Dealing with and healing anxiety

Many people are dealing with high levels of anxiety - maybe this has been true for a long time - and maybe something is different at this time. 

We don't have to know the reasons behind your personal anxiety in order to bring deep healing to it. Sometimes the content and the knowing helps, but it definitely is not necessary. Those thinking and analyzing parts of you can rest! They don't have to know it all or do the healing work!

I have so much I want to share with you about living with and healing anxiety. I wrote a big bunch of stuff and realized it's too much for one email. Do people read long emails these days? 

I've divided this into two emails, and the next email will include some of my current favorite tools.

Anxiety is not my steady companion it used to be, where it once completely intertwined into my cells and fibers of my being. Instead, it rises up on occasion. Sometimes fierce and overwhelming, sometimes a mild holding me into a frozen place for a patch of time. There's hope for all of us!

Below is a letter I wrote to myself regarding my times of anxiety:

Dear Marta ~
You are not your anxiety. That is one state of being and it is not permanent. You/we/me are growing bigger and more capable all the time. The soul shines forth. This anxiety is not the life sentence you once believed. We can ground ourselves in the hope of so many positive changes under way.

I see the root belief that "I am doing it wrong", and I see the many sources that contribute to this old, dusty belief. 
But even this belief is undergoing change.

The clear intention of moving my whole being, every cell in my body to the "field beyond right and wrong doing"...this intention comes to life more and more each day, and more and more after each passing wave of anxiety.

I wish this for others too. I wish them to know that anxiety is not the truth of them, it is part of a collection of hard working energies that have tried so hard to have a meaningful human experience. Blessings and love to these valiant and dedicated parts. 
 

So, my friends, a reminder that you are bigger than any anxious feelings (or depression, or anger, or addictive behavior). Internal Family Systems calls this Self Energy - the aspect of you that's capable of being with any feeling or any experience, that's bigger than any feeling or experience. Some might call this the Soul or Spirit or the Essence of who we are. 

To support this remembering of the deeper truths of who we are, here's a meditation for Gently Connecting with Anxiety. It touches on the themes of self compassion, inward listening, connection to Source.

In love, compassion, and connection,
Marta

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash