Calming Anxiety: Develop A Strong Resilient Mind - by Lynn Fraser

COURSE

Calming Anxiety: Develop A Strong Resilient Mind

With Lynn Fraser

Learn tools to develop a healthy, strong, resilient mind and body. Topics include: the root causes of anxiety; how anxiety shows up in our body, breath and thoughts; tools to let your past be in the past; develop a more accurate perception of threat, coming down from hypervigilance and red alert; two simple ways to stop catastrophic and compulsive thinking; social anxiety; fear of flying; how to leave panic attacks behind

AnxietyStress & AnxietyGroundedHealth & HappinessSOSSecular MindfulnessSecularMindfulnessStress

Meet your Teacher

Lynn Fraser
Halifax Canada

Lynn is an anchor to support your journey in living from your own innate wisdom and goodness. She is a senior teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation tradition, and founder of the Stillpoint Method of Healing Trauma. Lynn supports people to safely reconnect with themselves through knowledge, regulating the nervous system, and compassion. "Lynn's the real deal." Dr. Rick Hanson

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16 Days

5.9k students

4.8 stars

8 min / day

Anxiety

English

Lesson 1

Kindness and Compassion

Our nervous system developed based on our experiences and tries to protect us by alerting us to danger. We all try to avoid pain and fear, and escape when we can through disconnecting, screens, and addictions. We turn against ourselves. We wouldn't talk to someone we care about the way we can be pushy and critical with ourselves. Instead, we could cultivate patience and kindness. We can welcome all of ourselves with compassion. At 2:45 minutes, we move into a guided practice on kindness and compassion.

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Lesson 2

We Feel Anxiety In Our Body

We store trauma in our body as sensations and energy along with associated thoughts and memories. This makes us reluctant to "be in" our body. We might have an uneasiness in our chest or stomach or a clenched jaw. In order to heal through our body, we need to feel in our body. This lesson includes a 5 minute guided practice of relaxation in our body.

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Lesson 3

Root Causes of Anxiety

Human life is by its nature uncertain. Our brain evolved to pay more attention to possible danger, has a negativity bias, and forms beliefs based on experiences. Until a hundred years ago, our brain only saw images of immediate danger but now we are bombarded with images of trauma around the world. We can build resilience by learning about the brain, and also focusing on connection and safety.

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Lesson 4

Breath as a Cue and to Soothe

Mindfulness of changes in our breath gives us time to intervene before we get panicky. Holding our breath signals danger to our nervous system. A continuous smooth diaphragmatic breath signals safety. Practices like box breathing reset our system, or we can practice extended exhaling with the syllable Vooo or like I'm breathing out through a thin straw. A six second exhale activates the relaxation response in our body.

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Lesson 5

Ruminating and Catastrophic Thinking

Our brain developed to respond to first hand immediate threat. When we are bombarded with thousands of images of danger happening around the world, we get anxious and don't read the our personal situation accurately. We've all experienced ruminating about an interaction with someone and it's only later that we think of the perfect response. Catastrophic thinking is where we alarm ourselves with worst-case scenarios. This creates deep grooves of habit and alarm in our mind.

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Lesson 6

Fear of Trauma Stored in Our Body

Trauma is stored in our body with associated thoughts and memories. We didn't have the support and nervous system resilience and strength to face it and heal at the time it happened. Using these tools, we reach a tipping point where we are able to tolerate and even welcome the sensations and energies and what they mean. This frees us from stored trauma and offers deep healing and a feeling of safety.

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Lesson 7

Working With Thoughts Energies and Sensations

Thoughts are words we can hear or see, and images we can see, and they are often associated with uncomfortable or scary sensations and energy in our body. In this practice, we learn powerful tools to see that our thoughts can't actually hurt us. This releases the stickiness with sensation in our body, and we can widen our window of tolerance. We then mine the sensations for their meaning. We experience they are not here to hurt us. We are able to stay present with the stored trauma as it releases.

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Lesson 8

Overwhelm and Unhealthy Coping

We often turn to what helps get us through the day, even when it is not in our long term best interest. This can be more socially approved of coping mechanisms like shoe shopping, perfectionism, or overwork, or addictions like opioids and gambling. We are trying to get away from experiences of feeling overwhelmed and gain a sense of control. We might be depressed or numb in a freeze response, lash out in anger and righteous indignation, or daydream and dissociate. We can take inventory and use effective tools to improve our situation.

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Lesson 9

Regulating Our Nervous System When Threatened

Our nervous system is always scanning for danger, is evidence based from our past, and has a negativity bias. It alerts us through hypervigilance we feel in our body: we tighten up our shoulders; we find ourselves holding our breath. Relaxing our body and establishing a smooth, even diaphragmatic breath signals the opposite to our nervous system. We catch anxiety or calm from other people and we co-regulate with others.

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Lesson 10

What To Do When You're Having a Panic Attack

Panic attacks are a sign of a nervous system that is so overwhelmed it can no longer handle what comes up. They are hard to hide and have negative social consequences. Once we've had one, we then also fear having another. This lesson is filled with emergency measures to increase resilience and stop panic attacks.

