So anxiety seems to be an all too-present piece of the day and age. We are seeing that roughly 4 in 10 people are struggling with anxiety. Something that has only gained any traction recently.
How do we calm down the noise of Anxiety?
So anxiety is present and accounted for, what can we do about it? This is the real trick and question ultimately. I know personally, I have started to look at the cup as half full. I am dealing with anxiety and need to figure out a way to continue to move forward. Heck, beyond that, how can I move into thriving? Now here comes an overwhelmingly large scope of work.
Many people will swear by this medication, that prescription, or some other novel trick they have used. The question, for me, boils down to what is it that anxiety is. So anxiety is a relationship to sensations, to information, and then how our brain is wired to build with this information.
In other words, changing the process that this goes through, then changes the ultimate effect of anxiety(the sensations) on our life. We are hardwired to survive and it turns out that plugging our brain into an information highway, can, and does, have incredible knock-on effects with regard to how we feel and then live our lives.
Now, this makes sense as to why medications work, stop an overactive area, inhibit a responsive area, and look at different ways to work with the symptoms. This works, but I see that it needs to address the real cause of the problem. The relationship we have towards our lives, from the smallest part to the biggest. We see that the sensation comes in, that there is a response, and this then leads to the way that we live our lives. Remember that we are constantly looking at what we have experienced and what we ultimately want to experience. Then look at what ways we are able to move forward.
Most of this is subconscious, which is to say it arises from our childhood, decisions, and environments of overall experiences we had, culminating into what we learned is important and unimportant.
So what is the anxiety part?
The anxious part arises when we have filed the information as being important for survival, that is when anxiety comes up. We are hardwired to survive in arid to sub-zero temperatures, so we are naturally designed to be aware of threats and respond to them before they become problems. A problem arises when we have very few problems, but that part of the brain is still engaged and running. So now we look and find problems that are as close to that lion. Needing to hit KPIs, Being on time for work, Social interactions, and Relationships.
All things that are quite natural when it comes to being alive and existing. Things that we could be quite a bit unattached to. However, we live in a society where, to some degree, each of these really do play a role in and toward our well-being. As such we find an incredible opportunity to be lambasted with their potential of them. So much so that we often end up existing in a state of angst in and around the situation, potentially even curbing ourselves from following and enacting the solution.
Wait, there is a solution?!
The trick, I find, with many things these days, is there are far more solutions than there need be. Almost at the point of there being an overwhelming number of paths that could be taken. Which one to choose, which one feels right, which one is……
Paralysis analysis, the state when there are too many options and even making one has now begun to take on such a requirement of energy that to do none suddenly becomes the most shiny one.
Is this balanced, no.
Now this is obvious, but our Brian, the intern that works in your brain, is a cognitive miser, which is to say, it doesn’t want to do things that are really difficult, or quite simply, require effort.
The brain is an organ, and as such, doesn’t really want to expend energy, if it can be at all prevented. So it looks at complex tasks and does everything it can to stop us from doing it.
Willpower, motivation, and having a solid why, are great ways to move through this.
They provide the distance between the stimuli, the automatic response, and our desire to move beyond. Such that we are able to ultimately affect the change we wish to see in our lives. Which still takes time. However, even this changes when the world is looked at in cycles, recognizing that the changes I want to see, are happening, and I am in the process of currently creating the change. How do I do this better?
Take time…
Now take note that I say take time, as opposed to take your time.
Anxiety is an alarm clock that won't stop going off. Very much keeping it going in a way and rate that is unhealthy to the body and biological system. Trying to do anything can fuel the anxiety further. The healthiest step to engage a change is to simply allow the reaction to occur, in a stable environment.
Now you may say that you are in an unstable environment, however, we can help create a fractional amount more stability. The easiest way I find to do this is to sit with myself. Nothing fancy, just to sit and breathe, eyes open, eyes closed, honestly quite beside the point.
The fact of the matter is: Sitting on the ground (nature is best), with an upright spine, closed eyes and even breathing, is always going to be a serious power space.
However sometimes this is unreasonable, and not something we have the capacity to do.
So do the best that you can. Take some time, take some space.
Yes, it will be uncomfortable, however, it is also forming as training for you to handle a greater charge of discomfort. Initially, it will be uncomfortable.
This changes.
In fact, as the practice continues, the way we inherently relate to the sensations we experience also changes, which then allows us to really get to see and live our lives.
Like with most things, it takes practice, but continuity of practice is what really begins to be an epically important piece to this process. Realizing that the same place you visit while sitting there, is attainable in any situation, at any moment, regardless of what is happening externally.
So take up the time and make use of the space. Your mind will do its best to get you to move, to be distracted, and to follow some thread it conjures. Relax and let it go. Begin to recondition the medium through which you see reality. As you do, reality changes.
Now, don’t take my word for it, try it. Try for even just one breath. As many times as you remember. Just start tracking what that single breath throughout your day does for your anxiety.
Ride the waves and change your response to anxiety.
