Anxiety is something that we all would have experienced at least once in our lifetime and with that maybe panic attacks as well. I totally understand. I was a perfectly healthy woman that worked in the field of domestic violence for years. I had a marriage end, and a child diagnosed with cancer, and never at any point did I have panic attacks. Then after the chemo treatments with my son were finished, I bought a house and once I got settled into the house, my world began to fall into pieces.
I began experiencing the worst anxiety I could have imagined. I had such enormous fear that seemed to
come out of nowhere. I managed to get myself into work but most days I didn’t want to leave my house
or see my friends and family because I felt like I was dying. I was sent to the hospital twice from work
and as I was lying in the back of the ambulance they asked if I had ever had anxiety before. I shook my
head and said, “Anxiety, I don’t have anxiety!” I left an abusive marriage, my six-year-old son had been
diagnosed with cancer and I worked in the field of crisis! I have NEVER had anxiety! How could they
think this was that?
I never imagined that anxiety was that bad and that I, having lived through so much, was experiencing
panic attacks and extreme anxiety. Well, there was no more denying that I was indeed experiencing
anxiety. I battled it for a long time until I was tired of fighting it, tired of hiding. I felt exhausted and ill
and I began to accept the fact that I had to get this under control because I had two small children at
home and I felt like I was sinking more and more all the time.
I did a lot of searching and found out a lot about anxiety and was able to totally get rid of it. The
interesting thing was, that there was more going on than most people realize. I stumbled
across Ayurveda, which is the oldest healing system on the planet. I learned a whole bunch about my
body, and what was happening and I started a path of healing.
Anxiety was not just a mindset problem, it is much more than that! I had gone on a spiritual path that
brought me to a place of learning about trauma, food, mindfulness, and Ayurveda. I was shocked that
there was so much around anxiety and that so much of it and what I was learning was never spoken
about. At least I never saw any of it anywhere I had to experience it, research it, and stumbled across
things that uncovered to me, a complete body, mind, and soul blueprint so to speak. I want to share that
with you.
Truth #1 – Trauma stores as energy in the body- After I grabbed a hold of my anxiety I did a lot of deep
thinking and feeling and it dawned on me that I left my marriage because my husband became abusive
and it took a while (not to long) to leave the marriage, but it was very traumatic for me. My Son being
diagnosed with cancer and going through a year of chemo with him on my own was extremely
traumatic and scary. All of these things affect us within the body/mind whether we are aware of it or
not. Thoughts are energy and that energy gets stored within the body when you are worrying about all
of the things I was worrying about while I sat next to my little boy and don’t think I ever wrote things
down in a journal or talked to anyone about how I was feeling. In fact, most of that time is a blur.
Truth #2 – Anxiety in Ayurveda is said to be caused by an imbalance of a “dosha”. In Sanskrit, a dosha
can be translated as “that which can cause problems”, and refers to three categories or types of
substances that are believed to be present in a person’s body and mind. There are three doshas and the
elements in a dosha can become unbalanced and are said to cause disease. Anxiety is a result of Vatta
dosha being out of balance. Vatta is a dosha that is comprised of an “Air” element. Light, dry and mobile are the qualities of this dosha, and an imbalance of Vata, mentally, is associated with an overabundance of lightness or movement which shows up as erratic thoughts, worries, obsession, confusion, and difficulty
focusing. The imbalance of Vata also can show up as having a hyper-excitable nervous system coupled
with trouble sleeping. **(according to the Chopra center)If you think about feeling “ungrounded” the
Chopra Center says this is the feeling of a Vatta imbalance.
Truth #3 – According to Neuroscientists anxiety is said to be a disruption of the Emotional Processing
Center. The brain’s limbic system which is made up of the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus,
and thalamus, is responsible for the majority of emotional processing, and therefore, anxiety is said to be
because of “heightened activity” in these areas.
Truth #4 – Being deficient in minerals and vitamins can affect your physical and mental energy, and your
body’s health along with a biochemical imbalance in the brain to increase or cause anxiety and increase
the level of anxiety. I experienced this myself when I faced my crisis and discovered that truly my body
was breaking down because of these deficiencies.
Truth #5 – Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT is said to be one of the best ways to manage and change
anxiety by learning new coping mechanisms. This is in my opinion better than regular “talk therapy”
because it helps to get to your core beliefs and then you can shift those quickly.
Let’s face it, Anxiety is one of the most common mental health ailments in our society today! Anxiety
does not discriminate against age, race, religion, wealth, or country. Anxiety can creep up and knock you
to your knees at any time in your life and it is not fun! As a Woman in her 50s, I find that anxiety comes into my life at times for different reasons now, and because there is a new set of challenges, unknowns, etc but the good thing is that I am now more knowledgeable about anxiety and I have learned to not fight it, but rather take the time to look at where it’s coming from, what thoughts are creating it, and also look at my daily routines and nutrition, and it never stays for long if it rears its head.
The great news is that Anxiety does not have to control your life nor last forever! You can take steps
today to learn how to cope, bring more awareness to your body, thoughts, and traumas and begin to release the energy that you store within your body and change the thoughts that you play constantly in your mind. We know that our mind has 60,000 thoughts in a day and that 90% of those thoughts are on
repeat and once we are aware of those, and our habits daily we can make different choices.
Imagine living a life that doesn’t involve waking up with overwhelming anxiety. Going through your
day with balance and peace. Feeling like you can go out and be around your friends, family, and social activities without having a panic attack, feeling dizzy or shaky but instead feeling joy, security, and confidence that you have control over your mind and body and more importantly your thoughts.
You can book a call with me and get started on your journey of healing your anxiety and learning coping skills so that anxiety does not control your life.
