Hoping to be cured of anxiety with acceptance approach but I need some help.

[Ryukil]

Hey guys, in the last couple months I read Hope and Help for Your Nerves as well as At Last a Life. Claire Weekes say something about releasing your tense hold on yourself. She wants you to go through your day releasing as much tension as possible. She thinks that letting go of your body is an important part of accepting because you are no longer tensing in response to these feelings.
Paul David doesn't say too much about that, just to go about your day however you are feeling.
I keep obsessing about whether or not to release the tight hold on myself because I feel that if I do that then I'm not accepting the anxiety fully since I'm still trying to do something about it. But meh.

I plan to stick with the releasing tense hold on myself approach until March 1. To go through my day and do what I want but with as little tension as possible. But my nature is obsessive and I'm afraid it will become a battle....
Should I just try the straight-up acceptance method? Every day for years I've been trying to figure out my anxiety. I think if I stop that my anxiety will go down a lot. But Claire Weeks says you must physically let go of yourself. ****.... Wouldn't I eventually get to the point where I wouldn't tense anymore because I didn't care about my anxiety because I stopped trying to solve it???????????

What I mean is, the tension and the anxiety are the same thing. So if anxiety goes away tension will go away, but Claire Weekes is saying that you must let go of tension first and then anxiety will slowly go away...****

[PanchoGoz]

A fundamental with this approach is to realise the answer to everything is...it's ok. I's ok if you are a bit obsessive about things, just notice that. There shouldn't be any battle. And there's no need to think it through too much. The joy of this is that you don't have to be looking to solve anything anymore and it is a huge relief when you realise how much of your day was previously spent mulling over what was wrong why it's wrong what you can do to cure it.
This new approach says, so what if I feel wrong, I'll just carry on and it will go.
Remember to modify your inner voice from critical to bored if that helps. Go from "why is this happening" to "oh how boring this is happening again". After all, you've been suffering ages and it's about time you just got bored of it. There's no surprises now! Nothing to fear as there's no unknown.
Remember if you feel bad or have a bad thought, where is it? It's just in between your ears. It's just a nueron firing. Have a look around at the world in a bad moment and notice that everything is still just as sturdy and level as it was, the only thing that's changed is your state of mind.
The imagery of floating is very helpful too. Don't think too much into it "how do I float exactly", just say floating and incorperate into your movements and your thoughts. You may find youreself smiling more, and this is so helpful too.

Claire Weekes says "let go"...think of things you can physically let go of. Hunched shoulders. Clenched fists. Forced breathing. Tense stature. These are all things you can let go of like cutting the strings of a puppet. If you go floppy and free, you tell your fight and flight system that everything is ok, you can relax. Mentally letting go - noticing if you're having a thought that is ruminating on yourself of your health or focusing inwardy. Let go of that by taking a breath, smiling and doing something else.

If anything, I have been self destroying by going way too much into this. The fundamental is - it's ok to be like this. That's fine. No problem for me. If you're fretting about should I do that? Is it helping or making it worse?? Just do it anyway. You cause more tension by fretting over it than you could do if you actually did it. So if you think, should I release the tense hold, is that right or wrong? Change that to yeah why not, I'll do that, and not think anymore of it, it doesn't matter what I do at the end of the day as along as I overall feel better about myself.

[Katki]

I think when you start to accept your anxiety you naturally stop tensing against it so much. Sometimes I consciously sag my whole body, other times I find I naturally just relax, like at bed time or bath. I would just start living life and the more you stop thinking about it the more you will naturally release your tension. You're obviously still really thinking about the way you feel, you have to start letting that go. It's hard at first and it takes time but you're doing the right thing.


Just read pancho 's reply which is much better than mine! But hope I helped anyway