unsplash-logoNik Shuliahin
We recently recorded a podcast on F.E.A.R - False Evidence Appearing Real - and we received this response from our Facebook page: "The worst part about false anxiety is learning that you can pretty much only manage it. I don't know, or haven’t heard, of anyone who has actually gotten rid of false anxiety. I call it false anxiety because it's things we believe that cause our bodies to go into that mode. It's normal to have anxiety during normal situations but we get anxiety symptoms during no situations..."
In this episode, we're responding to this question by sharing our own experiences and recommendations for finding peace with false anxiety.
Download this episode (right click and save)
Notes from the show:
It is possible.
Life will bring us anxiety, but we can learn to be undisturbed by anxiety both false and real.
Ananga: “I have lived with freedom from false anxiety. In my experience, anxiety will still try and fire off if I am going through a challenging time. But it’s like a firework that doesn’t go off. It will spark for a second or two and I can feel it in my body, but I can observe it and breathe and it quickly passes. It’s nothing like it used to be. The mind will always try and show us anxiety - that’s the nature of the mind - but we can get to a point where we don’t listen to it’s propaganda.”
High anxiety is like living on terror alert. We become hyper vigilant and can get easily triggered. When we are living in this horror story it’s hard to believe things could be any other way - but they can.
It is a trick of the mind to object to the reality of the situation, to think that we can “pretty much only manage it” - managing it is the key to relief.
If we get a cold we have to take care of it and there is no guarantee we won’t get another one. But if we know how to care for ourselves when we have a cold it won’t be so severe, or last so long.
Managing anxiety may take some ongoing effort, but it is far better than the suffering of full-blown anxiety.
The first stage in recovery from heightened anxiety is to come down from red alert
- avoid stimulants: caffeine - coffee, energy drinks
- avoid confrontation wherever possible
- avoid drama: intense movies etc
The next stage, is to work with supporting yourself in calming anxiety
- Learn some tools and techniques and use them every day. Ideally several times a day.
- You can get our FREE Starter Course to help you get started
- Pick one or two techniques from the course, or follow along with some of the guided exercises every day for a month and then check back in with yourself.
Tip: get a habit tracking app and log your breathing practices, or EFT Tapping sessions, walks, hydration etc.
As anxiety comes down from red-alert it becomes easier to maintain and you can experience more mental freedom and peace
There is nothing to loose in trying something for a month and checking back on how you feel.
It’s likely that anxiety will try and hinder you in doing the experiment. That’s another trick of anxiety. Challenge yourself and do the experiment and let us know what changed for you on our Facebook page.
