Celebrating our 7th Anniversary and Talking about the Stigma around Anxiety
In this week's podcast we're responding to a question from our Facebook page: "Have you ever covered the stigma and shame around anxiety?"
Listen to the full podcast here:
Points coveres in this podcast
Mental pain is as real and as deserving of help as physical pain
If we drop a chair on our toe we don't feel it let us down when we feel pain.
When a bomb gets dropped on our mind it's going to feel pain too. That’s normal. It doesn't mean we've failed or we're weak, it means we are suffering pain from cause and effect.
We might need some mental first aid, some time to heal and some support and that's OK.
When we don't get understanding we can start to turn in on ourselves and feel shame, and weakness, then we might feel the need to bury or hide our pain and that's where we get in trouble.
Healing begins when we find someone who will hear us without judgement
Someone who understands this is not their trauma, or experience. Therefore, it's not their place to judge.
An anxiety support partner's role is to listen carefully without judgement and take steps to help an individual move toward a place of reasonable functionality so they can get on with their life.
That support can begin with a friend, a support group, an anxiety coach or mental health professional. It's important that you feel fully comfortable confiding in whoever you choose: their ability to listen with empathy is their most important qualification.
Understanding the nature of the mind
One thing that really helped me (Ananga) was the wisdom teaching of the Vedas, in particular the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is which tells us that we are not our mind.
That understanding gave me the chance to put distance between myself and my mental pain. It helped me make the change from feeling like I was drowning in my thoughts to observing my thoughts.
When we say my mind is causing me pain, no matter how great that pain may be, we are still giving space and distance to heal. Saying “my mind” shows a proprietor of the mind. When we say "my coat" we know we have a coat, but we don't think we are the coat.
When we say “my mind” we shift our perspective to understand that we're not our minds and we're not our thoughts.
Related Resource:
How to Calm Your Fragile Mind Course - on sale until October 31st