After the all-clear — guided meditation for health anxiety relief

"You went, you got checked, the doctor said you're okay, and yet here you are, still listening to your body, still waiting for the other shoe to drop, still caught in that exhausting loop of health anxiety that simply won't let go." This session is made for exactly that moment, after the all clear, when the fear should have gone, but hasn't. "Hi there, and welcome to the calming anxiety podcast. I'm Martin Hewlett, I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and former paramedic.

In my years on the front line, I've attended thousands of emergency calls. Many of them were people in genuine, terrifying distress, hearts racing, chest tight, convinced something was catastrophically wrong, and the hardest part of my job sometimes wasn't physical emergency. It was sitting with someone who had already been told they were medically fine and watching them, still, consumed by their fear. That experience lives in this session.

If you want to support the show, please do subscribe, but share it with someone who is living in health anxiety today. It costs nothing, and it reaches someone who truly needs it. Now find your quiet place. You can sit or lie down somewhere company where you won't be disturbed, and when you're ready, gently close your eyes.

Let's begin with your breath. It's your body's own built in anxiety relief system. Breathe in slowly through your nose for a count of four. You then hold for a count of two.

For breathing out softly through your mouth today for a long count of eight. So ready follow my lead. In two three four. Hold two.

Out two three four five six seven eight.

Sigh away the physical tension that the anxiety has racked around your chest.

Feel the muscles loosen unwind. Allow yourself to sink deeply into the surface beneath you. Let's do this again. Ready?

Inhale two three four. Hold two. Exhale two three four five six seven eight.

In two three four. Hold release. Out two three four. Four five six seven eight.

With every long out breath imagine your nervous system beginning to reset. Feel your heart rate soften. Feel the tight physical symptoms of anxiety begin to loosen their grip. Let's do that one more time.

Ready? In two three four. Hold two. Release two three four five six seven eight.

And now just let your breathing find its own gentle rhythm. The body already knows exactly what to do. I want you now to imagine that you are standing at the edge of a calm still late. The water perfectly clear.

The air is cool and quiet. There is nothing here that needs checking. Nothing here to diagnose. Nothing here that requires your vigilance.

You've been vigilant enough today. You've done the right thing. You sought professional help. You got the results.

You've done everything a responsible person does. Now it is safe to rest. In health anxiety the brain becomes a highly sensitive alarm system scanning the body for the faintest signal of threat amplifying every sensation. Turning a tight muscle into a cardiac event.

Turning a headache into something catastrophic. As a paramedic I understand that the alarm system better than most. It is not broken. It is not weak.

It is simply stuck in emergency mode. Still sending panic attack signals long after the emergency has passed. And what we do now. This guided anxiety relief is how we gently turn the alarm off.

Look out across the lake. Watch the surface perfectly still and notice that even when a ripple crosses it, a worry of physical sensation or what if thought. The water returns to stillness every time without fail. You are the lake, not the ripples.

And as always my friend, within the beauty of your imagination allow these words to form bright, clear and powerful in your mind. Repeat them in with me, letting their meaning drift down into your subconscious. I have been checked, I have been seen, I am medically safe. I release the need to monitor and I choose to trust my body.

The physical symptoms of anxiety are real and they are not dangerous.

I am not in danger, I am in recovery from fear.

My nervous system is learning to feel safe again.

Allow deeper and deeper into a natural trance like stillness. You allow yourself to simply float, honoring yourself with this gift of time. Time to heal, time to allow the health anxiety, the symptom checking, the panic attack response to quietly leave your body. Reunite your mind, your body and your soul as one in safety, in trust, in peace.

And once more, imagine and repeat. I release the need to monitor and I choose to trust my body. The physical symptoms of anxiety are real and they are not dangerous.

I am not in danger, I am in recovery from fear.

Just drift now, waitless, timeless, feel the surface beneath you fully supporting all that you are. You don't need to hold yourself up, you don't need to stay alert, you are safe and you have always been safe. Before we finish, here are your three daily caring tips for health anxiety relief. 1. The 24 hour rule, a for new physical sensation appears in your anxiety spikes, give yourself 24 hours before you research it.

Most sensations produced by the anxiety response fade without intervention. 2. Name the pattern, next time the health anxiety loops begin, say quietly to yourself, this is my nervous system in false alarm mode. Named patterns lose their power. 3. Return here, this guided meditation, anxiety relief works through repetition.

Every time you return to the lake, your nervous system learns a little more quickly that stillness is available. That safety is the default, not fear. 4. Now gently wiggle your fingers and toes, bring your awareness slowly back to the room around you. Take a deep breath in and as you breathe out, stretch the arms gently overhead and then open your eyes.

You came here in the middle of your health anxiety and you chose calm instead. But is not a small thing, that is the work. If this session helped you find your way back to yourself, please do share it with one person who is still waiting for their own or clear and your reviews help this sanctuary reach the people who need it the most. Thank you my friend.

Take care of yourselves, truly. I'm Martin, this is calming anxiety and in everything we do, be kind.