Is Anxiety controlling your life?

Anxiety is a common human emotion. 

Defined as experiencing unease, nervousness, or worry, typically about something in the future. 

Anxiety is simply a vibration in our body. But it can feel like it's something that is happening TO us. Like it's something out of our control. 

Just based on this definition, we know that if it's "about something in the future", it's something we imagine, meaning it's in our imagination. We are making up the story of what might or could happen. Usually these thoughts are unlikely or unrealistic. They can also be true, but thinking them doesn't make us feel good. 

This is all such a great reminder that it's the thoughts we are thinking that are causing the sensation of anxiety. And remember, we control our thoughts. 

The trick, is to catch it! When we recognize that we are feeling anxiety, we just need to lean into it. What does that mean? Allow the emotion. 

What makes it worse, is resisting, avoiding, reacting, or fighting it. We can also layer on thoughts like "I shouldn't be feeling this way". Remember it's a common human emotion. That means we all feel it. Our survival brain interprets the sensation as a threat of danger and reacts accordingly. 

Nothing has gone wrong, there is nothing wrong with you. It's a common human emotion. When you recognize and actively accept the feeling, you gain some control. Anxiety thrives on vague, so get curious. Explore the feeling and thoughts behind it. Describe what you're experiencing in as much detail as possible. 

When you explore, you've just asked your brain to do something and it will do it. And in turn, you've just interrupted the anxiety. You've just redirected your thinking from the thinking that was causing the anxiety. 

Anxiety can definitely feel like something that happens to us. And even like something we can't control. The truth is that we can control it. We can interrupt it. We can think something different. 

The first step is to recognize the emotion when it's happening. Actively accept it, the act of observing it, creates space to become the watcher of it. When we allow it, we gain a sense of authority over it. 

We will never stop it from happening. It's a common human emotion. We can however, gain control over the experience. 

Anxiety doesn't have to be something we have. It can be something we navigate. 

Let me know if you'd like my Anxiety Exercise with steps to follow when you experience anxiety. 

As always, grabbing your journal when you experience anxiety can be a way to redirect your brain to a task of writing down everything going through your head. This also interrupts the experience of anxiety, interrupts the thoughts you were thinking. You brain is now focused on writing down everything you are experiencing, and not focused on the thoughts and sensations they're causing. 

Take control of your experience. It's always within your power. 

Let me know if I can help. Ask any questions. Share struggles or wins.

I'm here cheering you on! You got this!