What Exactly is Anxiety

A theme for all of us lately has been one of experiencing intense anxiety.

So I wanted to take a little time to demystify anxiety in the hopes that if you are struggling with it, you’ll be able to have a different conversation with yourself in the experience.

Anxiety is, ultimately, a reaction to uncertainty.

And that reaction to uncertainty creates a feeling of unease in the body.

When your body signals to your mind that there is unease, your mind receives that as a threat.

And when your mind senses danger, it gets to work looking for ways to protect you from it.

Your mind will run through all the possible scenarios that could be creating that unease, and chooses (usually) the worst case to focus its energy on.

So we end up playing out this terrible experience in our minds, over and over, without it actually being real.

While humans are often challenged by this, we are also the only species that has the ability to shift it.

And this is because we are the only species that can regulate their breath.

Knowing how to breathe in a way that relaxes our nervous systems gives us space.

And in that space, we are able to look objectively at what we are stressing out about and differentiate between a story and a truth.

And most often, when we are in the actual truth of a moment, we realize that reality is WAY better than the story our mind was cooking up.

And then, if we make a practice of it, we begin to learn how to become the masters of our mind, and direct ourselves away from anxiety.