Navigating Through Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal and healthy emotion in humans. Anxiety begins with bodily sensations, and often times, out of our search for answers, if not, someone, somehow, somewhere, will coin the word anxiety for us.

From sensations, we now have an emotion “anxiety”.

Anxiety is neither positive nor negative; it is our body’s natural response to stress. In time of great uncertainties, where we are billions spread across the globe with this sense of that what we knew, what we believed in, what we held as, what we cherished and what we have crafted as life has crumbled down and we have little or no power over this. When anxiety shows up, fear hovers, for there is little or no control on what is happening and what will happen in future.   There is no wrongness with anxiety but if our life is controlled and led through and by anxiety, then we are in an unhealthy cycle and sooner or later, we will burn ourselves out.   Anxiety is less in the mind but more in the body. But the mind taps into the body and then from that space starts a series of scenarios. The mind is skilled at creating stories, at projecting, at visioning the future, at analyzing, at linking, at comparing, at referencing, at memorizing and in 99% of the time, these are nothing but movies. Trauma does not ease this process.  We are endless who scan for danger outside, for we live in danger inside our body. Unsafety is our reality, both inside and outside.

We navigate through anxiety.  Showing Away |Parking Aside | Pretending

None of these intervention attempts work or least, last over the medium and long term We do not have to like the discomfort and arousal of anxiety   When anxiety shows up, it ushers discomfort and arousal but it also drains. We all react and act differently in face of anxiety and may we be reminded that none of these determine our worth as humans.   The moment, we dive into liking or not liking the experience, we are already into judgement. We are allowed to  judge. It's ok to judge. May we not let these judgments overtake us. But once, pass this stage, however we choose to move, even if one step per day, moving to the unchanging, untouched, un-shattered inner core within us From that point, we learn to navigate through the emotion or sensations.

We say “navigate” for we go  through this phase with the knowingness that we will learn, and it's ok to feel every single emotion without traumatizing and re-traumatizing self. We say navigate for navigation is the part of the process of resilience building. Now is the time to build resilience. Our perceptions impact our resilience. How we perceive this current phase matters, for unconsciously, we are planting seeds for years to come.

  Below are links to youtube videos on how we may navigate through anxiety.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7JP2-Tc0F77gLhoMEuSy0MFXOjzuCo6z

free to share with anyone who may need these words. Stay Safe | Safety begins within   Reach out for support and to be supported. It takes one grounded conversation, one voice, one act of hearing and being heard to shift our perceptions. Love from my heart to yours

Image source: @Canvas