lives!

Though, in truth, they can’t really tell you what that contamination is—as it is only a feeling, not a reality!

You know the discarded plaster on the floor probably didn’t come from someone with HIV! And how likely are you to touch it in a way that it might enter your body anyway?

And even if you did touch it, how long could that virus survive on that discarded plaster?

And even if it did survive, would there be enough density of virus to overwhelm your natural immunity—assuming it was even ingested into your body, which is highly unlikely?

And is your current natural immunity in tip-top condition by not worrying, sleeping well, eating well, and you consistently exposing yourself to life and all its pathogens, as I mentioned earlier—to protect you against that very occurrence?

And even if you did catch HIV, did you know that the antiviral drugs now give you a pretty normal lifespan and under a normal viral load, it wouldn’t even be transmissible from you? So, it probably isn’t transmissible from that plaster into you either!

This is just your OCD making a mountain out of a molehill—and it is very possible to choose to no longer engage with your OCD’s childish games.

Addressing Underlying Causes

It’s also good sometimes to remind yourself that your anxiety or OCD is a symptom—and all the time you are focused on the symptom, you are not addressing the underlying causes—and if you can address the underlying causes of anxiety, your symptoms usually diminish.

And the most common underlying causes of anxiety are covered in videos 2 through 9—so you might want to revisit them to remind yourself.

How you are currently thinking and behaving is making you fearful, exhausted, and doubtful, which detaches you from life, connection, travel, and fun—and this will make you feel sad, lonely, and angry—though you may have many SLJs Seemingly Logical Justifications that you use to justify keeping yourself stuck and avoiding facing reality.

At one level, there is nothing wrong with you except for the excessive over-use of your brain and central nervous system, some trapped trauma, a few maladapted life skills, some self-esteem and confidence issues, probably some overly restrictive family responsibilities, a greater fear of dying than living, unfulfilled creative potential, repressed dominance, and the restricted ability to playfully dance with life and take it less seriously.

And tell me if that’s not true!

Key Questions for Recovery

The primary question you must ask yourself is… Am I ready to do this? Do I desire it enough? And will I make the time available to do the work?

The next question is—will somebody around you try to pull you back? Will you, moving on with your life, leave another person stranded and alone in theirs?

And the final question you need to ask yourself is… Is my anxiety serving a purpose by offering me a secondary gain?

And by secondary gain, I am referring to external factors that are only available to you all the time that your debilitating anxiety remains in place.

For example, if you recovered, you might lose welfare payments or housing benefits, meaning you’d need to get a job—or a better job that paid more.

And if the concept of getting a job is scarier than the anxiety you’re already familiar with—you might struggle to unconsciously drop the anxiety until you have retrained or worked on your confidence and self-esteem, which, once again, is what this course is teaching you.

I hope that makes sense.

Conclusion

OK, lots to think about as you pull yourself out from identifying with the content of your anxiety and begin to change the context you see it from—and begin to observe life from the new perspectives of health resilience, natural immunity, and walking towards your fears, rather than avoiding them.

Thank you all for watching, and I’ll get on with making those ERP animations.