Can you relate to the following?
“What is wrong with me?”
“Is my anxiety is going to be with me the rest of my life?”
“Why am I always second guessing myself and my actions.”
“I want to be more present, not always reflecting on the past or worrying about the future.”
“How can I make it through the working day?”
“I always seem to be struggling with things that out of my control.”
“I wish that I could let things go.”
“I worry about what others think of me.”
“I have so much negative self-talk.”
“I wish just once I could get a good nights sleep.”
“Why can’t I be like everyone else?
“Who will I be without it?”
Welcome to the new you. This is where you get to turn the page on your anxiety.
Anxiety - The New Common Cold
As pressures in the workplace and on our home lives increase, more of us are feeling stress. Increasing levels of stress often lead to anxiety and so it is becoming as prevalent as the common cold. Most industries are experiencing pressure to deliver more and expect higher performance from their employees. Instead of short-term, occasional peaks in stress, it is now commonplace for this to be a constant presence in our lives, compounded by the cost of living. Anxiety is on the rise.
Anxiety disorders are now the most common mental illness in the U.S. affecting around 40 million adults — almost 1 in 5 people. A survey by the American Psychiatric Association reported an almost 40% increase in anxiety in Americans in the previous 12 months. The report went on to note:
“Even as anxiety spiked, however, few respondents said they had sought out mental health care — despite the fact that 86% strongly or somewhat agreed that mental health has an impact on physical health, and half agreed that stigma associated with mental illness has decreased over the last decade. Only 28% said they had seen a mental health professional of any kind.”
Anxiety treatment often means visits with therapists which can involve challenges of scheduling, costs and perhaps reluctance, due to embarrassment and social stigma of acknowledgment, to even seek help. On-line self-help courses for anxiety can alleviate many of these challenges. They are immediately accessible; they don’t necessarily require a diagnosis and can be taken at convenient times for the individual, usually for much less than a single session with a therapist. An on-line program can also be used in conjunction with traditional therapy, providing ongoing support between sessions.
“I thought I was going to have to live with the feelings of uncontrollable anxiety forever ... but the more I practice - I realize - it’s like you said …, it’s a gradual change, a small shift, but very noticeable in comparison to how I used to react before I had this awareness.”
What is it all about?
Mindfully Reduce your Anxiety is a 7 module online program that is designed to help you reduce your anxiety.
It is a very pragmatic course with many practical exercises to help you see results in your life.
I encourage you rather than blast through the course in a couple of sittings to take your time and do one module at a time allowing time to assimilate and practice what you have just learned.
There will be an office time where Q&As will be addressed. The primary purpose of the office hours is to clarify any questions on the course material and questions that might come up as a consequence of doing the practice.
I use very pragmatic techniques that participants can see results in as little as a couple of weeks, with commitment to the practice, and greater results sooner rather than later. The concepts that are used are ones that have been developed many years ago for my own self-help and then have been tested over the last couple of years while teaching the Behavioral Health Courses, anxiety, depression, stress etc in a hospital psychiatric department in San Jose.
I have seen how well they have been taken up by people who want to help themselves in their internal healing. The course is over a 7-week period and will entail a commitment from you to a simple twice daily 10 minute meditative practice. The material will include some general anxiety information to develop a deeper understanding about anxiety, video presentations of the lessons, home practice and PDF worksheets to help you frame and track your progress of change.
There will also be a couple of online live video Q&As to help clarify any points of confusion also to create the feelings of support one can only get from a live person. The course will not be able to offer one-on-one counseling. Participants will be encouraged to seek professional help if issues come up that are outside the scope of the course.
The course is not intended to replace any trained medical professional but would be a great compliment to any on-on-one therapy that might be on going.
Hi, I’m Paul Miller…
From my earliest age all I was interested in was physics and electronics.
This lead to me getting my first degree in Physics and Electronics and then my PhD in Ultrasonic Underwater Imagining.
After spending many years in the chip design industry I had an opportunity to take some time off after a particularly intense time, and used it to reduce my elevated stress levels back to a normal stress level.
I took up yoga and meditation as I had heard that they can help manage people’s stress levels. I found a simple meditation technique that started to shift my awareness in directions that did not fit in with all my logical training and experience.
My perceptions of myself and the world around me were changing and I had no idea what was happening or why it was happening. After all, I just wanted to reduce my stress and nothing else.
To try and find answers to what was happening to me I went to many different types of retreats and joined many different training programs, all to no avail. I was not getting my answers, perhaps because I did not know what questions to ask but just wanted to know what was going on.
