Anxiety

Anxiety is fear of the future or what is coming next. Your body goes into high alert, adrenal stress, as you flow through life. Many are on meds for this, there are other alternatives. We all have anxiety in intense situations and it is good. It is there to support your body to be alert, on edge. At certain moments this is vital. All emotions are important and indicators to us of the world. They only become a problem when we stay in them. They are a flowing sensory guidance system that is supposed to be fluid. However, we often cling to emotions, feelings and that is the issue.

In emergencies, the adrenal stress races your heart beat and supports you to be very present and alert. If you live with too much anxiety, your health especially your heart, can end up with problems. You are in unease, disease. This can occur from extended periods of crisis. For example, when my dad was ill, we were on hi alert often. My body got used to operating in that state and then didn't let it go. It was stuck "on" and it took a bit for me to stop living as though everything was life threatening. This kills your body and burns out your adrenals which are very important little organs. This state can age you super fast. In woman, it unbalances our hormones tremendously when we live in this perennial emergency, draining our body.

No emotion, feeling or state is a problem unless we stay in it too long. We are fluid energy systems and the feelings react to the environment alerting us of what is going on. They are not always right due to our conditioning from childhood, yet they are excellent sensory mechanisms. They run our causal or emotional body. They are often the cause effect element of life. I share this to make you at least have awareness of your states. They are controllable with awareness. This is how you find health.

 If you have anxiety over a project or your bills, then you are misusing this state. Unfortunately people run about in anxiety over things that other feelings or emotions would support them physically and psychologically better. Our world has us trained as though everything is a big problem when there are truly few of them and they don't come about weekly. We act as they are, but in the scheme of things, they are just issues of living that come around again and again. Next week there will be more annoying situations. The suchness of life is not worth the health detriment of anxiety.

When we are anxious, we shallow breath which doesn't supply the body with enough oxygen. A prolonged state of shallow breathing,  doesn't support our organ function or the body to operate with the things it needs to sustain it. This is why deep breathes are " the go to" when in an emergency. Most people shallow breath all day long.  Ancient health practices of Tia Chi, Yoga and pranayama, breathing practices, enliven the system.  Oxygen is so healing, vital to all functions of the body. The greatest elixir and energy support. If we do deep breathe, the intensity of anxiety leaves us. Our body relaxes, our heart slows down and clarity can come in.

You learn to observe, have awareness. Then you can question, is this situation as intense as it feels? Often it is not but if anxiety is a "go to" for your body, awareness can come in so you can relax out of it. Having a friend chat you out of it is helpful too. Fear makes our emotions and reactions way off base. Perceived fear as physically harmful as  the real fear of a dog biting you.  We perceive things as the end of the world. Consider, you have made it this far and so chances are you will make it through the next situation. Seeing the tension in your body, in your mind and in your emotional state is an eye opener. The reason why relaxation is so healthful. For if we know what relax "feels" like, then we can be aware of when we are in other states and shift ourselves.

Being at high speed creates a challenge to have awareness and reset our body vibration. The reason why slowing down, reflecting, resting is paramount to health. Our body needs rest. Our awareness needs to be paying attention to how we are moving so we can flow more calmly. We can still do all we do. Just at a pace that is more gliding, an emotional state that is more supportive of our body and our mind in more clarity than panic. It transforms your world.

Our world doesn't give us enough time or inspiration to relax to remember what that state is. It is the most healing state for all illness. If the body can get to ease, the body systems can do the healing work. On high alert constantly, it will burn out like all other things in the world. It hinders all the systems. The immune system, the oxygen flow, the blood flow, all in constriction so it will not be able to operate optimally.

I educate others what it " feels" like when relax, joy, pleasure, calm are in their body. They can begin to notice tension states and act toward calming so healing and health can occur. Without our body in the parasympathetic nervous system, no rejuvenation, renew, refresh, detox or rest occurs for our bodies. This is not a thinking, it is a vibration, an awareness, an experience that supports your innate health system. After a bit of awareness, the body naturally learns to run in calmer states rather than anxiety for it is seeking health by nature.

Anxiety can be cleared easily through conscious moving. Moving the body, expresses and expels the tension energy. Running about the block, sweeping the floor, taking a shower. Working out or exercise releases anxiety. It doesn't take an hour though. If your body is in stress and then you stress it by pushing it too hard, you are not clearing the stress through movement, you are exhausting it. Be clear about that. The goal is to reset the body in relax and peace.

 Endorphins, serotonin from movement can help you feel good. Exhaustion is not healthful though, their influence my not be truly telling of your state. A marathon run gives a high to the body but it is not so happy that you pushed it to its limits. Yes, you feel high, but it is not necessarily healthy to run a marathon. It is a great physical feat but it is not so good for you in the long run to stress your body in that way.

Many are moving through life as though it is a marathon. Just because we drop into bed and crash out doesn't necessarily mean we are getting a good night of sleep. Anxiety causes sleep disturbance as well for our mind won't shut down. The cortisol pumping through our body from all that heart beat race through the day, doesn't allow us to sleep. It is keeping the body awake, on high alert. Then our natural process of rest in sleep that detoxes and rebuilds our body at night is not occurring optimally either. So no rest through the day, no rest through the night and our poor body being is just not able to heal itself. It has no time to reset, renew, rejuvenate.

This is why stress kills us. There is no rest in stress. It is like a stress fracture. You can still move and do with the bone but continually pushing a stress fracture is damaging. Much worse than a clean break where you give time to heal the bone. That body area is weak for life because we don't stop using it while it is healing. It is a deceiving injury. Anxiety and stress are  the same.

Notice, move kindly when in tension, use deep breathing through out your day and begin to feel relaxation. Watch what happens in your body as you take 5 deep breathes. It is subtle but powerful. Have awareness. Play with your body states. Notice how it feels after laughter. Notice how it feels when you do something you love. Notice when it has good excitement versus bad. This will support you in clearing anxiety and having more joy and fun! I promise!!

Play with life! It is healing!

How lovely to Be Queen!

Beauty and Grace through Pleasure and Play

Buy my book 

         Find A Class to join and receive updates and wisdom!  www.lynhicks.com

Class schedule

 The "Room" at Meadowbrook

Lyn Hicks, Health and Beauty Coach, Published Author, Educator and Event Coordinator

 at The Room At Meadowbrook in Ottsville, PA.