This is Part 1 of the Mindsprings anxiety course that I've been teaching since 2013. I've loved teaching this course to hundreds of people all over Europe. Getting them to recognise that their own bodies have in-built ways to metabolise the horrible chemistry of fear and panic.
This online version contains so much material that I often cannot teach in a weekend course. As well as space to ask me questions and a community forum to share your experiences.
What you get:
1. Lifetime membership to revisit the course whenever you want to.
2. 15 videos a total of 90 minutes of teaching & demonstrations from me.
3. Community forum to meet other students.
4. Monthly Zoom workshop with me and other students.
5. Downloadable meditations to keep.
-30 minutes Earth Breathing - Inner safety
-20 minutes Earth Breathing l
-20 minutes Earth Breathing ll
6. 8 simple quizzes to test your learning.
7. Workbook to download and keep.
Some preliminary thoughts from the garden...
FREE PREVIEWNavigating the Course Screen
The Check In
Medical Disclaimer
Please download and read through the workbook!
You can download the MMA Workbook here
Alistair's anxiety and the inspiration for this course
FREE PREVIEWComing into the body
The thumbprint of your anxiety: where, when, what?
Know your SUDS!
Take a break!
Dr Panksepp and FEAR and PANIC explained
FREE PREVIEWNew definition of anxiety
Test your learning
Recap of FEAR and PANIC short-term in animal world
Alistair at the chalkboard... the chemistry of anxiety
Cortisol: a double-edged chemical
Did you get everything?
FREE PREVIEWYou know what's going on and why it feels awful. But how to stop it?
Three body-based interventions - Tune up, vagal breathing, calm point
Demonstration of these three interventions
Test your learning
Things are about to get even more powerful. We need to dive deeper into neuroscience.
Meet Stephen Porges
The importance of feeling the reality of VVT
See what you remember
What do you do to calm your anxiety?
What you're doing to soothe yourself may well be making things worse. What Porges says about our strategies.
A short way of accessing VVT - the 'Basic Method'
Let's have a breather - and look inwards...
How to access VVT in a lasting profound way - Polyvagal Tuning
Leaning into your reality
Test your learning
Where have we got to?
Using the Earth to metabolise - the indigenous solution
Earth Breathing - The "How To" Slideshow
Recordings of Earth Breathing to download for your practice
Earthing with bare feet
Consolidate your learning...
Stocking our toolbox: introducing three new stress busters and recapping the previous four
Demonstrations of collar-bone breathing, 5-finger tap and navel tap
Nuts and bolts of these three
What do you remember?
Congratulations!
Before rushing on, let's take a moment to go inwards...
The Check Out
Resources, reading etc.
Please give me some feedback!
A final word from Alistair
Feedback from students of the course
“I’ve been on a fantastic course. Enjoyed every part of it. So informative and relaxing. Alistair who runs it is super. It’s amazing how your outlook changes bit by bit after each section. You suddenly realise your smiling more and your mind and body seem more settled. I wondered if I would understand it . Would it be relatable to me. Yes. Yes. To both. I’ve learnt more from this than any other anxiety method I’ve tried. And I’ve tried loads. THIS HAS HELPED. PLEASE TRY IT. Life is out there to be enjoyed. I’ve spent too much of it worrying about anxiety. Freedom !!!”
Romayne
“This is a course for Everyone.... Alistair has taken mountains of research and teachings and translated them into an easy to understand form, which together with the many physical practices throughout the course, combine to offer an invaluable toolkit for navigating this modern world of ours. A truly wonderful experience, thank you. Máirín.”
Máirín
“Alistair is obviously someone that has been there when it comes to Anxiety, and in his openness, he clearly explains tips, techniques, and the various theories around anxiety to help you gain an understanding of why and what happens. You can interact with other members, and also Alistair for support. so you are not alone in dealing with those monsters of anxiety. Most importantly you feel you are learning from someone that has experienced similar, and wishes to only share what he himself has learnt, and teach it in order to benefit others. ”
Dameon
“What is special about the Mindsprings approach is that it gives you techniques that allow you to work with the way your body responds to anxiety. It's been a game-changer for me and has given me an optimism I haven't felt for a long time. It's allowed me to accept that I'm always going to feel anxiety, but that if I work with these practices the effects of that anxiety on my life will be significantly diminished.”
Diane
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The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own. I encourage you to work through it as many times as useful and re-visit it often.
I don't want you to be unhappy at all! The last thing I want is the course to make you anxious. So, if you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and Mindsprings will give you a full refund. But I'm confident that you'll be very happy indeed to have discovered our work.
I'm a accredited psychotherapist regulated by the British UKCP board. And I have more than 7 years experience teaching this course to many hundreds of people. However, I know that anxiety can make us very vulnerable and would never want you feel unsafe. If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course then please contact me with your questions. (The contact button is below!)
Yes, of course, book-learning is great. And I have studied a great deal in the field of pyschotherapy, neuroscience, human physiology and Buddhist psychology. But as we'll explore, anxiety breeds in our thinking mind. And for me, getting some direct coaching on how to stay in the body and find non-thinky ways of dealing with it was a break-through... So let me save you time and dead-ends by sharing my experience direct...
I know that money is an issue (and a source of anxiety!) for many of us. And at Mindsprings our inspiration is to help everyone free themselves from anxiety - whether they're wealthy or not. We think that we have priced the courses fairly and ask those who can afford them to help those who can't by paying the full course-fee. And there's a payment schedule to help spread the load. However, we also have a number of bursaries available to those struggling financially, so please contact us to ask about financial aid. (The contact button is below).
If you're suffering from really severe anxiety and are worried about your safety, then you should see your doctor and ensure that you have medical support. Normally, I teach these courses in person, and as a therapist I can help people if difficult material comes up. But this course is self-led. This means you can pace yourself if it is getting difficult - but it also I'm not there physically to attend to you. It's a non-pharmaceutical, body-based course which has help lots of people in a lasting way. But please use your prioritise your safety when deciding to sign up.
As we explore in the course, anxiety is a natural feature of being a human with a thinking mind. Humans will always trigger their innate fear and panic systems with their thinking. But this course can really diminish the amount of unnecessary anxiety and stress we create and give us a method for metabolising the painful chemistry of fear and panic in our bodies. We CAN live with way less anxiety than we do now and it is possible for you
The simple answer is: the longer you do the practices, the longer the anxiety will stay away. As we know, there's no magic bullet. And these practices change the way our brains are wired and the way our body-chemistry works. That's an organic process and takes time. But when we have the support of the insight and the practice, then the 'penny drops' and we stop doing the things that unconsciously make us more anxious. Over time that makes anxiety an occasional visitor rather than a permanent partner.