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Anxiety

What is Anxiety?

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety looks and feels different for different people. It can be:

  • Racing, circular or looping thoughts 
  • Discomfort being in your own skin
  • Catastrophic thinking 
  • Fixation on future events or potential losses 
  • Fixation on something that feels off, incomplete or wrong
  • Rumination over something that happened in the past
  • Self-judgment or shame over the way you behaved in a past situation 
  • Continual rehearsing of a future situation

  • Tightness or stabbing in your chest
  • Sinking weak feeling in your gut or knees
  • Light headed floating feeling 
  • Tingling in your hands or feet
  • Discordant noise in your head 
  • Vibrating hum in your body 
  • Fear and self-judgment about having fear and anxiety

Anxiety is driven by signals sent out from the brain and body. These signals are designed to activate your system to respond to a perceived threat.

  • Your brain and body are yelling ‘do something to stop the threat!’ 
  • If there is a sense of powerlessness to stop the threat, these signals can get stuck circulating through your system 
  • This can feel overwhelming 
  • It can feel like a total loss of control 
  • It can cause you to feel flooded with the stress of life’s uncertainty and unpredictability

  • People with anxiety are not inherently less capable of dealing with life
  • Those who tend toward anxiety are often sensitive, empathetic, conscientious
  • They are often highly attuned to their own physical sensations and potential threats in their environment
  • They are wired to respond to anything that feels stimulating or threatening with a lot of energy
  • As a result, it becomes very easy to feel overloaded and overwhelmed

Why do I have anxiety?

Why do I have anxiety?

How can I feel less anxious?

How can I feel less anxious?

Getting curious about how you as an individual experience anxiety.

  • Talking about your fears
  • Getting support to deal with those fears 
  • Being gentle and caring to yourself when you don’t feel safe or strong
  • Observing your mind and body responses with more understanding and less negative judgment
  • Learning how to talk about your anxiety with friends and loved ones so you can ask for what you need
  • Bringing loved ones into sessions if you’d like 

  • Exploring varied strategies that help shift your thought patterns, behavioral responses and body sensations and allow you to develop confidence that…
  • ‘I have options and strategies for dealing with the painful and scary parts of life’ 
  • ‘I have ways to free myself from looping negative thoughts patterns’ 
  • ‘I have things I can do to calm myself and deal with disruptive energy coursing through my mind and body’ 
  • ‘I have agency and power to make choices to care for myself even when I am overwhelmed or scared’