Open Portal

with Ashley Handel

So much of your time and energy is spent worrying or stressed when it doesn’t have to be.

I want you to feel in love with life and to begin to unhook from the pull of anxiety.

I want to help you cultivate an environment inside of you where anxiety can’t make a home. 

I know what it feels like to be highly sensitive with crippling anxiety that feels impossible to shake. I spent my childhood and early adulthood so critical of my intense emotions and desire to move slower than everyone else. I struggled with perfectionism, over-achieving and people pleasing, so anxious that if I did or said anything wrong that I wouldn’t be able to cope with the consequences. I didn’t trust myself, I didn’t have the capacity to feel safe in my own body much of the time and relied on outside validation and praise to feel ok. 

It’s taken me years to finally learn how to manage my anxiety, and I want to share with you the most helpful tools and concepts I’ve learned along my journey to help you get there faster. 

Understanding anxiety is a lot easier when you know where to start and have help along the way.

That’s where Open Portal comes in.

when you complete Open Portal, you’ll know:

• What anxiety actually is, how it affects your nervous system and the fundamental body-based practices that will help you release anxious energy.

• How to recognise when anxiety comes on and stop it in its tracks so that it doesn’t grow out of control.

• Why you’re anxious so that you can gain perspective, release judgement, and develop self-compassion

Your life will change because you will:

• Be less reactive when things go wrong

• Feel more rested and have more energy

• Know how to cope with challenge and difficulty in healthy ways

• Feel way more alive and connected to yourself, your loved ones, and your community.

• Finally understand where you anxious thoughts come from and what to do about them.

• No longer feel like the anxiety you experience is a personality trait.

• Have more time and energy to do the things you love because anxiety won’t be creating as many roadblocks.

Problems you’ll no longer have:

• Not knowing how to curb anxiety when it arises

• Not knowing where it’s coming from, feeling confused and disempowered

• Not having enough tools, or a diversity of tools for different situations and contexts

• Not feeling enough vitality and joy

• Not feeling understood

• Feeling alone in your struggle

What action will you be able to take? 

• Put yourself in social situations with more confidence and ease, when normally you would avoid them altogether

• Carry out daily tasks and feel more ready for action because you feel stronger and more capable

• Re-direct your energy efficiently and affectively by becoming more familiar with the sensations, feelings and thoughts that arise through anxiety

• Know when and how to rest so that you maintain ongoing mental, emotional, and physical balance

What will your life be like? 

• Much more in flow, less resistance and struggle

• No longer ruled by anxiety and what you think it means about you

• You’ll have more compassion and understanding for yourself

• You’ll feel more able to do the things that light you up

• You’ll have better connections with others

Module 1: What is Anxiety?

We’ll define what anxiety is, how it is different from depression, explore the key themes that surround anxiety, and name some of the main causes. This first module is about empowering ourselves with concrete information to de-mystify anxiety so we can work with it. 

Included in this module:

• Journalling practice to explore where anxiety is showing up in your life and why it might be there.

• Two quick and effective grounding practices to help with overwhelm in the moment.

Module 2: The Nervous System

You’ll learn the fundamentals of how your nervous system responds to stress and anxiety. You’ll learn what it means to regulate your nervous system from a Polyvagal perspective, what your window of tolerance is and why widening that window is key to working with anxiety. 

Included in this module:

• The body scan practice

• Key practices to reorientate to safety

• The body compass: anxious vs relaxed responses

Module 3: The Role of your Thoughts

What we think has a huge affect on how anxious we feel. In this module you’ll learn about the Think-Feel-Act cycle, what intrusive thoughts are and how to work with them, and how to choose different thoughts to encourage different responses to anxiety. 

Included in this module:

• Thought exercises to separate fact from opinion, and how to take anxious thoughts and gently shift them to more neutral, helpful thoughts.

• Writing exercises to uncover your unconscious beliefs about anxiety that get in the way of shifting to more helpful thought patterns

• Writing/ mapping exercises to help you intervene when intrusive thoughts arise

Module 4: The Breath

You’ll learn the fundamentals and benefits of good breathing as well as the impact of breathing on your nervous system and how essential it is to relieving anxiety. 

