Image via Death to Stock
Knots in your stomach, beads of sweat on your forehead, not quite being able to find your words, feet tapping, shaky legs, quivering lip, speaking too fast . . .
Our natural reaction is to resist, to move fast, escape, to pretend it’s not happening.
And so, we resist our body’s guide once more, we jam it into some part of us along with all the other shocks, shames, tremors and terrors we’ve stashed there.
Our own private ghost train, that we stupidly believe will sit silent, while we get on with our carefully curated life.
What we resist persists: resurfacing another day.
Next time may be a more extreme version: heart racing, thoughts spinning, blurred vision. Fancy a panic attack?
But what if you met it, not head on, but with compassion and questions. You disarmed it with tender inquiry. And wrapped it in love.Enantiodromia, from the ancient Greeks, means anything fully felt can become its opposite. Your anxiety becomes your peace: your fear, faith Click To Tweet
Carl Jung the psychiatrist introduced it is as a principle where like nature, we are always seeking balance, so anxiety shows us our shadow so we can choose our light.
So instead of resisting anxiety. Invite it in. Open the door like it’s a welcome visitor with gifts.
Gifts you welcome. Gifts that heals: that empowers, that begins a process to seek out the source of anxiety so you can transform it to its opposite: your weakness to strength, your hatred to love, your resentment to forgiveness.
By accepting our duality we get to choose our light.
For me anxiety shows up when I’m in the unknown, surrendering control, waiting. I experience in my belly. My actions are scattered, my mind is muddled. I start to do something, move to something else and on it goes. Multiple screens open all at once. And then I completely forget what I started and really need to be doing.
My normality is to be in it, focused and in flow. So distraction and disruption are directives to: ‘Time to stop and listen real close’.
Another Ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus resolved that ‘Men are disturbed not by events but by their opinion about events.’ Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher weighed in to suggest it’s governed by our beliefs and when we act against them, anxiety is a natural way of bringing this to our attention so we can return to balance. I’m in his camp.
So are you ready to give frustration the push and embrace ease?
First acknowledge it Accept your anxious and maybe even declare it OUTLOUD. Reality while not always pretty cuts through the story.
Second get curious about it Your body is saying ‘STOP! THIS FEELS BAD’ Your mission is to go find the cause of it. Try not to get caught up in the symptoms. Look at what’s beneath. Your divining for its source.
Anxiety is like a nagging child repeating itself until you give it attention. It wants to be heard, then go about its merry way.
I breathe into my belly and approach it something like this ‘Why am I feeling this?’ ‘Am I afraid I can’t do this?’ Nope. ‘Am I afraid they won’t like it?’ No, not really “Am I afraid they’ll reject me/think I’m not enough?’ Yep, bull’s eye.
It’s always about a fear of failure, rejection and of looking bad, really terrifyingly, awfully humiliatingly bad.
When I hit the spot I begin to feel my energy expanding, opening; like I’ve pulled a rock that was blocking the stream. My power returns.
Keep asking until you get here. You’ll know when you do. Your body softens.
This can be tough work, it’s courageous. You’ve met it. Feel your energy, your power return. You’ve established the what and the why. Breathe and smile you’re almost there.
Finally Blend it and Release it Now you’re in with it. Bring your heart energy to it. Mix the anxiety with love. Expand it and fill it with light until it is ready to fully release. Ask if it has a message for you. Receive it. Thank it for the gift it’s been.
Anxiety is a signpost, a metric, a red flag, an opening to awareness, to self love, to joy.
It’ll show you a habit, a behaviour, a way of being, a memory, a pain, a shame, a game you no longer want to play. It’s inviting you to evolve and grow. You have to meet it, greet it and treat it with respect, with love, courage, grit and grace.
It then reminds you ‘Now you know, what will you do instead?’ ‘What will you believe instead?’ What will you choose instead?’
Your anxiety won’t go anywhere if you keep doing the same thing. Embody the change through new actions.Actions speak louder than words and embed experiences. Repeated actions create new habits, new neural pathways. Click To Tweet
It’s time to be the grown up who takes care of yourself, who makes choices that work for you: that empower you to be who you really are.
When you were a child your were told. Eat this. Brush your teeth. Drink this. Wear this. Learn this. Say this. See this. Do this. Now it’s up to you to take care of you. When you’re thirsty, drink. Hungry, eat. Restless, move (your body, not country 🙂 Tired, have a rest. Your self care is your domain, your responsibility. Your freedom is the right to discipline yourself. Your choices create your life in every moment. Click To Tweet
Now exhale and let it go Release it to the white light. Breathe in more love and know that this part of you loves you too.
With practice you can do this in the blink of an eye. Do it again when anxiety comes calling: tomorrow, next week or next year.
Now, get on with your day aligned and laser focused, mind and body clear, spirit happy.
If you want more like this send me an email below. I’ll send you a Moon Cycle Planner for 2017 (yet I tune to the Moon) Choose the Northern Hemisphere or down under, or if you’re a constant traveller. Have both.
Download your Southern Hemisphere planner below
Download your Northern Hemisphere planner below
It’s a print quality file so place it on your wall where you can see it, to track your intentions and progress or if you fancy it as a screen saver. Email me and I’ll send you a smaller file.
Enjoy. Always love
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