Why Do I Suddenly Feel So Hot When I'm Anxious — A 10-Minute Meditation for Anxiety Heat

Maybe it starts in your chest or the back of your neck, that first prickle. And then that hot spreading feeling, underneath it the small horrified thought, "Please, not now, not here." You haven't ran anywhere, you haven't lifted anything. The room isn't warm, nobody else has taken their jumper or their sweater off, nobody else is fanning themselves, just you.

And the worst part isn't even the heat. It's that other people may see it, whatever you're trying to hold together quietly, your body has just announced it to the room. So that's where we're going today. Why do I suddenly feel so hot when I'm anxious?

Today with me, I think I've something for you that might change how this feels. Hi there, this is Carming Anxiety, I'm your host Martin, clinical hypnotherapist and before that a paramedic. Today's episode, sponsored by me, it's by Anchored, my own app, and the one thing in there for you specifically are the breathing tools. The breath we're doing today sits in Ankit on its own with a visual guide as I talk you through it, whatever breathing session you need.

Why not download it and find your moment of calm? Now let me tell you what I think is going on and I want to be careful here because I don't know your body, I only know what the body tends to do. When I was on the ambulances, we'd arrive at someone in the first minutes of a real fright and one of the things you'd see over and over was that flush, red across the chest and the throat a damp forehead before anything it actually happened to them physically. And here's the thing with that, when the body thinks it may need to move, really move, it gets ready to cool you down.

So the body that's about to run is a body that's about to make heat. So that's why we get all hot and flushed. But we don't run because there's nothing to run from. It's a meeting, it's a supermarket queue, it's a message you haven't opened yet, which means, and I want you to really hear this one, you're not overheating, you're being cold.

The heat that you can feel is not something going wrong in you, it's a natural reaction. So breathe with me and let that cooling work. Well breathe in for four through the tongue or the teeth and then out for six, with the nose, with the mouth closed, ready? In two, three, four, close the mouth out through the nose, two, three, four, five, six, again, cool air across the tongue, breathe in, two, three, four, and warm air out through the nose, two, three, four, five, six, did you notice that?

The cool going in, the warm coming out. You're letting the heat leave you. That's not imagery, that is literally what is happening. Let's do it again.

Breathe in, two, three, four, breathe out, two, three, four, five, six, now just unwind.

However you do that, feel the shoulders move away from the ears, by an inch. Allow the muscles on your forehead between your eyes to loosen, to relax with every exhalation, drift and melt. I want to come back now to the part that actually hurts because it isn't the temperature, it's being seen. It's let your anxiety used to be private and now it's on your face and you're standing there doing their calculation.

Has anyone noticed? Are they looking? Should I mention it first to make a joke of it? My friend, listen.

Your body has not betrayed you, your body has protected you, clumsily in public. Those are really different things. One of them deserves an apology, the other deserves a thank you. So let's put this down.

Let's relax and let's see these words. Say them with me, but in your own voice inside your own head. I am safe, I am here. There is nothing to fear right now.

This heat is anxiety and anxiety always passes.

My body is cooling me, not harming me. I can feel hot and still be completely safe.

The heat came before the thought, the heat can leave before the thought as well.

I do not owe this room an explanation for my own skin.

I am calm in my body even when my body is warm.

I have been through this before, it ended, it will end this time. Now just drift. And take note of this story, many years ago, I met an older paramedic on a job that I never met before and he was dripping and the first thing he said was, "I always sweat when I am working hard, not physically, but being watched by everyone. I have changed how I am.

I used to get that sweat burning down my back in interviews in stressful situations and I marveled how he owned it, how he took complete control of a natural reaction and then did what he was good at and we can too." So to empower you for the next time the heat rises and you feel all the eyes are upon you. There are your three daily caring tips. One, the next time the heat arrives, name it out loud in your head.

This is anxiety warming me up before you do anything else about it. Two, do four rounds of the cooling breath at some point today when you are perfectly calm so that your body learns it before you need it. Three, wear something today with a collar or a neckline you don't have to think about and give yourself one less thing to monitor. So let's come back gently now.

Let's wiggle your fingers and your toes. Feel the chair or bed holding you up. It's been doing that the whole time. Breathe in deeply.

Hold it at the top and then as you exhale roll the shoulders once and if that feels good stretch out the arms as well and then when you are ready only then let your eyes open.

Back in the room my friend and a little cooler than when you were. If today helps the cooling breath is waiting for you in anchored on its own you can save it and download it for whenever you need just the breath and something then to follow. It's there always and if you know somebody who goes red and hot and hates themselves for it send them this one that's how this show finds the people who need it. Honestly it's merely the whole thing.

Take care my friend. I'll be here again tomorrow so in everything every thought, word and deed be kind.