Personal growth calls for deep dives and transformative discoveries about yourself. Managing anxiety and keeping a lookout for triggers can help temporarily. What you’ll learn is that healing your anxiety starts when we unpack the roots and find the core of it!
Anxiety is a mystery most of us can’t seem to figure out.
It can hover over you and take so much of your time and happiness.
Then when your mind finally clears, you feel irrational or crazy.
Especially when anxiously make decisions you regret later!
You can’t seem to shake your anxiety and it leaves you feeling like a victim.
But I’m here to tell you that your anxiety is not a weakness.
There was a point where it protected you. It kept you safe when you were required to be hypervigilant.
It was your armor, your protection against the unknown. The warrior that fought for you when you felt you couldn’t.
But I’m also here to tell you, that you are now at a point in your life where you no longer need it.
You’ve learned and grown so much. All the resources you need to fix, create and survive are at your fingertips.
You may not trust in the world around you but as long as you trust yourself that’s all you need!
Just look at everything you have already made it through. You have the tools to keep going, you can live a life without worry and fear!
If you feel like it’s time you let your inner warrior rest and need to start healing your anxiety, this is the post to help you do it!
Read More: 5 Unexpected Truths About Letting Go of Fear-Based Thinking!
Here are 4 steps to help you discover the core of your anxiety!
Step 1: Learn What Your Inner Voice Sounds Like
This step may take a little time, but it will make everything so much clearer!
Your inner voice or your intuition is your innate knowledge of self.
It is the version of you who desires, acts, and needs from the core of who you really are.
The dictionary definition of intuition is something that is known or understood without proof or evidence.
When you begin healing your anxiety you realize that it’s the version of you that is raw and untouched!
That hasn’t been hardened by hurt or withdrawn into themselves from the pain that comes from the disappointments life can throw your way.
The “you” that doesn’t need to worry or be strong for anyone or protect yourself from anything that may harm you.
Your inner voice represents the version of you that would make decisions if there were no perceived threat of danger, failure, or judgment.
That inner voice is who you are in your most authentic form. Learn to listen to it.
What does it want?
Once I learned what my inner voice sounds like, making decisions for my highest good got so much easier!
It was a huge weight off my shoulders when I uprooted the foundations of fear and anxiety that held me back for so long! I started taking more risks and seeing the rewards from them.
I had developed a solid relationship with myself and self-love was flowing through me.
And I want that for you too!
Read More: How to Identify Your Inner Voice In a World That Distracts You From It!
Step 2: Feel The Anxiety In Your Body
This step can be difficult if you let it! Especially if you’re used to pushing your feelings to the side!
I want you to think about times you felt anxious. Maybe you felt your life was out of control and you couldn’t cope.
What did that feel like in your body?
Or another scenario; You just entered a new relationship and you have a fear that it’s going to end up like failed relationships in the past.
How does your body feel?
Or maybe smaller things are triggering you because you have too many tasks on your plate and you need help but don’t know how to reach out.
What does your body feel like?
Those are all valid reasons to have anxiety. There’s no need to run from how your body feels. The best way to really heal your anxious mind is to let your body become very familiar with the feeling.
In these moments was your heart racing? Did you feel your stomach drop? Are muscles in your body constantly tense?
Check out symptoms of high-functioning anxiety here!
Leave a comment below! How do fear and anxiety manifest in you?
On my personal growth journey, it took me a long time to realize that my symptoms were actually considered anxiety!
My jaw was always tense, I was a chronic overthinker, I was highly critical of any and everything, etc. So I became familiar with the differences in my body when I felt anxious versus when I felt my body was at peace or happy.
After I discovered how often I was experiencing anxiety, what bothered me the most was that I spent more time worrying than I did actually living!
This is where the next step comes in! Now that we’ve identified it, we don’t want to get stuck in it.
This is why healing your anxiety is much more freeing than managing it!
Step 3: Challenge Your Anxiety Voice
Now that you’re feeling familiar with what anxiety feels like in your body, it’s time to start asking questions!
This is going to require you to be a little more mindful and observant than usual, but it will be worth it! I promise!
When you feel your body entering the beginning phases of fear or anxiety pay attention to your thoughts.
What comes up? What thoughts are the ones sending feelings of panic through your body?
It can be helpful to write down some of these thoughts as they come up. Try not to judge them or push them away, just write them down somewhere only you can see.
Then whenever you’re ready, come back with a clear mind and start asking those tough questions.
In my experience, my anxiety tends to ask me a lot of “What Ifs”.
*Insert Panicked Feeling*
What if I can’t accomplish my goals?
*Double Panic*
What if I do and I’m not happy?
*Begins to panic spiral and think of random scenarios*
What if this person hurts me?
*Panic Paralysis*
What if this is too good to be true?
As a result, it led me to a lot of overthinking and stress!
What do we do to challenge our anxiety voice?
The goal is to question the questions!
If Your Brain Asks This…
What if that person hurts your feelings?
Ask This…
Well, what if they do? Have they done it before? Have they ever given me any reason to believe they would?
If the answer is no, ask…
Am I giving them the chance to show me that they won’t?
These types of questions are crucial to getting to the root cause and finally healing your anxiety!
Once your start asking them you’ll be springboarded into the next step!
In Need of Some Daily inspiration? Check Out Tending Your Transformation On Instagram!
Step 4: Relate Your Answers To Past Experiences
Now that you’re healing and challenging the anxiety voice in your head, the next step is to honor the answers that you receive.
When you’re satisfied with the answers you find you’ll realize your body will relax more easily. Those answers will draw a map to the core issues of your anxiety.
Anxiety can happen when we project past experiences onto our future.
Take the time to analyze where in your past experiences you felt similar to how you’re feeling now.
Our anxious minds are typically triggered by experiences in our past that made us feel bad and now we’re doing everything in our power to keep from feeling that way again!
That survival mechanism may have helped you at the time you needed to protect yourself. Holding onto that mindset too strongly can send it into overdrive!
And it will eventually start trying to “protect” you from things you don’t need protecting from.
Backtracking through your past experiences is the best way to reverse the hold that anxiety has on you.
Drag yourself out of the fear spiral and approach your anxiety differently this time.
If you find yourself anxious ask yourself the question…
Is this outcome I’m worried about happening now or am I relating this to a past situation?
Is this outcome a situation I have experienced myself or one that I have taken on from the world around me?
Then, Ask Follow Up Questions
What situation was that? How did you feel then and who was involved? How old were you? What circumstances were you in?
Or
Who told you this was something you should worry about? How do they live their life? Is their life something you want to emulate?
Asking questions like these will begin to help you heal so that you can transform your life into whatever you want it to be!
Anxiety can happen when we project past experiences onto our future.
Kayla Sharee, Tending Your Transformation
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