Ways To Overcome Anxiety?

Despite the title of this article, "overcoming" anxiety is not possible nor ideal. Instead, to transcend it, we must accept and integrate it.

Negative Feelings Can Serve You

The problem with most people's perspectives as they initially struggle with ANY feeling that they do not desire is that it is NOT serving them. They assume that there is something they need to change about themselves or that they are not doing something right, and that is why they are feeling a certain way. Anxiety is no different than any other feeling that you feel yet do not desire to explore. It is based on beliefs or fears. Instead of pushing these feelings away, we need to gain the ability to embrace and transcend them in order to change them.  

Anxiety Is A Good Thing

The idea that the feeling that we call stress is something terrible is an illusion. Just shift it into a positive view, no matter what it feels like. Every experience that we have is in some way supporting us. It is only in hindsight that we see how. Despite this, we can still maintain our knowledge that EVERY experience that we give ourselves—at that moment—is benefiting us in some way. When we apply this to the experience of anxiety, we can have a powerful shift in consciousness. Again, we may not PREFER to be feeling anxious, but that preference has NOTHING to do with the perspective that what we are currently experiencing is in our highest good.

What Is Anxiety?

Anxiety, more than anything else, is about a lack of presence. There are two types of stress: anticipation, and in-the-moment. As you anticipate something or someone or some experience, you are taking yourself entirely out of the present moment. As we are in the moment of needing to do something or say something, and we feel the tsunami of anxiety, we are likely attempting to live in the mind of someone else. In both cases, we are not here, we are not now, and we are not as authentically experiencing ourselves as we could be.

Tension = Anxiety

Release tension, release anxiety. Tension in our body can be released through physically stretching our muscles. Tension in our emotions can be released by allowing our emotions to flow through us. A way we can do this is by crying, screaming, saying how we feel, etc. Tension in our mentality can be released by accepting the reality that we are in and making no attempt to control it any further at that moment. Full acceptance. Breathing and drinking more clean water without motion, without emotion, and without thought, as deeply and slowly as you possibly can, is a way to release ALL bodily tension. We can make things complicated, but these practices will immediately reduce anxiety. If we do them repetitively—as in EVERY time we feel anxious—we will reprogram our subconscious self to know that we will soon experience a release each time we experience anxiety. I had someone who attended one of my webinars send me a note to let me know that she just did the three things I recommended—10 minutes of stretching, 10 minutes of breathing, and doubling water intake—for one week and, after a month, did not have one anxiety attack. Something that she was attempting to relinquish herself of for over a year. These are basic things that we can all do!

Stop resisting the anxiety—GO INTO IT! It seems counter-intuitive, but it is not. The feeling of dread absent the thoughts that you may associate with the atmosphere is something to be integrated, not something to avoid or battle against. A straightforward activity of going deeper into the fearful feeling without any judgment or attachment can hit the release valve on many pent-up things. Most anxiety is simply uncertainty about stress due to a fear of not being able to control it. If you can prove to yourself that you do not NEED to control it, but rather can let it flow through you, you will be more prepared for your anxiety, and this will significantly lessen the addition to the suffering that comes along with it.

Final Thoughts

You do not need to be in a battle with your emotions or your beliefs. All of these things are within your control/within your allowance. Nobody is judging you, even if you believe that they are. Who you are has NOTHING to do with what other people choose to think about how you present yourself. We are entirely independent of defining ourselves how best fits us. Once we integrate these ideas of independence of thought and emotion, anxiety drops away.