Conquering Anxiety:
Embracing the Present
Embracing the Present
A Video Lesson with Dr. Stuart Heller
“If you can’t be with anxiety — you can’t truly be with yourself.”
“If you can’t be with anxiety — you can’t truly be with yourself.”
Stuart Heller
Mathematics MS, Psychology PhD, Martial Arts 7th Dan
Dr. Stuart Heller has a powerful ability to find unexpected spots of resistance that can sabotage the best intentions and transform the resistance into results. His specialty is working with the most "difficult" issues that seem to block all attempts to change. With a serious background in math, martial arts, and psychology, Stuart brings high standards for measuring and achieving the best results possible for his clients including the Red Cross, Meyers Industries, The Produce Exchange, Tetra Pak, and World Bank.
Stuart is the founder of Walking Your Talk and author of Retooling on the Run: Real Change for Leaders with No Time and The Dance of Becoming: Living Life as a Martial Art.
Stuart is the founder of Walking Your Talk and author of Retooling on the Run: Real Change for Leaders with No Time and The Dance of Becoming: Living Life as a Martial Art.
The Problem We’re Facing
- Do you often feel anxious or tense, even when there’s no clear reason?
- Do you feel stuck — wanting to act, but frozen inside?
- Are you tired of advice like "just calm down" or "take control"?
You’re not alone.
And more importantly — nothing is wrong with you.
And more importantly — nothing is wrong with you.
A New Perspective:
Anxiety Is Not the Enemy
Anxiety Is Not the Enemy
“What if anxiety isn’t a personal flaw, but a natural form of life energy?”
In this lesson, Stuart Heller helps you:
In this lesson, Stuart Heller helps you:
- See anxiety not as a problem to fix, but as energy to work with
- Break the habit of fighting or avoiding it
- Discover what lives inside the tension — and how to use it
What You'll Experience in This Video
- The two faces of anxiety: everyday and existential
- Why trying to "master" or "conquer" it only creates more conflict
- What’s actually happening in your body when anxiety shows up
- One movement — four emotional energies: joy, persuasion, disappointment, anxiety
- How tightening your hands, chest, and toes traps your energy
- A simple yet powerful way to release the freeze
- Learning to live with “I don’t know” without collapsing
- A hand gesture practice to harmonize knowing and not knowing
- Where in your body you’ll find the strength to hold intensity — and how to activate it
You'll Also Get:
- Unlimited lifetime access to the video
- Access to a private group for reflection and support
What People Are Saying
Why It Matters: Why You Must Learn to Work with Anxiety
- "Anxiety isn’t a flaw. It’s an invitation. The question is — do you know how to respond?"— Dr. Stuart Heller
Anxiety touches all of us — whether we admit it or not. And if you don’t learn to work with it, here’s what often happens instead:
When you don’t know how to handle your inner intensity, you:
This video lesson gives you a radically different way:
- Not to suppress anxiety — but to move with it
- Not to master it — but to transform it into presence
- Not to escape it — but to expand your capacity to hold life
If you want to lead, create, love, speak up, take action —
you need to know how to be with anxiety.
Who This Is For
This lesson is not for people who want a quick fix.
It’s for those ready to change their relationship with themselves.
It’s for you if:
It’s for those ready to change their relationship with themselves.
It’s for you if:
-
You feel anxiety blocks your voice, expression or decision-making -
You often feel torn between acting and holding back -
You’re in leadership, coaching, therapy or teaching — and want embodied tools, not just ideas -
You’re navigating transitions, public speaking, new roles or uncertainty -
You want to learn how to be with intense emotions without being overwhelmed -
And especially if you’ve ever thought:
“I feel too much.
I don’t know what to do with it.”
This lesson is for you.
What is anxiety?
From Stuart Heller’s perspective, anxiety is not just a feeling or a mental problem — it’s the result of a particular way of being, a habitual internal organization of perception, attention, and action. It’s what happens when your inner system — trying to maintain stability — becomes rigid in the face of change or the unknown.
- Anxiety as Internal ConflictIn "Three Internal Actions", Stuart describes the process of change as involving three simultaneous inner actions:
- Letting go of what is no longer needed,
- Keeping what is still essential,
- Adding what’s missing.
- Anxiety and Habitual PatternsIn "Subtleties of Action", he likens our internal system to a computer’s operating system. But unlike a computer, our habits are encoded in our nerves, muscles, breath, and bones. Anxiety is not a bug, but a built-in response to a system that feels overwhelmed or underprepared for change. It’s often the tension of outdated habits trying to keep control.
- Anxiety as Resistance to Living FlowIn one of his dialogues ("internal call 1−3"), Stuart speaks about how anxiety often arises when we try to hold on — when we fear "not knowing" or avoid feelings that don’t fit our familiar stories. He encourages staying with the energy, instead of rushing to label or suppress it.
As he puts it:
"The minute you try to do it right… the minute you try to feel good… you’ve already shrunk the world to fit your comfort. But if you want to become who you could be — it’s not okay to stay there." - How to Work with Anxiety
- Stuart doesn’t offer "fixes" — he invites practice. Some suggestions based on his work:
- Slow down and be present with the energy before putting words on it.
- Work with shape and breath — noticing how your body holds or blocks.
- Use movement to reconnect attention, presence, and vitality.
- Approach anxiety as an internal signal — not as something wrong, but as something asking to be seen, touched, and reorganized.
In Stuart’s view, anxiety is not your enemy. It’s a map — a doorway into deeper awareness, and a clue that something in your current inner configuration is asking for attention, adjustment, or transformation.
What are the symptoms of anxiety?
Instead of offering a medical checklist, Stuart would invite you to *observe how anxiety shows up in you* — in your movements, posture, breath, attention, and energy.
But to translate that into more familiar terms, here are some symptoms of anxiety, reinterpreted through his lens:
But to translate that into more familiar terms, here are some symptoms of anxiety, reinterpreted through his lens:
Somatic & Movement-Based Symptoms
These are signs your system is "out of sync" with itself
- Tension in the jaw, shoulders, chest, or belly
- Shallow or rapid breathing — you’ve lost connection with your breath
- Stiffness in your joints or gestures — movement becomes restricted
- Restless motion — pacing, fidgeting, shifting weight
- Difficulty staying still — your body "wants to escape"
These are all signals that your internal organization is under stress — trying to protect itself.
Mental Symptoms
Or as Stuart might call them: "patterns of attention out of balance"
- Racing thoughts or looping worries
- Difficulty focusing — your attention scatters easily
- Mind jumping ahead to worst-case scenarios
- Inability to stop "what-if" stories
- Over-identification with thoughts — believing every worry is real
These happen when attention is "hijacked" by habit. Stuart would say: "You're no longer leading your attention — it’s leading you."
Emotional & Energetic Symptoms
- Sense of urgency or danger — even when nothing’s happening
- Hyper-vigilance — scanning for something to go wrong
- Feeling trapped or stuck
- Irritability or being easily overwhelmed
- Fear of losing control or not being enough
These are energetic patterns — often rooted in your history of holding things together when life felt too much.
Mental Symptoms
Stuart often observed posture and shape as a mirror of internal state:
- Collapsing inward — as if hiding or withdrawing
- Tight, raised shoulders — a shield response
- Forward head, narrowed eyes — scanning and bracing
- Feet disconnected from the ground — lack of grounding
- Frozen face or forced smile — masking discomfort
He might say:
"Your *shape* tells the truth your words may not."
Contact
Become.Stuart.Heller@gmail.com
+1 845 743 4980
+1 845 743 4980