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Lesson 11

The World and Our Nervous System

We are alarmed by what is happening in our world. Through 24 hour news and social media, we are bombarded with images of people in trouble, injustice, climate change, and childhood trauma. We can shift our focus so we're not held in a trance of despair, and increase taking in good. What do you care about? Volunteer with others to take action, overcome feelings of powerlessness, and live with an open heart.

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Lesson 12

Shame, Peer Pressure, and Social Anxiety

We need to be connected with other people to survive and be happy. Shame and peer pressure are meant to help us change our behavior to fit in with our family and community. Toxic shame makes us feel like WE are broken. We can change the false core deficiency beliefs we formed from our past experiences. This lesson offers tools to reduce social anxiety and take small risks to increase connection.

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Lesson 13

Fear of Flying

It is limiting to be afraid of flying. We might see images of the plane going down or a fiery crash. We know in our conscious mind that flying is the safest form of transportation, but our nervous system is panicking. If we've ever had a panic attack, we also fear we're going to have another one. This lesson walks you through a plan and practices. You may not ever enjoy flying, but with support and these tools you can get through it.

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Lesson 14

Build a Strong Healthy Mind

A result of traumatic events is that we disconnect from ourselves and our sense of value. We can connect again, and improve our health by good sleep, nutrition, nourishing relationships, relaxation, reducing stress, and working more effectively with thoughts. We can repair weakness and build a strong mind that is flexible and resilient.

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Lesson 15

We Need Each Other: Practicing Co-Regulation

Safety is an absence of threat plus a feeling of connection. We make bids for connection, and when our parents or others don't pick up on them, it is a high level threat. We need someone who's eyes light up when we come into the room. We also get this through other mammals, like a dog, cat or horse. We practice boundaries with some people and being around safe-enough people. We finish with a positive visualization to feel connection that in our body.

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Lesson 16

Accepting and Welcoming Myself

True self-acceptance can feel out of reach. It involves becoming friends with our mind and nurturing kindness, acceptance and authenticity. This lesson includes a guided somatic welcoming practice and a reminder of the powerful practices we have at our fingertips. We can pay attention to what is causing us suffering, like comparing ourselves to others, and work with the grief and loss we feel because of childhood trauma.

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4.8 (156)

Recent Reviews

Patricia

February 9, 2026

This course has been and will continue to be a great help in helping me move forward from trauma and anxiety. Throughly recommended. Thank you 🙏

Jill

January 24, 2026

Many thanks for this valuable course! Took me a while to get through it because of so much helpful material. I repeated some of the lessons, getting something different and meaningful each time. I will come back to visit.

Aleta

September 25, 2025

This course is very thorough and offers so many different ways to learn and practice being more resilient. I’m keeping this one handy to come back to many times. It’s a healing journey.

Allison

May 26, 2025

Excellent and easy to apply!

Alejandro

February 16, 2025

Solid advice and options

Sarah

January 27, 2025

Very insightful & helpful. I liked the somatic approach to the nervous system and also the roots of the anxiety / fear thank you

Felicia

January 22, 2025

There are good discussions in this course, although some are very specific scenarios. Some lessons made me feel more anxious, so wouldnt suggest this at bedtime. Mentions of possible techniques you need to research. Good affirmation

Linda

January 19, 2025

Very helpful, practical suggestions, many thanks

Richard

December 29, 2024

Lynn’s guidance was both helpful and therapeutic. I learned much about early childhood trauma and how to move forward.

Liz

December 14, 2024

Thank you, I learned a lot in this course x

Patricia

November 2, 2024

Superb! I started this course thinking If it was what I wanted to spend my time in as anxiety is not something I thought was a part of my life journey. I thought was laid back and had a way of stopping anxiety whenever it came up. I am retrospectively, glad I did this course because it gave me a glimpse of what I might have suppressed as a child which I can deal with now and release from my system as an adult. I also spent time reflecting on what my motherhood impact would have been on my daughter's life. I wanted to start a talk therapy session with her in a way that I might be able to steer her to look inward to prepare herself too for motherhood with an abundance of love, compassion, resilience and strength. I am now ready to start sharing my thoughts on calming myself and building resilience when anxious as I have shared this link with my daughter and son-in-law who requested the link ad they thought they would benefit from it too.

Amy

September 3, 2024

So helpful, and Thank you 🙏

Jenny

July 7, 2024

This course was insightful and helpful. I don’t yet understand the framing method of self regulation.

leo

June 8, 2024

Thank you so very kind

Ron

May 28, 2024

Great advice and practices to help with nervous system be more resilient! The idea of just sighing when feeling anxious is just one of many but instantly effective! Grateful 😇!

Krysia

April 29, 2024

Thank you, Lynn, for being so generous in passing on to us all you have learnt to help calm our nervous systems and to be our own best friend.

Angela

March 11, 2024

Very helpful, thank you

Leigh

January 29, 2024

Thanks Lynn. A helpful and well presented course.

Jennifer

January 26, 2024

Wonderful guidance and tips for self-care and self comparison. Thank you🌷🙏

Jen

October 24, 2023

Wonderful, thank you!

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