4 Powerful Reasons Why Anxiety Is Your Friend (With Tips!)

We can choose to look at our anxiety as the enemy, something that wants to harm us, something that wants to destroy us, or even eliminate us from this earth, but with a little imagination we can look at it from a completely different perspective... it's really up to you. Which perspective are you choosing?

1. Become Friends With It, Since It's Asking For Your Approval Anyway

As we know, the first step towards allowing self-healing is acceptance, though it may be easier said than done, it is very much necessary. Why? Because ignoring the problem will only temporally "store it" until it ceases the opportunity to rise back up to the surface and say Hey you! Did you forget about me? With that exact tone... let's be precises here.

We are conscious that by pushing against the unwanted we're actually not pushing it away, but really what we're doing it pretending like it's not there, but where does it go? In our subconscious, yep.

Our fears have only two places to go, in or out. The places, people, events or memories we fear most, at any level of intensity, along with what causes us the most pleasure, are all engraved in our subconscious mind. They serve us all day long, every day, with no exceptions, just like constant feedback mechanism, and it does so to in order to protect us against harm! Yes...

Our subconscious knows precisely what to look for in every situation; it finds the core emotion behind the lived experience (in this case negative memory), which is most appropriate to our current environment, and then converts in a way that we can understand it, to a thought. Next, this thought generates the utmost appropriate feeling or emotion attached to it so that we're well aware of "how we feel" about it this particular experience, since we're unable to read our mind at a subconscious level. Hence the unpleasant or unwanted feeling coming from nowhere. Here's an abstract example:

If you quit on doing your dishes for a week, bacteria will wondrously start forming. By ignoring it, not only it won't go away my itself, but the unpleasant smell that lingers in your home will keep on reminding you to "do your dishes".

It's no wonder, it's a support system -- to support a healthy mind-body-and-soul.

We must be brutally honest with ourselves and see it as what is, and not for what "it seems". In other words our bodies tell us that there's something honestly wrong, and if left unattended it will begin to show physically (physical illness), mentally (mental illness) and spiritually (disconnection). There are no such thing as a false alarm when it comes to our human nature. 10 years later, we begin to feel pain, we get physically ill, mentally ill, or in conjunction with one another.

So, what does it mean to accept our anxiety? In essence it is you accepting it for letting you see what you are truly afraid of, thus something that was long forgotten is now found, and now today you can free yourself from it. A fear is usually attached to a childhood memory. The reason why they are fears today is simply that they were never properly addressed, then other circumstances resulted to confirm that very fear, but only today, it feels much heavier. It may be far, but today it's asking for your full attention, forgiveness, as well and self-forgiveness.

Our subconscious holds many secrets, but sooner or later they will be revealed, in fact they are revealed to us every day, we just don't see it as is. Accepting our anxiety is really about agreeing with the idea that our symptoms are actually triggered by negative aspects of our lives, even though we may did not consciously choose upon them before the symptoms or panic occurred. So, it's time to face our dishes and just do them already!

2. Your fears Are Here To Guide You

I fear me, I fear you, I fear my anxiety, I fear everything! I may just be going in fear!

Anxiety is manifested out of fears, and the last thing we want to do is to stay stuck in a fear cycle, which sort of looks like this diagram:

Once the core fear alarmed more fears as secondary you could possibly find yourself panicking and feeling stuck in this overwhelming dance of fears, which logically will feel quite confusing. But let's not fear! Because we also know that what we persist resist, so there is no difference when it comes down to our own fear of anxiety! Meaning, since fear needs fear to persist, there is really no common sense in feeding it more fear, right? To add, fear is really only in our heads...

Remember that our feelings are really just a mirror of our thoughts, so by reminding ourselves that we have control over our thoughts, we then gain an immense sense of relief, and our feelings and emotions are no longer out of whack. Our thoughts are nothing more than a "product" of oneself, however if they no longer serve us any good, we can reduce emotional negative behavior simply by being aware of what we're thinking, and deliberately choose to either stick with it (causes us to feel good), or get rid of it (causes us to feel bad). It's like mastering a new game, the self-awareness game, perhaps?

For instance, in that moment when you feel that tightness in your chest, or that head-rush, or your heart is beating faster, keep calm, remain focused, take control over your breathing and bring each breath to a slower pace, then take a deeper breath and visualize exhaling the fear out of your system from your mouth. Repeat as necessary, until the fear is no longer dominant.

