KIST Anxiety Relief
Kind Internal Self-Talk (KIST) is a method to manage anxiety by addressing it with compassion and kindness, visualizing it as a “creature” and offering reassuring words and wishes. TLDR:
Notes
🤗 KIST uses compassion and visualization to calmanxiety .
“Imagine your anxiety as a small furry animal — I call it your ‘anxiety creature.‘”
👩 Martha Beck, who has experienced anxiety since childhood, developed the KIST method based on her studies of neuroplasticity and 🧘 Meditation. This technique involves acknowledging anxiety as a separate “creature,” offering it kind words, and visualizing it being safely contained. She found that addressing anxiety with compassion and visualizing it as a manageable entity effectively reduces feelings of unease.
TakeAways
- 📌 KIST involves addressing your anxiety with kindness and compassion.
- Use gentle, reassuring words.
- Visualize anxiety as a separate entity.
- 💡 Neuroplasticity allows the 🧠 Brain to change, making techniques like KIST effective.
- 🔍 Tibetan monks showed increased brain density in areas associated with happiness and calm.
Process
- 🧠 Recognize the anxiety as a “creature.”
- 🗣️ Speak to it with kindness and compassion.
- 💖 Offer kind wishes for safety, peace, and happiness.
- 🎒 Visualize placing the creature in a safe, portable space.
- 🔒 Ensure you will address its needs when it arises.
Thoughts
- 🧠 Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to change supports the effectiveness of KIST.
- 💖 Compassion: Addressing anxiety with kindness activates brain regions associated with calm.
- 🎒 Visualization: Imagining anxiety as a contained creature helps manage it.