ANXIETY - WHOSE IS IT AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO DISSOLVE IT

We all have our high's and low's.  Sometimes high high's and low low's.  Not sure about you but I noticed that, even on meds, I still experienced high high's and low low's.  

Doctor's tried various medicinal combinations but each cocktail made me feel worse than the last combination which is where I discovered that meds are just not for me and my body just doesn't take well to chemicals.  I think that goes for most of us.

Anxiety has been a number one showstopper for me.  I say has been because I am so much more aware now than ever before.  For those who don't know, anxiety feels like you're fully and physically experiencing the not-knowingness of a future event, feeling unable to control the outcome.  If you've never had it, can you even begin to imagine how intense that feels?

Some only discover that they are anxious much later on in life which means that there is so much more programming and so very many more belief systems that need to be dissolved.

Here's where it gets interesting.  Like it's not enough having your own anxiety, did you know you could pick up on other people's anxiety too?  As a collective, we are all so strongly intertwined and connected to one another that we feel what others are feeling.

For example, have you ever thought about someone and then they text or call you?  Or you have an idea that you don't verbalise and then it happens?  How about when your child falls and hurts themselves, ever felt pain in your body when that happens?  Your pets, ever noticed them acting weird sometimes?  They are picking up on energies.  What about when you aren't well, have ever experienced your cat treading water and purring?   Energy is contagious, they are trying to get you well.

So, could you believe then, that we also pick up on other people's emotions (e-motion = energy in motion)? Just the same as when, for example, you come home in a great mood and it has a knock on effect to those around you.

It didn't really click for me until I had spent some time in a relationship with a man with 2 children.  On a particular day when I didn't really have much to be anxious about but had extremely high anxiety levels to the point it made me nauseous, I reached out to him to ask whether he was ok to which he divulged his troubles to me.  It happened more frequently as I became more aware and in tune with my body.  I felt it when his kids weren't ok.  When it was his daughter, I felt it in my solar plexus and when it was his son, in my chest.  Both would lead to nausea and shortness of breath.  I was fascinated by this but didn't think much of it until I moved homes and became friends with my neighbour.  

My new friend and I wound up in sync with one another's anxiety which, between the two of us is just off the charts a lot of the time.  As I began to trust my gut, I would reach out to her and vice versa.  

It's a whole lot easier once you, not necessarily realise whose anxiety it is but when you can accept that it's not yours and without trying to figure anything out, take the feeling, wrap it in light and return to sender with love on a rainbow bridge. 

I'm not saying that you need to reach out and ask everyone around you whether they're alright every time you feel anxious, no.  What I am saying though, is that you won't only be helping yourself.  You will be assisting the collective to transition through some seriously dense emotions and before you know it, you'll be tapping right into your master Transformer abilities!

In an article titled "Do Trees Talk" in The Smithsonian Magazine, German forester and author, Peter Wohlleben is quoted saying “Some are calling it the ‘wood-wide web. All the trees here, and in every forest that is not too damaged, are connected to each other through underground fungal networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the networks, and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behaviour when they receive these messages.” 

So, what now?  

Practice making a conscious effort to be there for yourself (and equally so the collective), throughout any anxiety attacks.  

Here are a few of the tools that have helped me (if you have a garden or access to ground, do this with your bare feet on the earth and if you don't, it's not a train smash):

1. breathe - deep, belly breaths in through the nose 
2. recognise - acknowledge that it's a fear
3. determine - whether it's yours or someone else's
4. box it - is there anything you can do about it?  If you can, do it.  If you can't, pile it with the rest of the boxes that you have no control over
5. feel it - regardless of whether it's yours or not
6. self soothe - envision wrapping the feeling in a bag of love, reassurance and all the things that would make you feel secure and then tell yourself that everything is ok and that together, we've got this, even if you say it out loud
7. repeat until you feel better

Another method to help snap out of your anxiety is the 5-4-3-2-1 method which is a potent tool.  You can do this anywhere at any time.  Name:

5 things you can see 

4 things you can hear

3 things you can feel

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

If it feels less overwhelming to you, start the exercise with 1 of each of the senses until you are comfortable and increase the number of things you sense as you become more comfortable with the exercise.  This one is so powerful is because it takes you out of your fear, out of the future and brings you into this very moment right now, which is really, the only moment that exists. 

Once you begin to integrate yourself into the present moment, you become aware that you may not be in control of your circumstances, but you certainly are in control of your response to them. 

Paste these techniques wherever you can easily access them when you are feeling overwhelmed.

If you feel guided to, book a session to chat about your anxiety.

Love,

Keilah