Experiencing anxiety can be debilitating and exhausting. It can take the pleasure out of living and replace it with feelings of fear and doom that get overwhelming.
It is important to remember that anxiety is not the problem—it is the way we have learned to relate to it. By shifting the way we view anxiety, we can experience space and relief from it to feel more at peace with ourselves.
Anxiety Is Not You
Emotions can sometimes feel so big that they consume us. The heaviness of anxiety can make it easy to become the emotion. In shifting the way we view and relate to emotions, it is important to remember that emotions are energy in motion. Just because we feel an emotion, does not mean we are the emotion. Instead, we are the mindful observer of it.
Observing Anxiety
It can be helpful to begin practicing witnessing anxiety as a messenger when cultivating freedom from being overtaken by feelings. In doing this, we can begin to bring awareness to the thoughts and sensations anxiety is sending us, name them with non-judgment and neutrality, and let them go. The thoughts, feelings, and sensations are not good or bad, nor is the anxiety, and we are safe to feel everything.
Being With Anxiety
We can be so quick to want to get rid of anxiety, and with good reason, as it can be a scary experience. But what if it was not the feeling itself that was the worst thing, but the stories and beliefs we have around what it means to feel anxiety? What if we were safe to feel anxious without making it mean anything, and to allow ourselves to sit with the discomfort of feeling?
What we resist, persists. We are not our feelings and so we are safe to feel them. Allowing ourselves to sit with our emotions lets them move through us instead of staying stuck in us. By remembering anxiety is not who we are, becoming the mindful observer of the emotion, and feeling what is present, we can begin to relate to our emotions differently and create space for them.
Changing the relationship you have with your emotions and learning how to regulate them is an important part of healing from anxiety. Starting to feel emotions, rather than run from them, can be a challenging process. At Avalon Malibu, we are here to support you as you heal by externalizing feelings and learning to be the observer of them. If you are ready to shift the relationship you have with yourself and your emotions to heal, call Avalon Malibu today at (844) 857-5992.
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