Anxiety Soothers is for those who struggle with chronic anxiety, not simply healthy stress. Healthy anxiety or stress can be exquisitely uncomfortable (urr!) but that does not mean it is “bad”. Growing is good, right? And healthy stress is part of growth. Where would we be without the kind of anxiety that stretches us beyond our comfort zones? Think of the risks involved in speaking in public, traveling to a foreign country, learning how to swim, making a commitment, strapping on a pair of roller-blades, speaking up to your boss; basically doing anything beyond hiding under the bed!
This is life: There Will Be Anxiety. Fear not: it is Doable. And within bounds, it is healthy! Most likely the only humans who are immune to it are sociopaths, and who wants to hang around with them? (Thanks, but I’ll pass.)
I hope you don’t think that any of our Presidents, the Queen of England, Queen Sheba, the Homecoming Queen or anyone in any exalted position, is free of anxiety. They always want to appear cool, calm and at ease—but O, the moments behind the scene! The fevered thinking. (Is there spinach in my teeth? Did I just insult that Diplomat by offering the wrong hand? Is my zipper zipped? Was a camera filming me when I tripped? I’m so tired: am I using real sentences? What did I just say??) Please let go of hopes for immunity and comparisons to false gods. We are all in this together.
Chronic anxiety demands that we ask, what the heck is going on?? WHY am I continuously in this state of travail? It is exquisitely un-funny. The suffering is as real as physical pain, and brain studies—which have benefitted enormously in recent years from improvements in MRI technology—show that emotional suffering lights up the same parts of the brain as physical suffering. Imagine! You don’t have to imagine, do you? Because you feel the pain. So give yourself some credit: look at how strong and brave you are, that you have endured this suffering for so long! That takes stamina, it really does.
Perhaps you will step away from being drenched in anxiety by using the many tools in Anxiety Soothers, alone. Perhaps you will find that, additionally, it behooves you to find a good therapist and perhaps, additionally, you will want to add acupuncture, homeopathy and /or Western medicine. My basic philosophy is: Any port in a storm. Nothing (healthy) is out of bounds in the quest for a loving relationship within Self—and that’s the kind of relationship that enables us to weather the inevitable travails of life. Ask yourself, what would it take for me to have that loving relationship? Hold onto that question, open and willing to consider what arises within you in response, even if you are afraid and want to snap shut like a clamshell. This is you with you: the most important relationship in your life. May it be loving.
I hope you don’t think that any of our Presidents, the Queen of England, Queen Sheba, the Homecoming Queen or anyone in any exalted position, is free of anxiety. They always want to appear cool, calm and at ease—but O, the moments behind the scene! The fevered thinking. (Is there spinach in my teeth? Did I just insult that Diplomat by offering the wrong hand? Is my zipper zipped? Was a camera filming me when I tripped? I’m so tired: am I using real sentences? What did I just say??) Please let go of hopes for immunity and comparisons to false gods. We are all in this together.
Chronic anxiety demands that we ask, what the heck is going on?? WHY am I continuously in this state of travail? It is exquisitely un-funny. The suffering is as real as physical pain, and brain studies—which have benefitted enormously in recent years from improvements in MRI technology—show that emotional suffering lights up the same parts of the brain as physical suffering. Imagine! You don’t have to imagine, do you? Because you feel the pain. So give yourself some credit: look at how strong and brave you are, that you have endured this suffering for so long! That takes stamina, it really does.
Perhaps you will step away from being drenched in anxiety by using the many tools in Anxiety Soothers, alone. Perhaps you will find that, additionally, it behooves you to find a good therapist and perhaps, additionally, you will want to add acupuncture, homeopathy and /or Western medicine. My basic philosophy is: Any port in a storm. Nothing (healthy) is out of bounds in the quest for a loving relationship within Self—and that’s the kind of relationship that enables us to weather the inevitable travails of life. Ask yourself, what would it take for me to have that loving relationship? Hold onto that question, open and willing to consider what arises within you in response, even if you are afraid and want to snap shut like a clamshell. This is you with you: the most important relationship in your life. May it be loving.