Anxiety — A big problem or just some swirly energy
Catch it early and reframe
Grounded Awareness. A tactic I have used with success.
Below, we show a no-anxiety state, where your awareness meets your existence. Think of your existence as awareness of your inner body.
Self-regulation.
Next, below, you either have a big problem forming, or nothing. It depends how skillful you are at seeing the first flickers of fear. Skillful body awareness helps you see the earliest swirls coming. This link can help you learn self-regulation via meditation (psychologists call it “open-monitoring” meditation).
A person skillful managing anxiety will here note there is some swirly sensation, feel a breath (which joins with their existence) and continue what they are doing. But a beginner may instead say, “I’m Anxious! — Here I go again!” And the anxiety grows…possibly because you “named it,” predicted it and took it seriously. All these actions empower anxiety.
Note there is no support for this fear, not even fragile scaffolding to hold it up; it needs your support. Anxiety is literally fear of fear — an automatic response to imagined fear. If you do not catch it early, you may inadvertently feed it:
Now, if it goes this far, the technique is still to decide to move your awareness back to your existence.
Feel your breath! Do not name the sensation; frame it as neutral swirls of energy:
Two KEY actions:
Clarification of Terms
Fear rises when there is a an actual “tiger-level threat” approaching that threatens your life. In our generally safe culture, there are few real imminent threats we need to run from. The problem is anxiety. Knowing the definition of anxiety helps us understand the solution.
Anxiety is defined as “fear of fear,” meaning anxiety arises NOT when you see a tiger approaching, but when you think there might be a tiger somewhere, maybe, not sure, what if…? Anxiety is an evolutionary relic trying way too hard to our keep us safe from imagined threats. Disarming anxiety depends on two things: sensing anxiety early and reframing it in your mind.
The file is where we store “memories of tigers” and worries about maybe some tiger somewhere.” These memories are mapped across our life experiences and are ready to project these memories to build our anxiety. To stop anxiety in its tracks — don’t name it. Naming anxiety “opens” the files and a tidal wave of reasons to be anxious crashes upon our psyche.
Body Awareness grounds us and helps us see early flickers of anxiety. With no supervision our awareness will endlessly chase shiny things and leave us disconnected from our self, ungrounded and uneasy. Think flicking through a smart phone for hours — evaluate how you feel after.
My Existence, joined with my awareness is the present; the here and now — where I believe mental health starts.
Whenever you do not like how you feel, feel your breath.
Why? Because awareness of even a single breath brings you back to your existence — here and now.