Included in this module:

• The essential breath and breath perception

• 3 part breath

• Gentle movement practice for making space to breathe

• 3 dimensional breathing

• Specific breathing techniques to encourage certain energetic states: Sama Vritti (Equal Breath), Coherent Breathing, Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodana), 2:1 Breathing, 4:7:8 Breath

Module 5: Strength + Resilience

Learning to build strength and resilience in our bodies helps us to feel more capable and channel/ tolerate the more difficult sensations that arise through anxiety. You’ll learn how to build your own strength practice and the variety of ways you can explore your own resilience and emotional limits within a safe and controlled environment. 

Included in this module:

• Full body joint practice you can do before weights practice or anytime to feel more vitality

• 3 different strength practices, combining weights and resistance bands

• Progressive press- up tutorial (bc press ups are so hard but so good for full body strength and there are ways to make them more appropriate and accessible for different strengths/body types)

• Bounce, jump, shake cardiovascular practice to explore sensation and resilience.

Module 6: Rest + Sleep

Both rest and sleep are fundamental in helping to ease anxiety and feel more grounded. You’ll learn the difference between the two and why both are important, explore what energises you and drains you, how to create the conditions for rest, and how to work with intrusive thoughts that prevent you from falling or staying asleep. 

Included in this module:

• 4 essential restorative yoga postures for resting

• Self-massage practice to release tension in muscles and encourage relaxation

• Short self-soothing touch practices to help ground and support you in the moment

• A Yoga nidra inspired practice for deeper relaxation and conscious rest

Price

£197*

OR

2 monthly payments of £98.50

*As a thank you for attending the workshop, scroll down below to purchase the course in full, at half the price!

Open Portal

with Ashley Handel

FAQs

I don’t have time.

The tools you’ll learn will make it so that you gain back time spent worrying, anxious, and pre-occupied. Because it’s self-paced you can work on it in small chunks, wherever they exist in your day (even it’s just for 5 min!) When you purchase the course you’ll immediately receive a video of my top 3 tips for carving out space and time to move through the course, so that you can prepare in advance.

I don’t do well with self-paced stuff, or stuff I have to do on my own.

You’ll get weekly email reminders so that you stay on track and engaged with the material. The content is structured to be digestible and practical, so you can apply it immediately to your real life. Not only will you have email support if questions arise or you need help, but you have access to 1:1 support from me for an additional fee to help you move through it as well. Not mention the weekly live Q + A you can join to talk with others moving through the course too! 

My anxiety is too scary to look at.

I felt this too once, and still feel it sometimes. Ask yourself, “what is the risk if I don’t look at it, if I choose to stay where I am?” Because this is a self-paced course, it’s designed to give you foundational knowledge that will empower you, rather than confuse or discourage you. I’ll show you how to work through the parts of your anxiety that are ready to shift, and support the parts that maybe aren’t ready just yet. Change doesn’t have to be monumental to be affective, and in fact it’s the small, manageable shifts that make the biggest difference over time. 

I’m anxious sometimes, but it comes and goes. I’d like to feel more at ease, but I’m not sure my anxiety is bad enough. Will I still benefit from taking the course?

Absolutely! There’s a common attitude that we shouldn’t need or want help until things are really bad. That the desire to feel just a little bit better than you did before isn’t worth investing in as much as something that’s going to pull you from the depths of despair and completely change your life. While massive changes are compelling, my personal experience with the changes that have stuck have been incremental, ongoing, and based on fundamental concepts and knowledge that have anchored me in reality over time, rather than a magic pill I took once. That’s what this course is, and it’s worth taking it whether you need a lot or a little bit of help. 

Anxiety runs in my family so I’m pretty sure I will always be anxious.

I too have anxiety in my family, and I know that how we are raised and the ancestral lineage of anxious behaviour that we inherit can be very challenging to navigate because it is so engrained in us. It’s literally in our cells. This is why I don’t claim that you’ll be able to “solve” or “get rid of” anxiety completely through this course. What you will be able to do is better understand how and why it manifests for you, and be able to interrupt cycles of anxiety when they arise. It’s been so comforting for me to recognise that a lot of the anxiety I’ve been carrying around for many years is actually not mine, is actually learned behaviours that I can take steps to unlearn. 

The course is too expensive for me, I can’t afford it.

I hear you. It might be helpful to ask yourself whether you actually don’t have the money (which is completely valid), or if you are scared/unwilling to invest in yourself in this way, something is holding you back from going all in. Consider the time and energy you will gain by addressing your anxiety. Consider how your quality of life will change, your relationships, and your sense of self. Consider how investing in your well being now will contribute to your ongoing ability to thrive and make the most of this one life, and is that worth it to you. And, know that whatever choice you make for yourself in the end is the right choice, and I am not here to judge you if now is not a good time for you financially. In case it is helpful, payment plans are absolutely available and detailed above. 

