Anxiety Treatment! Why LOVE is all You Need.
Too often the first response of a diagnosis of anxiety is to metaphorically reach for the medicine cabinet.
It seems the emphasis on the treatment of anxiety is strongly placed on reducing the symptoms of anxiety rather than attempting to deal with the anxiety at its root cause.
Please don’t get me wrong here. I am not saying that there is not sometimes the need for a pharmaceutical response.
Because for many people there is.
However……
A pharmaceutical response is not needed for everyone.
And I have born witness many many times, to the ability of tools, such as Advanced Mindfulness Techniques, to quickly and rapidly allow the initial cause of the anxiety to be seen and removed, solving the problem completely.
With no pharmaceutical intervention at all.
It can help to have an understanding of why anxiety arises.
Usually we find that the issue that is causing the anxiety is a mask. And that the ‘reason’ for the anxiety is hidden underneath.
Much further down.
For example I may be anxious about going to the party tonight because I fear that I will be made fun of.
But this fear of being ‘made fun off’ was actually derived from a solitary incident at school where everyone in the class laughed when I got a question wrong.
And that humiliation has been carried forward by me , in my body ever since.
Perhaps without me even consciously remembering the embarrassment and discomfort that I felt.
This anxiety response developed as a safety mechanism
The body, sensing the class was against me, went into protective mode, to shield me from the event.
Just as -in the same way – when we feel threatened or in danger, our flight and flight system switches on, and our nervous system is activated.
It is a completely normal process. It’s a protective mechanism. It;s the body working for us.
It’s on our side.
But what happens is that the mechanism gets stuck
It begins to arise again and again, often triggered by thoughts about situations which aren’t real or will never come to pass.
But our system is once again activated. It’s protecting us again.
And we end up spending half (or more) of our lives on alert.
In fear.
Convinced on a somatic level that we are under threat.
Unable to relax.
A Living Hell…!!!
Which is why we need LOVE
It can seem counterintuitive to say that – that we need love.
Especially when the whole medical game is often about ‘getting rid of’ the anxiety.
But all that really needs to happen here is that we turn 180 degrees.
And welcome our anxiety with Love.
Welcome the child that was humiliated in class with love.
And I mean REALLY welcome it.
Welcome it like you would your son or daughter who you had thought lost.
Welcome it like like a long lost friend who had just returned after many years of travel.
Welcome it the way a dog welcomes its owner as she returns home from work.
Uncomfortable feelings like anxiety just want to be loved.
They just want to be felt.
They don’t want to be ignored and dubbed down with pills.
They want to know that they belong. And are cared for. And are not being shut away.
Imagine placing four uncared for kids in a room and ignoring them.
Imagine how they might bang on the walls and door to get out at first. But in time, seeing no response, they would give up.
Imagine how those kids would act when eventually let out. Imagine walking up to one of them and offering love. Do you think they would respond?
Or do you think it would take time for them to trust again?
Time for them to show their vulnerability? Time to express their displeasure and hurt at being ignored?
It takes time to rebuild the trust we have lost with the deeper parts of ourselves
Those parts that have stayed hidden because they were too painful to feel.
But this IS the path to wholeness and healing.
This IS the path that will set you and your anxiety free.
We need to sit by the bed of anxiety, the way we would with a loved one in hospital.
We need to gently hold it, the way we would a small animal in distress.
We need to learn these ‘soft’ tools of love and presence and kindness and acceptance.
To bring our anxiety and its cause, from darkness into the light of day.
And if we can do this, as I have seen a multitude of times.
We no longer need to fear it.
Or avoid it.
But we can rest WITH it, and move into the future, unhindered by the past.
Or thoughts of what might happen in the future.
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Advanced Mindfulness is a method of resolving mental and emotional conflict, removing emotional blocks and limitations from our past, and allowing the natural state of happiness and presence to sine through. Sagara is an experienced Advanced Mindfulness Practitioner whose mission in life is to help empower people to be able to work with their emotional states, to live happier, less stressful and more fulfilling lives.