If you're ready to take it to the next level and begin an emotional healing process. Ask yourself these questions: Why you think you fear this particular thought (aka memory). When was the first time it took place? Was it recent? Can you stop fearing today it or will it require diligent effort? Perhaps try these 5 simple steps:

1. Think about what causes you to feel this emotion
2. Find that core memory and feel the emotion
3. Understand why it happened the way that it did
4. Give your forgiveness to everyone involved, including to yourself
5. Find peace within yourself while holding that image in your head

Here is a great video supporting the idea of healing our emotional body: How To Heal The Emotional Body - Teal Swan.

Remind yourself that you are your thoughts, thus you are in control, and not your fears -- they are only your messengers ;)

3. Your Triggers Are Only Insisting Reminders

Our triggers were unfortunately not taught to "knock before you enter", nor do they call ahead of time as a friendly "head-up". It's kind of like an unexpected friend surprising us with a box full of jumping spiders... go figure. The question is, why?

When we think of something that surprisingly makes us anxious, or afraid, or insecure, that's when we know we're dealing with one of our triggers. They come from all directions; circumstances, past events, places, people, and although we may not be at that very moment thinking about them, unconsciously we are. Let's just call them engraved triggers.

We usually associate our triggers based on how we feel or our emotions, but really they come from beyond that; our thoughts. Are thoughts are what ultimately cause us to feel those painful feelings and emotions. Yet, some people may say that they did absolutely nothing to invite that thought, or others may say that they were occupied with laundry and obviously not in a negative state of mind, however, that simply cannot be,

nothing exists without first being in a form of a thought, in other words what causes us to feel anxious is nothing less than us resisting a thought.

Please let us explain further with an example:

You're talking to a friend about a show you're thinking to attend, while your subconscious is looking for evidence (positive or negative) to support you in this moment, then surprisingly enough it finds a negative memory attached to a similar scenario, consequently when all seemed fine you suddenly start to feel your throat tighten up and you begin to choke on your words.

Everything we do is ultimately attached to a memory.

We may have multiple triggers or it may only be one that shows up again and again, but the importance is that we recognize them; what they are, how we feel about them and where they originate from. Or we can also ask ourselves these specific questions: What makes me want to crumble in to a ball or run away? What makes me feel uncomfortable? What do I dislike the most?

Asking yourself any questions really can help guide you in the direction of clarity. Once you've narrowed them to a few, ask yourself these follow-up questions: What are these feelings or emotions linked to? And what are they trying to tell me?

Below are some suggestions of other common triggers:

• public speaking (e.g., social anxiety, low self-esteem or low confidence)
• specific phobia (e.g., physical illness, anxiety symptoms, car crash, heights, etc.)
• social interaction (e.g., social anxiety or low self-worth or self-esteem)
• a particulate person (attached to a negative event or memory)
• a specific location (linked to a traumatic memory, person or event)
• anxiety (fear of symptom or panic attacks)
• death (continuously fearing your death)
• memories (linked to a traumatic memory, person or event)
• your destiny (not achieving your goals, not finding that soul-mate, etc.)
• money (not getting enough money or not making as much as you wished for)
• illness (fear of getting ill, aka Hypochondriasis or Nosophobia)
• the list is really endless...

A memory is a thought at the subconscious level. These triggers can reveal themselves in the form of a thought or an image, and each is linked to its own unique engraved dominant feeling. Hence the way you feel is appropriate based on your personal experience. Your triggers may be obvious to you, or they may not be, but it is your duty to find out what they are.

Understand what are your insecurities or fears, or better, by knowing where they come from this will give you the key to the door of your anxiety mystery. Learning to face our fears is exceptionally healing. Reassuring ourselves by introducing the theory that there are no good reasons to fear our anxiety or our symptoms can be extremely reassuring, yet it is only temporary. What you want to do is catch it at the subconscious level, and handle it from the root, where it was undoubtedly initially born.

4. Anxiety is Not Reassuring, but You Can Be

These 7 uplifting reminders are simply to come in handy during those hard times:

1. Everything happens for a reason, so there is no reason to be afraid. Ask yourself questions.
2. Nothing lasts forever, but it will if we choose to ignore it.
3. With knowledge, the right tools, our will, dedication, and with greater self-awareness, we can learn to move through life's challenges by recognizing that they are here to teach us, not to harm us.
4. We must listen very closely to what our body is saying, we must take action, and learn.
5. Life is our greatest teacher, and the only way to speak to us is through experiences.
6. You have chosen to be here, find what is your black so that your white becomes evident.
7. Self interrogation gives you mind clarity.

We must be brutally honest with ourselves, while also remaining true to ourselves. Discover who you really are by the contrast of your experiences, and love the life you indented to live. No doctor can see through you, at least not the way that you can ;)

Namaste

Image credit
Fear Diagram image credit: mindoveranxietyissexy.blogspot.com

MOAIS

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