6 Ways to Welcome Anxiety
Anxiety is a normal and healthy response to stress. We are wired to respond to threatening situations in ways that protect us. Fight, flight and freeze are all automatic reactions to external dangers. Anxiety falls into the category of a flight response and the increased heart rate, brain fog or adrenaline we feel is our body’s way of preparing us to respond. All of the energy is used to flee the threat at hand, therefore, we may feel very tired after having an anxious period and like we cannot think straight. Our nervous system sends information to the body which can result in many different physical manifestations, this information is based on how you are reacting to a threat that is real or perceived, what matters is to observe this response and to find ways that allow us to feel safer when faced with the trigger.
Life or death situations are obvious stressors, however, our body also registers other, more “minor” events as stressors. It is important to know this and to remember that anxiety is nothing scary or dangerous, even though it may very much feel that way. When we begin to understand anxiety instead of react to it, we can begin to see the answers it brings. We are like radars, especially those of us who are highly sensitive and can sense something coming. It can be difficult at first to differentiate between anxiety that stems from past fears or anxiety that is truly alerting us to something on the horizon. In time, we start getting to know our anxiety and distinguishing what lies behind it.
Anxiety can also be a response to repressed emotions that create mental fog which makes it harder to have access to them. We feel overwhelmed but cannot pinpoint where this overwhelm comes from.
I could go on about anxiety and the many causes behind it but instead, I’m going to give you some tips and tricks that I have learned throughout the years. As someone who has dealt with anxiety and panic attacks, I have come to understand and welcome anxiety as an ally in my life who shows up to tell me something needs to be looked at or that I am being asked to allow a higher level of acceptance, trust and surrender.
1. Do not analyze the anxious thoughts/feelings
When we get anxious, the mind may attempt to figure out why this anxiety is showing up, but this only brings us deeper into our heads and further down the rabbit hole. Instead, try to welcome your anxiety, and allow it to flow through you, even if it is uncomfortable. Do not try to control it by thinking about it. The answers come when we aren’t looking for them.
2. Connect with your body.
You can put your hand on your heart or stomach and focus on your breathing or on the sensations in your body without judging what is there, allow allow allow. Your anxiety is showing you how to let go. It is showing you where you hold resistance and fears and where you are in survival mode.
3. Talk to a loved one or professional
This can help you unpack the overwhelm and sort through it so that it does not feel as daunting. Our inner world can get overly messy and hard to sort through if we are not someone who expresses themselves in a healthy way. This accumulation may be best sorted through with a trusted loved one or a professional.
4. What you resist persists. Face your fears
What is the worst that can happen? Anxiety can be accompanied by obsessive thoughts, which are another way for us to control our environment. What if we disempowered those “scary” thoughts by facing them? After all, only you can empower a thought. Remember that when you focus on something you feed it and allow it to stick around. Anxiety may be your access to discovering you are a powerful creator.
5. Do something you enjoy
Placing your attention elsewhere for a few minutes or hours can bring clarity and allow you to see things differently.
6. Be open to higher guidance
You can ask your higher self, angels, guides, god, the universe, or anything that resonates with you to help you shift your perspective and allow you to see things from a higher view. Often times when we are anxious we tend to focus on a thought because it seems we haven’t found a solution for it. We remain stuck there but when we connect to our higher selves, we see that some things simply need to be accepted instead of fixed, controlled or changed. This can take a big load off our mind and body.
Thank you for reading,
Yasmine