Hand vs the Fist II

Ask the client to close their hand into a fist. Ask them to squeeze it tight, perhaps until the fingernails dig into the palm making it unpleasant.
Ask them whether this is pleasant or unpleasant.
Ask them whether they would like this to continue or to go away. They will likely say they want it to go away.
After a few moments, ask them to relax their hand.
Now ask them, how their hand feels now. Is it pleasant or unpleasant? They will likely say that it is pleasant now.
Now ask them, “is it still the same hand?” They will likely answer, “of course, yes” in a somewhat bemused way.
Now we can point out that this is like anxiety and other difficult emotions. Our hand in this exercise is equivalent to our energy, and the anxiety is equivalent to the state of the energy, i.e. tight and constrained. We don’t want to get rid of the energy - that would be equivalent to cutting off our own hand, which is clearly a silly way to handle the situation. Similarly, we’re not looking to “cut off” the anxiety. We want to help our energy shift into another state - to relax. It will still be our energy, but our experience of it will be completely different.