Anxiety.
The thing you wish you could get rid of but can never truly shake. And you might not like me for saying this, but it’s an emotion we don’t want to get rid of.
In healthy doses, anxiety is an extremely helpful emotion - it signals to us that there may be danger, which can ultimately save our lives. But, for many of us, our system may have become overly focused on keeping us safe, making anxiety feel like a constant companion of ours.
Despite its good intentions, anxiety can make our worlds incredibly small
• You may **_avoid_** social situations due to fear of rejection or judgment• Since you’re overthinking by preparing for scenarios A through Z, you feel exhausted or low-energy more often than not
• It’s hard for you to truly be present because you’re constantly thinking about what could go wrong
• You may stick to the places and people you feel comfortable with; the uncertainty of trying something new or meeting new people is frightening
• You may need days to recover after pushing yourself out of your comfort zone or something unexpected happening
• You might beat yourself up after something you didn’t anticipate happens, or you thought about plans A to Y but didn’t consider Z
It’s like a fire alarm in your house, but it’s having a hard time knowing the difference between a true fire and that decorative candle you just lit. To your brain and body, that candle flame feels like a very real and potential threat, maybe because of your past experiences. Maybe you had a painful experience happen that you didn’t anticipate, and now your brain is on high alert to try and keep you safe from it happening again in the future. Maybe you had caregivers who were anxious, and your system learned to be just as sensitive to potential danger as theirs were.
Whatever the cause or reasons may be, to your body it feels real.
In our work together, we can practice different strategies, like mindfulness, breathing exercises, or thought logs, to help try and bring your system down to a more calm state. We can explore the roots of your anxiety and begin processing past experiences that may have made your system hyper-alert to any potential dangers. This may be done through dialogue with your anxiety or uncovering core beliefs about yourself.
Our goal isn’t to get rid of the anxiety completely, but to better understand it and have experiences that discredit it. When we do encounter anxiety again, we can navigate it with more confidence, clarity, and a greater capacity to sit with it before making choices.