ANXIETY | Common Symptoms & Quick Start Cure
Stats by the Mental Health Foundation say that over 8 million people in the UK experience anxiety each year. I secretly suffered with anxiety for years, until I investigated how to relate to intense emotions better.
Read this article to learn about the mindset required for a healthier relationship with emotions, along with a quick start cure for anxiety that can really help.
There are a number of different anxiety disorders, each with a distinct collection of symptoms. However, the most common symptoms often include:
overwhelming emotion
excessive / persistent worry
insomnia
sweating
dizziness
shaking / trembling
increased or irregular heartbeat
muscle pain / tension
feeling on edge
inability to relax
being easily startled
back pain / irritable bowel syndrome (I.B.S)
restlessness and fatigue
avoidance of certain situations
It is important to recognise that any of these symptoms listed above can be experienced by any ‘normal and healthy’ person at some point in their life. If you have experienced any or all of the above list [at some point in your life] it does not necessarily mean that you definitely have an anxiety disorder. For example, if you go through a period when you find it hard to sleep, it doesn’t automatically mean that you have an anxiety disorder.
To understand the difference between ‘normal’ anxiety and an actual anxiety disorder, here are some differences:
NORMAL ANXIETY
Concerns over if you will be able to pay the bills, get the promotion or job you want, experience a relationship break-up or another important life event.
A case of nervousness or sweating prior to doing an exam, a public presentation or some other specific and significant life event.
Appropriate levels of apprehension and/or fear of a dangerous object, place, person or situation.
A reasonable level of emotional response after a significant or traumatic life event, which passes after a few minutes or hours (max.).
Low level occasional feelings of nervousness surrounding certain social situations, which does not stop you from doing the activity.
ANXIETY DISORDER
Persistent and irrational compulsion to worry about almost anything and everything, to the point that it causes such high levels of stress and interferes with everyday life.
Unexpected sudden panic or intense fear for no reason and/or living with the constant worry you will be overcome by anxiety in the future.
Irrational fear or avoidance of an object, place, person or situation that poses little genuine threat or danger.
An inappropriately high level of emotional reaction after a significant or traumatic life event, which takes days or weeks to pass.
Avoidance of a number of social situations due to a significant fear of being judged, embarrassed or being overwhelmed by anxiety.
Having read the symptoms along with the lists describing the differences between ‘normal’ anxiety and anxiety disorders, would you say you need to learn ways to manage ‘normal’ levels of anxiety or do you need help with an anxiety disorder? When considering this, aim to remain as objective as possible and base your decision on how you’ve felt and behaved most often. The trap with these kinds of ‘tests’ is that we can often relate to the worst case scenario, when in reality you may only experience them occasionally and to a less extreme extent.
Principles for Emotional Freedom
Here is a summary of the Uncomfortably Emotions chapter from my Body Calm book, along with a quick start cure to play with to heal your relationship with emotions like anxiety:
It’s natural to feel a full spectrum of emotional energies during daily life.
All emotions are temporary, but the power and presence of your real Self is not.
Your real Self is the awareness that is aware of anxiety and that which is aware of anxiety is not anxious.
The awareness that is aware of anxiety is calm, well and free from anxiety - always.
Recognizing you have temporary emotions but you are not your emotions helps you to more calmly coexist with them all.
Peace is not the absence of emotions. Peace is a state of being you access (and experience) when you are consciously aware and at peace with how you feel.
Suppressing emotions lowers energy and your ability to enjoy the best life.
What you resist will persist and will cause suffering.
The more emotions the better as you need energy to heal, create and transform.
Aim to feel your feelings without getting lost in them by remaining self-aware.
To be self-aware is to be aware of the aspect of your Self that is Aware.
Emotional freedom comes from being comfortable feeling uncomfortable.
Quick Start Cure: ‘Hello Emotions’
Lost in your anxious emotions? Resisting how you are feeling? In moments like these, when you are losing self-awareness and falling into your feelings, do the following:
Ask: What emotion am I aware of right now?
Ask: Where do I feel the emotion in my body?
Once you’ve named and located the emotion, turn your attention towards it and say the following statement in your mind or out loud: "Hello emotion, thank you for passing through. You are welcome to hang out as long as you want."
Breathe nice and deep and easy, allowing the energy to move around your body.
Exercise Explained: The first 2 steps help you to be the observer of the emotion rather than so caught up in it. The simple statement in step 3 holds within it the intention to allow rather than resist, which reduces any stress or suffering as a result of the fleeting feeling. For this game to give you peace with the emotion you need to genuinely be willing for the emotion to 'hang out as long as it wants'. Be careful not to say it, but secretly be saying it so the emotion goes away. If you do that, then you are still resisting it and what you resist will persist. Let the energy be present for as long as it wants. Lastly, breathing allows the energy to move and helps you to feel empowered by its intensity.
TOP TIP: Let the energy be present for as long as it wants. The easiest way to do this is to give more of your attention to the present moment happening all around you - using GAAWO - instead of constantly leaving the moment to check in if the anxiety has gone yet. If you leave it alone then you will notice at some point that the anxiety has moved on.
It is safe to assume that if you don't want to feel 'anxious' then you will have tried to make it go away before now. How has that strategy worked? Has the anxiety stopped? Probably not. Remember: what you resist will persist. So try this 'peace with anxiety' approach.
Closing Words on Anxiety
For cases of an anxiety disorder, I recommend you consult your doctor and seek out professional one-to-one support. This is because there may be more subtle mental and physical causes that you can benefit from discovering and resolving. For the record, there is nothing to be ashamed of here and an anxiety disorder is of equal important as any of the more ‘classical’ health conditions that you may work with a doctor on.
I know people who have got their head above water with anxiety medication, for example, and then gone on to treat the underlying causes when they are in a better headspace. Using an integrative holistic health strategy like this can be a very smart and effective solution. I have also helped people with anxiety via my Mentoring options.
Having gone from having crippling anxiety to come out of other side to live with consistent calm and confidence, I want you to know there is hope and there are solutions to your symptoms. Always remember: peace is possible and if you take action now you can soon look back on the anxiety as a distant memory!
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