For most people Anxiety is a terrifying and uncomfortable sensation. And when we experience anxiety frequently, it then becomes a sensation we fear. It can run wild to the point that it takes over our lives. Everyday tasks can become daunting, and our journey takes us down a path we never expected to go down.
Anxiety takes you out of life.
But what if we can become the true hero of our journey? What if we can be brave and place ourselves right back in life and on our path again?
People who suffer from anxiety are true heroes. They get up each day, they put on a brave face, and they try and get on with life. They pick themselves up after each and every setback. They silently struggle. They put themselves out there time and time again.
This is true bravery. This is what true courage really is.
We know that these intrusive thoughts do not represent the real you. They are just a result of a creative and overactive imagination. If your mind is strong enough to have these thoughts, it is also strong enough to change these thoughts.
As strange as its sounds, the greatest obstacle to healing your anxiety is you.
Actually, you are your own cure. You are your own safe zone.
Anxiety is your protector; its only job is to keep you safe. It is never there to harm you. Sometimes it is simply overreacting. It is during this time that we perceive these thoughts and sensations as ‘dangerous’, and we come to fear our protector, instead of thinking of our thoughts as being like an angel that watches over us.
When we learn to change our perspective and our reactions to anxiety to the point where we can allow and invite the sensations in, we make less room for anxiety and fear to take over.
If we allow the sensations to just be, then there is no longer the need for that ‘fight or flight’ response.
What if we changed our response to:
Acknowledge it
Welcome and embrace it
Encourage it
When you experience some of these anxious thoughts, feelings or sensations, the game changer is actually what you do after that.
If we can learn to acknowledge them, accept them and actually encourage them then we are taking away their power and the sensations subside rather than build.
The more you allow and invite these sensations, the more anxiety becomes your friend again. Once you can remove this resistance, your mind stops overreacting and thinking there is something it has to protect you from. This then allows us to live in balance and peace again.
There is a saying ‘what you resist persists, and what you accept can transform you’.
Anxiety can steal so much from us but is can also teach us that the greatest lesson is to become your own superhero through the gifts that anxiety will give you on your journey.
Sometimes the gift is in the wound.
Never give up on finding your cure. Write your own story, don’t let anxiety write it for you.
For more mindset and mental wellbeing tools and information, join our Positive Mindset Challenge at https://yourhappyplace.org.nz/