Anxiety - Ancient Wisdom Short-Circuited by Modern Times.
Anyone experiencing symptoms of anxiety or panic may like to know that feeling anxious is a natural bodily process - like breathing, digestion, immunity - it happens automatically and purposefully, thanks to your Autonomic Nervous System.
And like all those other bodily systems, it works on a cycle… We breath in, we breath out and back around. We feel hunger, we eat, we digest, we poo and go again. We get an infection, body temperature raises, blood cells fight back, we become well again. All natural cycles, like anxiety. With anxiety, we detect danger, our body readies us to fight or run, and we either win or escape (hopefully). But once the danger is no longer present, the cycle can complete and return us to normal resting state, where we recover and replenish, ready for the next danger when it comes.
Responding to what’s in range
The reason anxiety causes so many people problems today is because the anxiety alarm is designed to keep us clear of the kinds of danger our ancestors faced, out in the wild. And these dangers were only ever detected by their own senses – sight, sound, smell etc. They had no awareness of dangers that weren’t in range of their own senses, because it had no relevance to their survival and wellbeing. If cavemen had known about the dangers being faced by people in other parts of their territory, they’d have wasted valuable resources thinking about it, scaring themselves by imagining it happening to them, and not been able to get on with their own lives as effectively.
Hyper-awareness without control
And herein lies the problem with anxiety today. We are hyper-aware of a whole host of potential dangers, its the price we pay for our global connectedness. But because these dangers are abstract to us, we have no way of fighting or fleeing them, there just there, stacking up, weighing us with worries. And so, that brilliant survival response we call anxiety gets jammed on, unable to complete its natural cycle. People get stuck, some very stuck. And because they’re stuck, they do what rationally minded people do, think about how bad they feel and try to think up ways to feel better. Finding they can’t think their way out, they begin to worry about their worries. The anxiety itself becomes a cause of more anxiety. A double whammy.
The good news is, by understanding anxiety as an intelligent, life-saving response and not a medical disease, we can take a different view. We can learn to listen to it, tune in to what it’s telling us. And tune out from those things that prime us for danger, but which are beyond our ability to control.
Key takeaways…
Anxiety is a natural bodily process as old as us humans. When we really need it, it’s phenomenal and kept our ancestors alive in the face of all kinds of danger.
Being aware of lots of abstract dangers, all the time, is not what we were designed for. That’s without getting into the other things that spike our anxiety response – sugary diets, poor sleep, sedentary lifestyles, drink and drugs… the list is long.
If our anxiety response system becomes over-stimulated and unable to close its loop, we can develop what often gets referred to as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), worrying continuously and impacting our physical health and overall life quality.
The unconscious part of the mind/body that primes and fires the anxiety response is far smarter than the part of your brain that thinks about things. So, trying to think your way out of anxiety isn’t going to have much effect, if anything you tie yourself in yet more knots.
Hypnotherapy helps to calm and recalibrate an over-active anxiety response, allowing it to process out the worries and return it to natural balance.
If you or someone you know is struggling with anxiety and would like to discuss getting some help, book a consultation call with me here.
