You care deeply… about the state of this world, the well-being of your loved ones, that stray puppy who wanders outside your house alone.
And sometimes, all of that care you carry can feel like ‘too much’ – especially when you know that you can’t solve every problem, help everyone who’s struggling, control every outcome. Is it any surprise that you feel anxious?
The Create Your Own Calm-In-A-Box Workshop
The Create Your Own Calm-In-A-Box Workshop is a pre-recorded 90 minute workshop that guides you through the process of creating a personalised, tangible, physical anxiety relief toolkit, based on the principles of mindfulness.
Rooted in self-compassion, this box is a gift from present you to future you. Any time anxiety strikes, you’ll have your very own Calm Box to help you soothe your distress.
Three Things You Should Know About Anxiety from a Mindfulness-Based Perspective
1. Anxiety is an emotion, and like all emotions, it carries a message – often one that’s meant to protect and guide us through a stressful situation.
2. The experience of anxiety – the bodily sensations it produces – can be very unpleasant and even overwhelming. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to engage with the wisdom of anxiety when we are in the throes of an acute episode.
3. Caring and conscientious people are highly prone to anxiety, and try to cope with it in ways that can be counter-productive and even harmful.
One such method is to just push through the anxiety, ignoring it as best you can. My own method of choice was to logic my way out of anxiety – rationalising my worries, and questioning my fears.
While coping mechanisms like these can help us to well –cope – in the short-term, they are liable to break down and stop working at some point in our lives. More importantly, they don’t help us to examine the underlying cause of anxiety and engage with it directly.
As a medical professional, I believe that medication and counselling can be a part of anxiety support for some people and at some times. But in the moment that anxiety actually strikes, I have often found it useful to have something tangible – a sensory experience or movement based activity – to reach for.
Anxiety corresponds to the ‘flight’ mode of the nervous system response to fear, and so it is often accompanied by scattered energy. Discharging some of this energy makes it much easier for us to then use other tools and resources to engage with anxiety in a more thoughtful and productive way.
That’s why I created this workshop – to help you set up your own Calm Box, so you can stay present in moments of acute anxiety.
What exactly is a Calm Box?
A Calm Box, also called an Anxiety Relief Toolkit, is a collection of pre-selected items that can soothe emotional overwhelm, and help you to return to presence even in the midst of stress. As an example, similar boxes in the market often include a scented candle, a journal, sachets of herbal tea. In this workshop, however, you will put together a personalised set of items that work for you. And I’ll be with you, every step of the way, helping you to apply principles from mindfulness to guide your choices.
I don’t believe in calm on demand.
As a mindfulness teacher and practitioner for over a decade, I don’t find the standard advice to take a deep breath, or journal or meditate, particularly help while in the throes of acute anxiety. Which is why this workshop is NOT merely a list of generic suggestions that you can try. Instead, it is rooted in principles of mindfulness that help to guide your choices, resulting in a box that is unique to you.
This is also rooted in self-compassion (which is the second pillar of mindfulness) and a deep sense of caring for one’s future self. You are making this box NOW -when you are in a relatively good place mentally and emotionally – so that you can use it LATER – whenever anxiety strikes.
Imagine it’s 3 weeks from today. You haven’t slept well, yet you’ve woken up too early. You’re feeling jittery, your energy’s scattered and you have SO MUCH to do!
You know coffee is a bad idea in this situation. Fortunately…
…you don’t need coffee. Instead, you reach for the sketch-pens and drawing pad you’ve stowed away in your Calm Box.
And after a few minutes of doodling and scribbling you feel less wound up, so you make yourself a cup of that special Cinnamon Berry Herbal Tea, easily at hand in your Calm Box…
… drop the sandalwood & patchouli scented pellets in your wax warmer, wrap that silk scarf your brother gifted you around your neck, and begin to tackle your to-do list.
You no longer try to fight your anxiety, instead you soothe yourself, using objects you’ve chosen, and rituals you know to be helpful. And having tamed the edge of anxiety, you get on with your day, knowing your toolkit of treasures is there to support you.
I want to help you create a resource for yourself that you can return to.
Inside The Create Your Own Calm-In-A-Box Workshop you will get:
Mindfulness teachings grounded in the 5-4-3-2-1 technique — so you understand exactly why each item you choose works, and your box becomes a cherished resource, not a mish-mash of guess-work and generic ideas.
A dedicated teaching on self-compassion — because the act of building this box is an act of tenderness, love and care for yourself, and that is not incidental to the process – it is the whole point.
A module on rituals — because a box of objects is just stuff sitting on a shelf. It is the addition of emotion, intention and practice that turns this box into a set of rituals that you’ll actually reach for – again and again.
5 guided audio practices for anxiety — ready to use right away – even before your box is ready. These practices will help to deepen your understanding of anxiety, and widen the practices available to you during an acute episode.
The Create Your Own Calm-In-A-Box Workshop is :
1. Pre-recorded and divided into 10 easy to watch video modules with closed captioning.
2. Available immediately. 3. Life-time* access to the course content.
*life-time access refers to life-time of this buiness
Hi! I’m Nimisha
I’m a surgeon, so I know a thing or two about stress.
I’m a mother, so I know all about not having a moment to sip your coffee in peace, let alone dedicate hours to a meditation practice, or other self-care.
I’m an ADHD-er, so I know that what seems to work for everyone, doesn’t actually work for everyone.
Mindfulness saved my surgical career in 2016, but only changed my life in 2019 when I became a mother.
My approach to mindfulness is super-practical and trauma-aware, and is rooted in the body and leads to radical self-acceptance.
I believe, deeply and truly, that doing our inner work is what gives us the strength and clarity to impact the external world and leave it a better place. And that mindfulness is foundational when it comes to inner work.
Welcome to my world.