Seeds of Insight 048 - Anxiety as a gateway to your heart

Is it possible that anxiety is our friend and not our enemy? I welcome you to a free experiential session on Zoom to meet, befriend and learn from our experience of anxiety.

Dear Ones,

The effects of chronic anxiety on our wellbeing and physical body can be depleting and seeking relief from it is most natural. However, in our impulse to manage it in the short term, we may be overlooking the lessons that it is trying to teach us in the long run.

We mostly view anxiety these days as a problem with our nervous system - a fight-or-flight response gone rogue even when there is no real threat. So we try to manage it, medicate it, meditate it, numb it back to ‘balance’. Oftentimes though, despite our many tools and techniques, anxiety returns as soon as we get off the meditation cushion and managing it has a limited lasting effect (mostly frustration).

What if anxiety is there for a good reason? What if anxiety is the top layer of something deeper that needs our loving attention and healing presence? It may not be an objective external threat to our survival (indeed, in our western world, we are lucky to have no ongoing war or tigers hunting us in the wild), but that’s irrelevant - our bodies and nervous systems make no distinction between external and internal, real and perceived, emotional and physical threats. And that’s essential!

You might think “Well then, I just need to understand that the danger isn’t real.” If you’ve tried that long enough, you might have noticed that this approach isn’t helpful either. In fact, it isn’t even true.

In his book “The body says no”, Dr Gabor Mate points to increasing scientific evidence that internal psychological threats - emotional wounds and traumatic memories 1) are the biggest source of chronic stress in the western world; 2) can impact the overall health of the organism, manifesting as long term mental or physical illness (chronic conditions in particular).

In this sense, anxiety is not our enemy - it is our friend and intelligent messenger; a gateway to healing and the Heart. It is our nervous system’s way of telling us: “Look over here! Pay closer attention - you are living in a way that is disconnected from your needs and past your physical and emotional boundaries. And that can be detrimental.”

The good news is that none of this is a life sentence and all of it is wisdom, however strange that sounds. Typically, under the surface layer of anxiety, there is a well of deeper unprocessed emotions waiting to be met, processed and integrated. With skilful support, we can build resources to not only meet these emotions, but also learn the lessons they have been holding for us all this time.

If you feel the call to explore this topic a bit deeper, I welcome you to a free and fully experiential workshop on Zoom on Aug 23 (see details below). We’ll learn simple self-regulation techniques to “take the edge off” in our daily lives. We'll also open the door to a deeper inquiry into what needs our attention underneath the anxiety in a safe and self-supported way.

A loving and skilful invitation to work with and befriend anxiety. This session is for everyone who struggles with its difficult effects and will include:

a guided meditation with self-regulation techniques to return to a balanced state
resourcing tools to help us inquire deeper into what our bodies are trying to communicate

the beginning of an inquiry into what is at the root of anxiety.
a final sharing

Learn more and register

Other upcoming events

Soulful Flow on Zoom, 55 mins of soulful vinyasa to start the day, Every Wed at 8am London

Space of Grace, sweet mixed men & women circle on zoom, Wed 11 8pm London

Need 1:1 Support? True Friend Sessions

True Friend Therapy is a form of non-directive advanced hypnotherapy, combined with the wisdom of the Enneagram of Egoic Fixation, NLP & and the gift of Silence passed to my Teachers from their Teachers Sri Papaji & Sri Ramana Maharsi.

Being a True Friend to you simply (but powerfully) means meeting you with a quiet mind and an open heart - being a humble mirror without agenda, without opinion, without judgement. I have found time and time again that this simple open meeting has a deeply healing effect and leaves space for you to see your own beautiful reflection.

It is the greatest gift I ever received and I am so honoured to extend the invitation to you

learn more and book a free intro