IFS For An Anxious Younger Part

18:58

18:58

IFS For An Anxious Younger Part

Rated

5

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

8

This meditation will help you spend quality time in Self Energy with an Anxious Part. First, you will be guided to find the location in your body. Then feel out how you feel towards it, and if necessary, spend time with a Protector Part. Next, we will flesh out how that part presents in your body. We will then find out and befriend that part. Exploring with curiosity, we will discover when it first started to develop its role. We will find out what it needs from us. We will ask what you think will happen if you don't act your behaviour/job role out? We can keep asking this question again and again, exploring the real route fear/risks associated with it not doing its job. Having found out its raison d'etre we will offer it to unburden some of that difficult job role. Finally, we will reunite with the Protector part and thank and affirm the parts for their love for our system and their hard-fought efforts to help us get through and survive our childhoods.

Internal Family Systems Anxiety Self Compassion Emotional Healing Childhood Trauma Visualization Self Inquiry Empathy Anxiety Management Protectors Chakra Connection Journaling Visualization Technique Unburdening Empathy Practice

Meet your Teacher

Royal Leamington Spa, UK

Meet your Teacher

Royal Leamington Spa, UK

Transcript

Hello dear ones, It's good to spend time with you today and with an anxious part that you're bringing to this meditation. Let's just welcome the anxious part to this time together. Hi anxious part, I'm glad that you are present and I'm looking forward to spending time with you. Just take a moment to feel the location of this anxiety that you're feeling. Maybe put your hand on your heart and take a moment to explore where and how does that anxiety present right now. It might be a tightness in your chest, It might be a churning in your abdomen, In your intestines. It might be somewhere else in the front of your torso, It might be a headache, Migraine. Often the anxiety does present in the brain centres, Which are the intestinal area, Abdomen area, The heart area and the brain. Let's just check in, How are you feeling towards this anxiety that you're aware of? If you're feeling annoyed or pushing away energy or hating the fact that you're always feeling anxious, This is a protector part and it will be necessary to spend time with that protector part. I'm going to demonstrate how you might do that in the here and now. So we'll just turn our attention to that part and say hi there part that wants to push away this anxiety. I hear you and I see you. I know that you're trying to help me. You want to help me be able to get rest and not be always in fight or flight and I totally get that. Maybe this part would prefer that you eat a bag of crisps or go into another addiction, A soothing firefighting technique. Let it know who you are and your age. Hi part, I've been doing work on myself in recovery, In healing recovery for some time now. I'm a grown adult now and I want to say that I'm here to help you. I'm using internal family systems and it's going to really help us and help this anxious part to calm down. But I would need you to step back and trust me. Are you willing to step back and ease a bit? Let me explore the anxious part. At the end I can invite you back protector into the circle. Just take a moment to listen to what it has to say. If it's not willing to step back then it might be right to stop this meditation and try one of my other meditations on working with the protector part. If it is willing to step back, Offer it a place to rest. It could be a place in your imagination that you're already using in these IFS meditations. Offer it to spend time in this place. Thank it for showing up. Thank it for all that it does for you. It's developed this technique to try to help you survive all of your adversity. All our parts are there to help us. They've all got our best interests at heart. They may not be coming from a place that is healthy in the way that they behave to help us. But we didn't come from a healthy place in our relationships and we were forced to develop in ways that weren't healthy. That's why they exist within us. So once this protector part has gone, We're free now to spend time with the anxious anxiety part. Notice how you feel now. Are you curious? Do you have compassion? Have you got some clear space, Some calm energy? Do you feel connected? Keep your hand on your heart. It really helps you connect. I always find it helpful when I'm doing this work to connect with my heart chakra and it helps it to open up. Have you got some courage to look at things today with your anxious part? Are you willing to be creative with the work that we're going to do using your imagination? I hope also you've got a growing confidence in this technique and the way it can really open things up in a profound, Radical way. So let's flesh out this anxiety part. Now we know where it is in the body. Can you take a moment to figure out, Is it hot or cold energy? Is it a tight energy? Is it moving or is it still? Is it frozen? Is it hard? What sort of size is it? Is it like a golf ball, A tennis ball, A football? What colour is it? What kind of texture and substance is it? I do recommend you make notes on your parts in IFS, In an IFS journal. So feel free to draw any images that are coming up for you. So now we've got more of a sense of what this energy, This part, This anxious part is like within our body. Let's introduce ourselves to this part, High part, High anxious part. I'm really curious and I really want to spend time with you. I have compassion for all that you're trying to do for me. I want to thank you for coming forward today and I want to say sorry that in the past I've not been able to spend time with you. I've been too busy or turned to my addictions or other distractions. But I'm really dedicated to listening and hearing you now and being there to help you. I'm an adult now. Let's ask this part how old it thinks it is. And when did it start to have this pattern of anxiety? You can jot in your journal anything this part shares with