Eventually I found my answers, but it meant that I had accept many different life perceptions that were an antithesis to the ones that I had lived in most of my life. I decided to pursue this new direction in my life, giving up engineering and retraining in a transpersonal therapy field. Quite to my surprise, I found a natural aptitude in this field even though it was 180 degrees from everything I had previously studied.
Never giving up that logical training that had formed the backbone of my early years I then took this new information and blended the two ‘worlds’ together. Working with clients in Silicon Valley who need help to manage their stress and anxiety but needed something pragmatic that delivered results quickly.
An opportunity arose to take my concepts into mental health clinic were they were just as well received. This Anxiety workshop is a result of all those many years of varied education and experiences.
This course Mindfully Reduce your Anxiety sounds amazing
“I am glad that I chose to take this class. I learned many different techniques to help quell my anxiety and plan to use many of them in the future. Paul has a wonderful, calm energy that makes you believe you can do it.”
The Curriculum
Module 1 - Setting the Stage - Free
You Will:
Find the meditation technique that works for you.
Discover how to hold onto your Meditative Feeling.
Discover how a feeling, not a thought, is the key to breaking your anxiety.
Module 2 – The Structure for Change
You Will:
Understand what causes anxiety
Know why you can’t just stop your racing thoughts
Learn how anxiety affects your body – Why this may be a good thing
Module 3 Part 1 & 2– Framing my Anxiety
You Will:
See what is really behind your anxious thoughts
Find out why small things set you off?
Get clarity on which anxious thoughts you tackle first, after all - you have so many
Module 4 – Facing my Anxiety
You Will:
Feel confident with the techniques to go and face your anxiety
Learn what to do when your anxiety is flaring up.
Discover how is your general mindset might be influencing your susceptibility for anxiety?
Module 5 – Dismantling my Anxiety
You Will:
Discover why past events affect your current anxiety
Map out how to breakdown your overwhelming thoughts
Get some physical relief from your anxiety induced symptoms
Module 6 – Maintaining the Progress
You Will:
Learn how to recognize when your anxiety maybe flaring up
Create a safety plan
Understand what you can control and what you can’t
Why You’ll Love It
In creating this course many factors were considered:
I wanted to make sure that once you started you would feel engaged by the content, that while it might not contain the high drama of The Game of Thrones it would be interesting enough that you would look forward to moving from one module to the next.
I truly believe that if you are diligent in working through the material and doing the home practices that you WILL see a big reduction in your anxiety.
To that end I made the course fun, engaging, interesting, informative and pragmatic.
The mantra I have in all my workshops is “Don’t tell me, show me”. It is very important for me that people get to not just understand the concepts being explained to them but to experience them right then and there.
One of the challenges I had in creating an online course was to be able to do the same without the live person interaction. I have spent much of the resource development time in focusing to achieve this.
Like anything, there will be an organic growth and adaption, but I believe that I have created a course for you that you will find interesting, amusing, informative, realistic, pragmatic and supportive.
The course is not just a list of bullet point slides and someone talking to them.
I have used a custom created images to explain a concept.
Between slides is a video of myself talking through what the slide is about. I felt that a full screen video of myself talking about the content creates a more personal connection rather than a ‘bobble head’ talking in a corner.
I have included quizzes - they are not pass/fail but merely to help you check that you have understood the concepts and what it is you need to do.
I will also hold office hours during the course where I can take Q&A via a chat or video which ever you feel comfortable doing.
I would encourage you to ask questions during these sessions as the answers might help others who never thought of that question or are a little shy to ask.
How is it different from other Mindfulness or Meditation Anxiety courses?
One definition of mindfulness is “the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something”. I remember thinking to myself at the time that to be aware of something, to observe it clearly, one has to be separate from it. While some things one may be aware of while being in them, others would need distinct separation to have the necessary objective awareness.
For example, if I could talk to fish and ask if the water is muddy, it could probably say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on the water conditions, i.e. runoff from the land wave and wind effects causing the turbidity to increase. On the other hand, if I were to ask it if it felt wet, it would not know what I am talking about as it does not know anything different.
To be able to equally effectively answer both of these questions, the fish would have to be completely removed from the water, told that this is what dry feels like, then it would have a comparison and an observation point with which to answer both questions.
When it comes to looking within ourselves, this course creates a separate observation point created by the meditative practice, which I call the Meditative Feeling. From this vantage point we are able to look compassionately and objectively at our thoughts and feelings, thereby gaining a deeper clarity on them. This will lead to understanding their root causes and subsequently reducing their impact on our lives.
