Do you know how to listen to what it is saying?
It can be very uncomfortable, yet as we learn to decode the vital messages to has for us we can release it.
The thoughts, feelings and body sensations that are part of anxiety are calling us to pay attention.
They are telling us that we are out of balance and need to change our direction. Viewed this way, it is a call to action.
Sometimes the action we need to take is to change our mindset, our way of viewing ourselves and the world. Is it a friendly, peaceful, welcoming world or a scary place?
Sometimes it involves external action.
Usually, it involves both. A comprehensive, hoiistic approach to transforming anxiety
includes listening to our thoughts, feelings, body sensations and how
these connect with our personal relationships and roles in the world.
All of this matters and each plays a role in our overall wellness.
The typical approach is much more limited. The disease-oriented medical model sees anxious feelings
as being caused by a bio-chemical imbalance in the brain.
From this
perspective, an anti-anxiety medication would be the primary way to treat
it. While this could help us feel better, at least for the short term,
we could miss hearing the vital call to action message within our
discomfort.
What Is The Message?
It is a call to come alive. It is a "wake up call" to pay attention
inside ourselves and around us. It's a call for us to tap into our
creative wisdom, find our inner strength, and take an appropriate
action.
"Anxiety is the gap between the now and the later" Fritz Perls
It is about the future...we become worried or apprehensive about a
perceived threat, of something happening or not happening. Often we are
not even clear about what it is we are upset about, as opposed to
fear.
Fear generally has a clear object...we are afraid, for example,
of a big bear attacking us while we are out hiking. For more on working
with fear, especially fear of change, go to
Fear and Change.
Anxiety helps us be aware of potentially dangerous situations, although
not necessarily physical dangers. The cause is more vague than fear and
can be less than totally rational...such as anxiety about heights or
spiders or enclosed spaces.
What it is telling us may need some exploration. We may need to "dig in the dirt" to find out what we are afraid of... where in our past we lost control or felt helpless. Psychotherapy and the emotional healing retreats we offer can get us to the core of our anxiety so we move beyond being stuck in it.
In that exploration we can often find inspiration and healing, especially if we connect with and experience those hidden feelings along the way.
Working With Uncomfortable Emotions
Our feelings are essential messengers calling us to awaken and grow. They are the most overlooked factor in personal growth and total wellness.
We tend to want to avoid uncomfortable feelings that make us anxious but avoidance just makes matters worse.
Avoidance makes our world smaller as we shrink to avoid life.
As we learn to lean into our feelings, they transform and become
our teachers. Anxiety transformed is a great awakener (as is fear)
calling us to live a bigger life, with far more awareness, courage and
excitement than before.
Going through emotions (rather than suppressing them, trying to understand them or manipulate them) allows us to receive their gifts of increased energy and awareness. Click on this psychotherapy link for more on this perspective.
Our Grief and Loss and Shalom Retreats are designed to help people transform stuck feelings, including anxiety.
Over and over again I've seen people work through deep anxieties and fears by learning how to lean into these states of consciousness and express their anxiety through sound and movement. It is always a very powerful experience of transformation, relief and expansion. As my mentor in this work, Lawrence Stibbards, once said, "If we are bottled up by fear then our lives are bottled up." And once we release that fear our lives open up!
What are the components ofan effective, holistic program?
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) has been shown to be effective for anxiety. It works with thoughts, beliefs and behaviors, helping clients change behaviors and thought patterns that reinforce their anxiousness.
Multimodal Therapy (developed by Arnold Lazarus) is even more effective
because it also looks at the role interpersonal relations, perceptual
stimuli and physical issues affect us.
The approach we use, which I practice at my office in Northampton,
Massachusetts, and long distance via the phone and Skype, gives greater
emphasis to emotions than CBT or Multimodal therapy.
From our perspective, emotional healing is the key to healing.
We also give more attention to helping clients become spacious and open in their bodies and minds to let the uncomfortable feelings reveal their gifts. These gifts need space!
The process includes specific body-oriented energy healing and counseling.
We offer a unique anxiety protocol that includes training in:
I also encourage clients to make full use of the benefits of exercise, rest and a healthy diet.
“Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity” Wayne Dyer
Our feelings are not an enemy to eradicate. They're allies, sources of wisdom and creativity.
In fact, there are many things we should be concerned
about, and use our resources to help change them. Especially the big
issues outside of our self--the state of the world and humanity's
inability to deal effectively with numerous problems. The world is out
of balance and needs our help. But how can we help when our life energy
is being stolen by worry, stress and anxious feelings?
Many people are stuck in denial. Others feel trapped and paralyzed by them.
But we can move beyond those stuck places. By working
holistically, with all our relations (self and others), we can mobilize
our vast internal resources to truly be a force for good in the world.
While our approach is primarily non-medical, medications can be
helpful by providing much needed relief when the problem is severe
enough to make daily activities difficult to perform. And they can help
some people be more able to take the action steps to truly master these
feelings and discover the wisdom within them.
Nutrition can affect our levels of stress. People who are
experiencing chronic stress, fatigue, and other symptoms can often
benefit from the help of an excellent nutritionist.
A valuable website that I found is Anxiety Unraveled. This site contains a lot of practical information including coping tips, natural remedies and yoga techniques that you can use to bring long lasting relief.
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For more information about counseling and
retreats
with Jon Terrell, contact Jon using the form below. He has offices in
downtown Northampton, Massachusetts (serving the Pioneer Valley) and New
York City.
Jon Terrell, M.A., L.M.T.
Fitzwilly's Building
25 Main Street, Suite #342
Northampton, Massachusetts 01060
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