you. It might be an image of your childhood, A time when you remember the situation, The anxiety you felt becoming overwhelming. Let's share appreciation. I thank you so much for sharing that. I really, Really appreciate how hard that must have been for you. And how lonely that situation must have been for you. You're not on your own anymore. I really want to accompany you. And I wonder what you need right now. What do you need me to do to help you? Take a moment to listen to what it may be sharing with you in terms of its needs. Often these parts need you to slow down and give them attention and love and affirmation. This will help build your self-energy, Your confidence and your courage by attending to your anxious part. Each time you notice it, Please come back to this meditation. It's good to repeat it every day for seven days to start with, Just to ground yourself in this work. Thank this part for explaining to you what it needs and see if you can negotiate to meet its needs. Maybe you can agree to change some of your behaviour. To go a bit more gently, Aware that this part is struggling. Let's take a moment to ask this part, What would it be afraid of if it didn't do the job it's doing? What would this part be afraid of if it didn't do the job that it's trying to do for your system? If it gives you an answer, You can keep questioning it. And if that happened, What would you be afraid would happen? And if that happened, And follow it all the way back, The sequence back. If that happened, What would you be afraid would happen? And if that happened, What would you be afraid would happen? If it's the younger part, Often it's afraid no one's going to like it. It's not going to get attention. It might be afraid it's going to get hit, Or emotionally abused, Or rejected, Or abandoned. Bear in mind that as a child, You needed your parents' attention, Or siblings' attention, Or caregivers' attention in order to survive. Young children cannot survive without the attention and help of their caregivers. So it kind of is a life or death situation for younger parts. And in that context, Can you feel compassion for what a struggle that part is having? Let's just show some empathy for this part. Thank you so much, Part. I can see now. I understand why you do what you do. I really have a heart of compassion, And I also have grief for what you've been through. I'm here now, And I want to help you. And I want to offer to be there and make decisions for our family. And we can unburden this anxiety. Would you like to let go of this anxiety that you feel? See if it's ready to unburden. You can ask if it wants to unburden the whole of this. 75%, 50%, 25%, Or even a smaller part. It might not be ready to unburden. If it isn't, Just continue to spend time with it. You can offer to give it a hug, Or have it sit on your lap if it's young enough, Or sit by your side. Whatever is going to help that part. If this part is willing to unburden, Ask it, Would it like to unburden through fire, Water, Earth, Air, Or light? And once it's chosen its medium, You get to be creative together. Ask this part where in their imagination or a real place they want to unburden all of the anxiety they're holding. They might choose a beach, They might choose a mountain, They might choose a safe garden. Wherever it is, Plan with this part how you're going to unburden. Maybe you're going to kick this ball, Football size, Golf ball size, Marble size. Maybe you're going to dig a hole and bury it. Maybe you're going to sprinkle it into the air and light. Maybe you're going to drop it over a bridge like a poo stick and let it flow down the river. Or throw it over a waterfall like Niagara Falls. And when you're ready, Hold this part's hand and together make that action. You can help this part. You can help with your own hands now. Wherever that point of anxiety is lodged, You can help by just with your hands grabbing it and throwing it out. So just keep grabbing and throwing out. Or if you've decided to kick, Just kick. And keep doing this until you feel the percentage that your part wants to release has been released. Take a big breath with your anxious part. Let's check in and ask the anxious part how they're feeling now. How are you feeling now, Anxious part? Put your hand on that location of the anxiety. Notice, How is it now? I hope there's a feeling of less anxiety present. There's more calm, More reassurance. Thank this part for being so brave. Thank you part, You've been so brave with me and trusted me so much. I've got a protector part that's been resting in my safe place. Would you be willing for that protector part to join us now? If the anxious part says yes, Re-invite your protector. The part that you checked in with earlier on in this meditation. Invite them to come and sit in the healing circle with you and your anxious part. You can take a moment to let the protector meet your anxious part. You'll now have hopefully an age for this part and a bit of history. You can share a bit about this anxious part and why it's been doing what it's doing. The protector part, You can ask to introduce themselves to the anxious part. Maybe you can hold hands or maybe you can have a group hug. Now maybe things make a bit more sense. So you can remind your anxious part and your protector part that wanted to push away this anxiety. That you're part of a family system and you're not going to be lonely anymore. And that you as the adults are going to bring your self energy. And if you struggle with self energy, Keep listening to these meditations. Because you'll learn to tune in to your self energy the more that you take part in all these wonderful IFS meditations. I really encourage you to try different therapists, Different practitioners. And I especially encourage you to listen to Dr. Richard Swartz, The founder of 7 Free Meditations on this channel. Thank you so much for all the hard work and dedication. Just before we end, Please take a moment to acknowledge yourself and your self energy. I see you, I hear you, I'm so grateful. Thank you for being dedicated to your healing system. Thank you for being patient and compassionate. You and your parts are loving, Lovable and loved. See you next time. Go gently.