I could be aware of the anxiety that runs so deep that I feel overwhelmed by the experience of physical symptoms like sweat and tensioning of muscles. I experience mental images of the threat of any kind and my mind is kept a prisoner of this experience. I am engulfed by this experience and hence I am feeling trapped and helpless. All the aspects that have contributed to this experience of dread, fear, and threat have captured my attention and this is all I am aware of.

Then I also know, through my learning, study, and application of the practice of mindfulness and meditation practices that I can find an awareness that I apply to this experience. I come out from under this anxiety and bring spaciousness to it. I do not just passively endure this fear, but actively with my state of presence broaden my mental focus,  find a mental space that loosens the grip of my tight focus onto this anxious scenario created in my mind.

The spaciousness operates on the intensity of the anxiety and as my sense of presence brings me into the here and now, the anxiety recedes into the background. The awareness of the figure: anxiety, and the ground: spaciousness, together, they ease the mind into a sense of liberation and relaxation. Staying with the experience is the key, working through it,  not avoiding it.