The Message of Anxiety

Anxiety is not a problem, but a result of suppressing our emotions. It is a build up of unprocessed feelings and unfelt sensations, and shows up when we’ve turned away and become too afraid to feel. It is our body’s way of trying to get us to slow down, tune in, and reconnect with ourselves.

In the West, anxiety is seen as an enemy, as something we’re supposed to get rid of and medicate away. We’re told to take pills, and do whatever it takes to feel better, including walking, journaling, or going to a spa. And so we learn that anxiety is bad.

But anxiety signals imbalance. It’s a sign that we’ve been outrunning ourselves and avoiding our feelings, and far from being a problem, it’s actually a protector that’s here to help us to reconnect with the body. The tightness and tension it causes is an invitation to get curious and pay attention.

But how do we reconnect and pay attention? We slow down. We sit or lay down. We carve out space for ourselves. We set aside our phone, we take a break from social media, we pause the TV show, we put down the book, we turn off the music, and we come back to the body. We notice the heartbeat, how the pounding feels in the center of the chest. We notice the sensations: tingling, tightness, tension. And instead of pushing these sensations away, we get curious about them, we go towards them, we step into them. We become them. Because what creates anxiety is resisting the body. Trying to get away. Trying to escape ourselves.

So we end the cycle of anxiety by dropping the struggle, and allowing whatever is present, to be there. This is a practice of acceptance.

Instead of trying to fix or solve the anxiety, we practice being with it. And through this practice, the anxiety dissipates, because it sees that we’ve paid attention and heard it’s message, and that’s all it really wanted; to be heard and felt.