What if I get lost or have questions?

Every course participant has access to email support from me for the duration of the course, as well as weekly live Q + A sessions where you can ask your questions on the spot or send in a question to be answered if you can’t make it in person. All calls will be recorded and posted to the course site. If you would like additional support and a more tailored, personal experience, 1:1 coaching with me is available.

How is this different from any other course on anxiety?

A lot of courses on anxiety stop at the level of addressing the symptoms, rather than going deeper into the root, the reasons behind why anxiety is there. Some courses address the root of the anxiety but maybe don’t offer as much understanding of how to shift that anxiety through the body. Still other courses might help you work through anxiety on a personal level, but don’t address the relational and societal aspects of anxiety that have a huge impact. This course aims to touch upon all of these equally, providing not only tools but fundamental concepts you can refer back to again and again.

I already do yoga, which helps.

This course is the perfect supplement to your yoga practice. There are some yogic principles and practices weaved throughout, but there are a lot of practices that serve to fill in the gaps around that, including thought work, nervous system education, working with weight and resistance, and attachment/ relational embodiment practices. This course, along with the yoga you do, gives you a well rounded understanding and toolkit for working with anxiety in all contexts. 

I go to therapy, which helps some. What can this offer me instead of/ alongside that?

Whilst therapy can be a wonderful tool to support mental and emotional health, many of the changes and insights made in therapy can have a hard time sticking because the body hasn’t processed and integrated them. In order for us to truly feel less anxious, we have to understand how the mental and emotional stuff going on can get trapped in our body- we repeat the same reactions, patterns of tension or physiological stress, compulsive actions because we’ve taught our body to respond in that way, whether consciously or unconsciously. The embodiment practices in this course teach you how to respond DIFFERENTLY in your body, so that you can shift out of unhealthy mental and emotional patterns and support the integration of healthy ones.  

Do I need any props/ equipment to do the course?

A journal + a timer. I’d recommend getting a journal dedicated to this course so that you can be free from distraction by other content in your journal, and so that you can continue to repeat the practices you like in the same journal once the course is finished.

A space to practice in- about the size of a yoga mat, with space to stretch your arms in all directions

A yoga mat is helpful, but not necessary. For lying down practices you might like a blanket or rug if you don’t have a yoga mat.

A computer or tablet- phones might be too small to see the recorded practices clearly

A stable internet connection

For the module on Strength + Resilience, you’ll need:

Resistance Bands. Here is a basic 3-pack you can purchase, which includes light (yellow), medium (red), and heavy (green) resistance.

2 small hand weights- 1 to 4kg

1 large weight/kettle bell- 6-10kg

*If you’ve never done strength work, choose a lighter weight to be safe. If you absolutely cannot get a hold of hand weights, find items in your house of similar weight and size. You can still learn the concepts of strength training even without the weight, but you’ll get the most out of the practice if you do have some weight/resistance to work with.

For the module on Rest + Sleep, you’ll need:

A variety of pillows + cushions:

An eye pillow or scarf

A wall, or edge of your bed or couch

If you don’t have access to any of these props, feel free to get creative!

My Promise to You

All sales are final, but if you still feel like you aren’t seeing the positive changes you desire, even after moving through all of the modules carefully and doing all of the practices, please get in touch. I want to help you in any way I can so let’s have a conversation about what’s not working so we can move you in the right direction together.

Testimonials

Joining Open Portal

As a thank you for attending the free workshop, you can access Open Portal for just £98.50.

Click on the link below to make your purchase.

The price will be going up once I launch the course to the general public, so now is the time to act and lock in the discount offered exclusively for people who’ve taken the free workshop.

Choosing to purchase the course now at the pre-sale price also gives you access to a 10% discount on 1:1 support from me, to help you move through the course with even more clarity and personal application. 

What Happens Next

The full course will be released on April 4th, 2023.  

Once you’ve made your purchase, you’ll receive a welcome email with all the instructions on how to access the course when it becomes available and any other important information, including how to book your 1:1 support. You’ll also receive a checklist with everything you’ll need before you begin in April.

You are not helpless.

You are ready to empower yourself with the knowledge and skills that will completely transform your relationship to anxiety.