09/02/2025
When we think of anxiety, we often think pathology. The issue however is if we pathologize anxiety we tend to want to get rid of it. Ironically, the more we try to shove it away, the stronger it becomes.
That's why 🗣️ "calm down!" doesn't work!
The best thing we can do for our anxieties is to welcome it. We don't have to say "ooh I love feeling this way," but we can work to understand it.
Sometimes the easiest way to do that is rather than pathlogizing it , we call it what it is: fear. That's simply what anxiety is, we're feeling very afraid. Calling it fear makes it more human, and less scary.
Then, we work to understand what's going on for us on a visceral level when we feel that fear.
Physiologically our bodies tell us with hearts racing ❤️, sweating 💧, dry throats 🏜️, shaking 🫨, and many other ways that there's some threat to our wellbeing.
And the 2️⃣ ways our bodies know this is:
1️⃣ - if it's reading the environment and the nonverbal cues and perceives some sort of physical or emotional danger
2️⃣ - History: "If it's hysterical it's (often) historical." Our bodies learn from past experiences what is safe and unsafe for us. If we feel anxious now, we are likely projecting our past experiences onto the future.
Anxiety can give us a tremendous opportunity to heal from our past experiences. When we learn to ground 🧘🏻♀️, diffuse, and calm 🌱 our nervous systems we can teach our bodies that they are indeed safe😌, and we can bring this sense of safety into our present moments.
Anxiety doesn't have to be a pathology. It can be our body's call for healing and restoration.
