3 natural Ways to work with anxiety
Anxiety is a strategy of adaptation. There is no cure and no way to rid yourself completely of anxiety, nor would you want to, because anxiety is a necessary survival strategy that is hardwired into your nervous system. If your goal is to rid yourself of your anxiety, you will fail. A more supportive approach is to increase your understanding of the difference between healthy and unhealthy anxiety, and to learn techniques that help you cultivate a more balanced response to stressors and come into a healthy relationship with your anxious tendencies.
What is healthy anxiety?
Healthy anxiety rides the wave of anticipatory fear into fear response activation and then the response eventually settles into a state of homeostasis-safe-enough-social engagement allowing yourself to recoup before the next wave.
What is unhealthy?
Unhealthy anxiety is when you are in a constant state of fear response with little to no time back in homeostasis, safe enough, and social engagement before the next wave hits.
Stragety # 1
Chang the anxiety equation
When you are anxious you are likely overestimating the danger and underestimating your ability to cope and available resources. It is possible to change this equation by reducing your sense of danger, which often leads to avoidance or safety seeking behaviors, or you can change it by increasing your ability to cope. Buddhist teaching: The world is covered in brambles (stressors) what do you do? Cover the earth in leather (avoid, seek safety) or put on a pair of tough-soled shoes (increase coping ability)? It is easier to build up your internal resources and tolerance levels than it is to limit your exposure to all the stressors of the world. Take inventory of your internal resources and transform your anxiety from fear into confidence. Name what you feel threatened by and take action to build up your internal resources that match the threat. (education, assertiveness trainings, self defense, boundary setting, nervous system support).
Strategy # 2
Reframe your interpretation of anxiety
What is your anxiety trying to tell you? When you start to feel the physical signs of anxiety do you immediately perceive it to mean that something bad is going to happen to you or loved ones? Or think it must mean something is wrong with you, the environment or the situation? Anxiety is often a response to something meaningful, not necessarily threatening. Every intuition that results in anxious feelings does not necessarily equate to danger. Choose meaning over trying to avoid the discomfort of feeling anxious. Invite your anxiety to reveal what is important to you.
Strategy #3
Befriend your anxiety
We often think that anxiety is something we have to learn how to control or get beyond, but what happens when you attempt to befriend your anxiety? What happens if you offer compassionate understanding? What happens if you offer appreciation for your anxiety, for how it has tried to protect you? What happens if you open yourself up to the possibility that your anxiety is actually trying to communicate something to you, tell you something about yourself, your needs, your relationships, your past, and the world around you?