A favorite quote of mine by Anthony de Mello is “You do not chase the darkness out of the room with a broom, you turn the light on.” By standing in our Meditative Feeling and looking and understanding the deeper roots of our anxiety we are turning the light on.
“Paul is an awesome teacher. Easy to understand and keep my interest.”
Benefits
In one of the thee 5 minute meditation exercises you’ll prove to yourself that you can meditate.
Having just proven to yourself that you can meditate, with a little practice, you’ll be able to do it whenever you need it, immediately feeling the benefits.
Complex anxiety concepts explained in a very simple way.
Just imagine what you life would feel like if your anxiety was not holding you back - these feelings of fulfillment are not out of your reach.
This is a very pragmatic course. The concepts and exercises have been tried and tested over the last few years - they work!!
Be more effective at work as things will bother you less - helping you to be more focused when needed and able to let go of the day’s challenges after work.
Social life will be more fulfilling.
Relationships with partners and friends will be more enjoyable.
You will be less triggered by things.
Office hours where there will be Q&A sessions.
Who is this course for?
Anxiety can vary from mild to moderate to severe. This course currently is for people who have mild to moderate anxiety. I have included a brief description of my understanding of the differences.
Mild Anxiety
Mild anxiety is common in everyday life. Generally speaking, mild anxiety is the type that most of us experience on a day-to-day basis during certain situations. You may have an uneasy feeling in your stomach, and you may feel your pulse increase slightly. But anxiety at this level can also be beneficial, as it can help you to focus and increases your alertness. Mild anxiety is typically motivational, meaning it helps you focus on seeking a solution to the challenge you face.
Moderate Anxiety
Moderate anxiety is similar to mild anxiety but can become more severe and overwhelming, making you feel more nervous and agitated.
For example, people with moderate anxiety may report experiencing symptoms such as feeling on edge, being unable to control their worrying or being unable to relax several days or the majority of days in a week, but not every day.
Moderate anxiety can mean you place your complete attention on the thing or situation that’s making you feel anxious and ignore everything else around you. You may start to experience stronger physical and emotional anxiety symptoms such as muscle tension, sweaty palms, a shaky voice, back pain and changes in your sleep pattern. Emotionally you may feel more sensitive and excited than normal, and you may also feel less confident.
“You do a wonderful job. Very passionate, heartfelt, and thoughtful lessons that have and will continue to help improve my life. Thank you so much.”
Commitment Required
Meditation time commitment: 10 mins morning & night and as many times as would like during the day for as long or as short as you like.
Each module is about 70 mins long, but split into 5 to 10 minute bite size pieces. This enables you to do as little or as much as you feel inspired to tackle in one go.
There will be a home practice at the end of each module for you to experience and develop the knowledge presented in the module
No prior meditation experience needed - AT ALL
You will know when you are meditating correctly
Just doing the meditative practice will give you some very simple relief
Using the meditative practice AND the other exercises will give you quicker and more profound results
You will then learn how to use the Meditative Feeling to make proactive changes with your anxiety
Only dealing with mild and moderate anxiety for this course – people severe anxiety will be put on a wait list for the later iteration.
FAQ
I have been trying in therapy to work on my anxiety for sometime now with little or no progress, will this course help?
This course takes a proven blend of mindfulness, mediation and traditional therapy practices and creates a course that (providing the home practices are done diligently) can almost guarantee results. The approach is very unique. I am sure that you will not only enjoy the learning experience but will be happy with the results that you see in your life.
All my anxieties just seem to all equally high, how can I start to tackle them?
There will be techniques covered in the course that will enable you to order and manage your anxieties
What is the time commitment for this course?
Each module should take you about 70 mins to get through. On top of that will be your home practice and that is open ended. The more you put in the quicker you’ll see results.
How much support will I get?
Every couple of weeks I’ll have an ‘office time’ for 1 hour where I’ll take your question about the course. I am not able to offer one-on-one counseling. If you find that you need that then I highly recommend you seek a professional mental health person.
When will this program be offered again?
This is an on demand course, meaning that as soon as you are ready you can start.
Will I have access to the material after the end of the course?
Yes, you will have access to all the material for 4 years after first starting the course.
What happens if I am not able to move through the course as quickly as it is posted?
Since it is an on demand course you dictate your own pace, having said that, I would encourage you in your eagerness not to binge the material but to take a nice slow and steady pace.