Overcome Time Anxiety: A Somatic Meditation To Break the Cycle of Urgency And Pressure
Understanding Time Anxiety: More Than Just a Busy Schedule
We live in a culture that treats urgency like a virtue and burnout like a badge of honor. The world tells us to hustle harder, move faster, achieve more. And for many of us, this message didn’t begin in adulthood—it was woven into us early, through experiences that taught us that love, safety, and belonging were earned through performance, not presence.
So it's no wonder that many of us have internalized the belief that time is something to battle. That we’re always falling behind. That we should be doing more, producing more, becoming more—faster.
This is time anxiety.
The Nervous System and the Roots of Time Anxiety
But time anxiety isn’t just about having a lot to do. It isn’t simply an overbooked schedule or a long to-do list. It’s deeper than that. It’s a felt sense in the body—a nervous system wired into urgency, conditioned to feel that slowing down is unsafe.
And because this urgency is so deeply embodied, healing it requires more than just mindset work or productivity hacks. It requires working directly with the body and nervous system, where these patterns live.
A Somatic Tool to Overcome Time Anxiety: Havening Techniques
One of the most powerful tools I use with clients and in my own healing work is a psycho-sensory technique called Havening Techniques®. Havening involves soothing touch—typically on the arms, hands, or face—paired with supportive imagery or affirmations. It engages the emotional brain and supports the nervous system in moving out of a threat state and into a state of calm and safety.
What makes Havening especially potent for time anxiety is its ability to work directly with the part of the brain where urgency and pressure are held—often as implicit memories formed long ago. The gentle touch sends signals of safety to the brain, helping to rewire old patterns of fear and hypervigilance. Over time, it can help us release the pressure to rush and begin forming a new relationship with time itself—one that is grounded in presence, trust, and self-compassion.
Time Anxiety Meditation: A Somatic Practice to Break the Cycle
In my latest somatic meditation on the Somatic Healing Meditations podcast, I guide you through a Self-Havening practice designed specifically for time anxiety. It’s an invitation to step out of the cycle of pressure and panic and into a felt experience of ease. A moment to say to your body: You’re not behind. You’re safe. It’s okay to slow down.
Overcome Time Anxiety Through Nervous System Safety
This practice isn’t just about finding temporary relief—although you may feel that, too. It’s about creating an embodied sense of safety that can ripple outward into your days. When your nervous system learns that it no longer has to rush to be okay, your relationship with time changes. You begin to notice the spaces between moments. You begin to breathe deeper. You begin to trust your own pace.
Try This Self-Havening Time Anxiety Meditation
So if you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, stuck in urgency, or like you’re always racing the clock—this practice is for you. You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts, or follow the link below to access it directly.
You are not late for your life. You are right on time.
Havening Techniques® is a registered trademark of Ronald Ruden, 15 East 91st Street, New York. www.havening.org
Try this Somatic Meditation for Time Anxiety now!
Episode timing:
00:00 - Understanding Time Anxiety
04:01 - Somatic Meditation To Overcome Time Anxiety - How to do Self-Havening
07:19 - Somatic Meditation to Overcome Time Anxiety - Felt Sense of Time Anxiety
13:30 - Somatic Meditation to Overcome Time Anxiety - Havening with Distraction
29:55 - Conclusion
Learn more about Havening Techniques and the science behind them
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Learn a powerful mind-body technique to soothe your distressing emotions so you can increase your comfort with your emotions.
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How did that Somatic Meditation To Overcome Time Anxiety go for you?
What shifted within you? And how did your number change from the beginning to the end?
Please let me know in the comments!
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Enjoy more like this: Havening Exercises, Regulation Exercises,
About me
Hey, I’m Karena!
I’m a somatic emotional healing coach here to help you quickly identify and heal the subconscious blocks, old emotional wounds and self-sabotaging core beliefs that are holding you back!
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