Your mind is racing and you can't seem to stop replaying the thing over and over again. Whether it's replaying the horrible presentation at work or feeling shame about things that happened in your life, you can't seem to find peace. Your heart is racing and you can feel the anxiety attack coming on. While the Xanax is helping, you also don't want to continue to have to depend on it.
 
While most people envision sitting Buddha style, closing your eyes and not thinking, this is far from the only definition of mindfulness. Mindfulness encompasses a variety of tools to explore our thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness invites the stress, anxiety and trauma to show up so that they can be heard and challenged. Mindfulness looks at the stories we create, the ruminating thoughts and dysfunctional patterns (that have often been developed since childhood) to see why you continue to engage in unhealthy behavior. Mindfulness is eliminating multi-tasking and overwhelming your brain with things to do. Mindfulness is staying focused in the present moment, without letting our brains run away with "shoulds" "have to", "I'm no good", avoidance or "it's my/their fault". Mindfulness is helping you tap into the inner strength and resources that reside within you to help you see that you are capable of dealing with and accepting whatever life throws at you. 
 
Sessions utilize different techniques to support overall well-being. They include EMDR, guided meditation, visualization, deep breathing and art to help you focus on present moment awareness and reduce your anxiety and anxiety response (i.e. anxiety and panic attacks and depressive episodes). By helping you learn how to pay attention to your thoughts, judgments and feelings, you are better equipped to respond to the world, instead of simply reacting to it, sometimes with negative consequences.