What is Anxiety and How to Manage it
Anxiety can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to suffer in silence!
Anxiety is an emotional response we experience when we feel afraid or threatened. Anxiety is totally normal and every human being experiences this emotion at various time throughout the day and throughout life.
What does Anxiety feel like?
This response can be experienced through many different symptoms, including rapid heartbeat, upset stomach, difficulty breathing or focusing, feeling light-headed or dizzy, physically shaking, tension in head or jaw, having tunnel vision, feeling emotionally or physically overwhelmed, and/or often feeling hot. This is why it can be so hard to diagnose anxiety at times because it shows up in so many forms.
Where does Anxiety come from?
Anxiety stems from our Fear Response system. When we are highly stressed, afraid, or feel threatened, our reaction causes our Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), also known as the Fear Response, to get activated and turn on. This goes all the way back to Cave men days. The Fear Response is built in to our biology to help us survive. Our mind and body react to scary situations to warn us. When we experience fear, we tend to engage in different behaviors to protect ourselves, such as Fight, Flight or Freeze.
For example, if we are hiking and see a bear about to chase us, our Fear Response activates and tells us to: Fight the bear if you have to (Fight Response), run away (Flight Response), or you get so overwhelmed with fear that you feel unable to move or make a decision about what to do (Freeze Response). Our Fear response causes a chemical reaction to flush through our body when we are activated in this way. It also shuts off certain body functions is does not feel are crucial to survive the threat.
Freeze response in any situation tends to be more correlated with the development of PTSD, as the person experiencing the trauma feels unable to fight back or get away, causing even more shame at times for not being able to help or ‘save’ themselves from the traumatic experience/s. Freezing is a normal response to trauma, and should not be held against someone. There is also a fourth method that is being studied more currently. This is known at the Fawn Response, in which a victim tries to befriend the threat in order to preserve themselves. We see this with children who try to take care of negligent parents in order to protect themselves from harm.
It’s important to know how you typically react to stress and fear, so you can know how to better manage those reactions. I know most of us aren’t getting chased by bears each day, but over time our Fear Response has become overactive and more heightened. Any sort of judgement from self or others, or challenge in life, can bring on significant anxiety. Our fear of being judged, or being less than, or not being good enough causes us to constantly live in our Fear Response. Your body and mind become accustomed to this state, and so an anxiety state becomes the norm. We are seeing this take place a lot during Coronavirus and all the uncertainty it is causing for people.
How can you release anxiety?
In order to break free from this pattern, it’s important to practice present-moment awareness. Always bringing your attention back to the present moment and what is happening now. Ask yourself: How is your body feeling? Where are you holding tension or stress? What is causing this stress or tension? Are you breathing or holding your breath?
Breath is one of the most important things to consider when you are feeling anxious or stressed. Remember earlier how I mentioned the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)? Well, the Relaxation Response takes place through our Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). The Vagus Nerve is the main component of our Relaxation response. One of the easiest ways to activate this response, is through breathwork, as it causes our vocal cords to vibrate against this nerve.
By breathing slowly, as deeply as possible, for at least one minute you can easily activate this response and enter a calm mental and physical state anytime. Most of the time when breathing techniques don’t work for people, it is because they are not doing the technique for long enough. It is also very helpful to practice breathing techniques when you are calm and relaxed so your brain starts to associate them with this emotional state and helps you practice for when you are activated. Breathing techniques are also great because they are free and you can do them any time and anywhere!
My favorite breathing techniques are:
5-6-7 Breathing: Breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 6 seconds, breathe out for 7 seconds. Repeat for one minute.
Reverse Nostril Breathing: Gently push down one nostril with your finger. Breathe in and out of the single open nostril for 4-6 second rounds 3-4 cycles. Then remove your finger and switch sides, repeating the same process on the opposite nostril. Do this for one minute minimum. This sends oxygen to both sides of your brain allowing them to work together to help you calm down and think more clearly.
Pursed Lip and Deep sigh breathing: Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth, as if you are blowing a kiss, as slowly as possible. OR breathe in through your nose and when you breathe out through your mouth, exhale a deep or exaggerated sigh. Have fun with this!
You can make these skills even stronger by adding a visual in your mind. For example, imagine breathing in Hope through choosing a color that represents this to you. Imagine a color for love, strength, passion…whatever you need, and imagine this color filling you up when you breathe in. When you breathe out, imagine a toxic sludge leaving your body, or imagine the color of stress, anger, resentment…again be creative here and explore.
See what you notice and if this helps you shift from an anxious state to a calm one. Moving your body, either through exercise or dance, is another great way to activate the Relaxation response.
I hope you have learned something from and enjoyed this blog post. Please feel free to contact me via email to discuss any questions or concerns you may have regarding this topic. Thanks for reading!
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Sarah Seraphina is a Spiritual Activator and Liberation Guide. She is the owner of Nurtured Essence, a healing space, aimed at helping women overcome their past patterns and fears, so they may thrive and live with more power, purpose, ease, and joy. She specializes in working with healers, recovering empaths and “Damsels in Distress”, highly-sensitive women, lightworkers, and women with a sacred mission.
