Do you suffer from anxiety?
Does your heart race when you face a difficult challenge? Once upon a
time, anxiety was just a normal part of daily life. Going back to caveman
times, this was referred to as a fight or flight reflex. When dinosaurs were
coming to attack us, we knew that we needed to get into flight mode lest we be
eaten.
Maybe we were hungry; going out to attack an animal or some other
dangerous [animal] source of food. As time went on, we began to see anxiety -- rather
than natural reflex -- but seeing it as malady or something that was wrong with
us. That old familiar feeling of sweaty palms and headaches and heart
palpitations was just too much to bear. Some of us needed to seek medical
attention via a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Perhaps we were prescribed some
type of pill regimen. Yet the majority of us simply experienced a difficulty
with coping with daily living activity. This normal difficulty with daily
living became disguised as anxiety.
Eventually, anxiety became a disease. It found its way into the
American Psychological Association’s diagnostic statistical manual [DSM-IV]. With
various degrees of anxiety, every human being on the planet has suffered some
form of anxiety from time to time.
Anxiety is nothing more than a feeling. Our bodies and minds uses this anxious feeling to let us know that we need to produce a higher level of hormones or biochemical [adrenaline or some type of neurotransmitter uptake] to meet the needs of the situation or event.
Anxiety has taken a life of its own. Today, television commercials suggest different types of medical prescriptions or treatments to combat this feeling or overactive emotions of anxiety. For the purposes of this article, I submit that anxiety is a natural phenomenon.
Anxiety is nothing more than a feeling. Our bodies and minds uses this anxious feeling to let us know that we need to produce a higher level of hormones or biochemical [adrenaline or some type of neurotransmitter uptake] to meet the needs of the situation or event.
Anxiety has taken a life of its own. Today, television commercials suggest different types of medical prescriptions or treatments to combat this feeling or overactive emotions of anxiety. For the purposes of this article, I submit that anxiety is a natural phenomenon.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is nothing more than excessive or out-of-balanced heightened
spirits. I did not say that this is abnormal, but that this is just a level of
emotion. When our mood becomes low or blue, we become depressed. Anxiousness or
depression, in and of itself, is a natural part of human existence. Once human
behavior, as dictated by extreme anxiety or depression [mood disorder], goes
out of balance, it takes on an abnormality or medical necessity.
Anxiousness can give us that desire or motivation to achieve
our desired goals. This anxiousness will come or will manifest itself in the
absence of grounded thinking. The brain or the mind will fill itself with
solutions and practicalities in the absence of clear and concrete instructions.
When we’re stuck in traffic and we were unable to find out the cause of the
traffic jam, then our mind sends out anxious messages to our central nervous
system (CNS). “We will be trapped in this traffic jam and may be late for
dinner.”
Our anxiousness is often created by our own undoing. We can
create anxious states or moods. This is referred to as jumping to conclusions.
The mind wants order and concrete ideas and thoughts. It wants solutions -- in the
absence of those solutions -- it will create solutions. These floods of thoughts give rise to
anxiousness or anxious thinking. I submit that anxiousness or anxiety is
nothing more than faulty thinking.
How Come I can’t make it [anxiety] leave me alone?
Now we’ve established the roots of anxiety, we can begin to recognize
it for what it is. Simply, anxiety within its cloak of faulty thinking, is a
bad servant. In many times, we think that our thoughts are our masters. Yet,
thoughts are servants. Thoughts are not ourselves but are our servants for
practical solutions.
As a result of its inner circle of counsel, our own thoughts lead to
feelings -- leads to actions -- leads to things. These things can become our
masters or our friends or our servants. Faulty thinking does not serve us,
therefore it is important to recognize it and see it for what it is. To
accomplish this, we need to have a sense of detachment. We can form thoughtful detachment
by adopting a helicopter-up approach.
We rise above ourselves and look down to analyze the different moving parts
of these thought patterns. We can recognize the situation -- we can look at
ourselves in the context of past, present and future -- and we can look at what’s
feeding our humanness. By examining the thoughts through an impartial field of
vision, we can determine if they [our thoughts] are our friend, our master, or
our servants. We can even begin to analyze whether or not our thoughts are our
enemies or foes.
As interesting, or as uninteresting this may be, we can now
begin to understand the power that we have over our own anxiety and how this
powerlessness is nothing more than the power we have given to the anxious state(s).
Thus, anxious states are our own self-creation. Many thought leaders,
psychologists, and philosophers have concluded that our destinies are a result
of our own creative thoughts. Philosopher James Allen wrote, As a man
thinketh, so is he. William James, Ph.D., wrote, We become as we think. Even
Christ Jesus (as written in the New Testament) spoke, Be Ye Renewed, by the
Transforming of your Mind!
The Permanent Cure!!!
To become anxiety-free, we must go back to the source and the center of
this anxiety or anxious state. At its core, anxiousness is a manifestation of us.
The smallest piece of this manifestation of anxiousness is our thoughts and
mindfulness within any given moment. Yes, our mental images are the core of the
anxiety issue.
What we need is a new mind. Notice that I said new mind rather than new
brain. The question is, ‘how do we gain a new mind’? It requires a conversion…a
converting to a state of mindlessness. Mindlessness is a single term to
describe mental quietness. The quiet mind…one that is free of thoughts. To gain
a quiet mind requires real work and practical commitment. Meditation make offer such a solution to achieve mindlessness.
An anxious mind or state can also be calmed and soothed via
encouragement. An encouraging word fitly spoken is more precious than apples of
gold (Solomon, Book of Ecclesiastes). Encouragement leads to hopeful thoughts
in the face of a perceived fearful outcome. When faced with unease and/or
anxiety, the solution [cure] is quite simple.
Empty the mind and [then] go
quiet.
**Author’s note: This article is not meant to replace sound
medical advisement from a licensed psychiatrist, psychologist, and/or master
social worker. Persons that have a diagnostic mood or social phobia disorder
should first consult with their practitioner before adhering to the advice in
this article.**
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