Anxiety Is Not Who You Are

“Mantra for Anxiety: This is not you. This is something moving through you. It can leave out of the same door it came in.” – James Clear

In the course of a lifetime, one can be plagued with anxious thoughts that produce anxious feelings, with physical symptoms attached, leading to a chronic state of anxiety. 

As you give your full attention to the thoughts in your head, feelings are attached to them… fear, happiness, dread, pain, joy, and the entire range of human emotions. You may even experience all of these feelings in a single day. 

The body will automatically respond with physical symptoms and feelings about what you are thinking. Always. This mechanism is designed for your survival as a human being.  It is not really designed for your spiritual growth. Growth as a spiritual being involves mastery of the amount of attention and credibility you give to any random thought that arises in your mind.

If you are feeling anxious or fearful and are not in an immediately threatening situation, the quality of your thinking in that moment cannot be trusted. Your feelings are the “tell”.  If you are feeling calm and peaceful, your thoughts in that moment, are of higher quality. You can trust your thinking when you are feeling calm and at ease. You will have many of these moments throughout the day, every single day. 

Thoughts are merely the brain’s attempt to process the data received from the senses.  Data received by the brain is stored in memory. The mind attempts to make sense of the data to present to you, when it receives cues to recall it. The problem arises when you add to the thoughts, that may not even be reality-based.

When a thought shows up in your mind about a past or future event that is not happening right now, it can hook your attention. You can begin to believe that the thought has significance in this moment.  Sometimes it does. Most often it is a recalled memory triggered by some visual, auditory, or other sensory cue that brings it up.  

You might latch onto that thought and form additional thoughts of regret and pain from past events or create in your mind, catastrophic scenarios of future horrors around that thought. 

What can you do to stop the incessant train of thought? 

First, it is important to realize that you cannot control your brain or the random thoughts that rise to your awareness, thousands of times a day, even while you are asleep. The brain is never “off”. It is always “on”,  working to ensure your physical safety, creating “what if” scenarios to prepare you for disaster (even when there isn’t any right now). 

Second, it is vital to realize that you have the power as a Being in charge of your physical self, to either pay attention to any random thought or not. 

Once you understand this concept, you can learn how to assess any given  thought.  

Is it based in present reality?

Is it helpful?

Am I in present danger?

Is this important?

If the answers are no, let the thought pass through you without giving it any attention, acknowledging that it is only a random thought, nothing more. As you acknowledge this, your mind will switch to another thought, that is usually completely unrelated. 

In any given moment, your thoughts can change from “my boss is a jerk” to “what am I going to do for dinner?”. 

As you understand the workings of the brain (mind), you are in a better position to realize that YOU are not your thoughts or your brain, any more that you are not your hand or your foot. They are part of your physical form (which includes your brain), but they are not who you are as a being. 

You are not your anxious, sad, frightened, depressed, hopeless, helpless thoughts.  You are the Master overseeing your body and mind, the spiritual essence that is the captain of your ship.  

To step out of the anxious thought/feeling hamster wheel, bring your full attention to your immediate surroundings while simultaneously taking several slow, deep breaths, exhaling at least twice as long as you inhale. This will create a brief pattern interrupt, giving you a moment to regroup. 

Assess your surroundings carefully.  Are you safe in THIS moment? Is what you are anxious about happening right now? Can you do anything about those thoughts, whether about the past or future, right now? Can you control the future or change any event of the past? 

With this process, you will break the cycle of anxious thinking in that moment. Thoughts may return as they often do, but if you use this process repeatedly, you will more easily be able to allow unhelpful and intrusive thoughts pass through you, without giving them a place to land or to create a chronic state of anxiety. 

You are not the content of your thoughts.

Thoughts arise from your conditioning and are not who you are. You can allow anxious and many other unhealthy thoughts, to leave out the same door that they entered. 

Spend quality time with your true self, the essence of your Being, by creating quiet time, every day, to reflect, love, and embrace Yourself… the unbroken, perfect Being that is inhabiting your imperfect body. If you incorporate this into your daily life, you will be better equipped to be the master of the workings of your mind and all of its many thoughts. 

If you are experiencing disruptive, anxious thoughts that are effecting your life, transformational coaching can help.

Contact me for information on how to schedule a discovery call with me at: elizabethmlykinspac@gmail.com 

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