Exploring Anxiety

Anxiety. It features large for many of us in so many ways – our own experience, our children, our wider family, our friends… In fact, how many of us reach the end of the day without mentioning the words anxiety/anxious at least once? And considering the negative bias that is a cultural live-with, how many of us can truly say that throughout our day, we regularly use the terms resilience, strength, resourceful or similar such words to describe our general state?

So, what could help us on the journey to free ourselves from its grasp? Firstly, I discovered that knowledge of something we are challenged by gives us valuable insight into how to manage, recover, and experience release from it.

So what is it?

Anxiety is a set of intense emotions with usually an accompanying distressed mental state that can also manifest in physical symptoms. This is as a result of having been in a state of fear in the past. At this time, we couldn’t express our emotions, and there was no one there to support us in processing them and releasing those emotions from our nervous systems. This could be from one event or multiple ongoing traumatic events.

If unprocessed, these emotions which become ‘warning signals’ get projected into the future as worst-case scenarios, which again activate the fear response, usually without consciously knowing why. Unchecked, this locked-in state of fear can result in different forms of anxiety, including PTSD, generalised anxiety, phobias, panic disorders and social anxiety.

But here’s the thing – let’s not assume we want to be rid of anxiety per se. The feelings that are associated with anxiety are valid and often appropriate responses to an external stimulus. It is when these feelings, mental state and associated physical symptoms are overwhelming and triggered as a regular fear response that we need to explore ways to heal.

The good news is that there are ways to properly process the emotions associated with the initial traumatic or difficult circumstances and restore balance.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. We are all unique, so what works for one does not necessarily work for another. But there are now many safe techniques, including some therapies that no longer require years and years on the couch.

In my search to understand, navigate, and find ways to mitigate, live with, and find release and respite from anxiety, I have explored different therapies and techniques, observing and questioning those trying different ways on their journeys. In the wellbeing groups for women that I coordinate and the one-to-one sessions I run, exploring the challenges that anxiety brings.

What I gleaned early on was that talking therapies can provide an opportunity to gain knowledge about the roots of what we are struggling with, an understanding that leads to self-awareness. There is power here. It can help us realise that if we understand the roots of our anxiety, then we have made a significant start on the path of healing.

But here’s the thing; It’s all about keeping our ‘four bodies’ well.

Let me explain: The four bodies relate to the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual (or whatever is comfortable for you to use here – maybe ‘connection’, a one-ness with others/ the natural world). If we engage simply the mind on our healing journey, we risk a very long journey to complete recovery and wellness. After all, we are only engaging some 20 per cent of ourselves – ignoring the other three bodies. A powerful analogy is the iceberg. The tip of the iceberg (and the above water bit) is the mind. Underneath the water is where so much more is going on; this is where our stuck and repetitive emotional patterns reside, stagnating in our bodies.

To truly heal, we need a holistic approach to wellness. For example, if we choose to ignore what is happening in the body, we risk the manifestation of physical illness as a result of traumas and negative emotional patterns that we have not processed and released.

So, let’s look at ways to restore balance optimum health…