The dangers of not tending to negative emotions
Now I left off in the last article speaking about the dangers of not addressing or tending to stressors and anxiety when it comes up,
Often a metaphor that I use in clinic is that we want to deal with things as they come up just as if the analogy of a spark and a burning building. If you were a firefighter and you had a chance to fight a fire at the first sign of a spark, and you were able to snuff that out then and there versus a building that was a raging inferno which would you choose? Well, of course, you'd be selecting the spark, it just seems that we often don't know that when it comes to anxiety or panic attacks that we have a choice between a spark in a burning building. That spark that I'm referring to maybe those smaller anxieties or stressors that are happening day in day, week to week.
We may have been running the strategy of pushing them down or pushing them aside or swept under the rug. Now it can be the case that when this stuff or material gets repressed and pushed aside for over a prolonged period, it is equivalent to the burning building, but it doesn't have to be that way. So how can you get to the point where anxiety can be your friend? Well, it all comes down to awareness if we allow ourselves to be aware we can remodel how we live our lives and ultimately perceive reality. The awareness of knowing that those sparks and smoke are right under our nose is a muscle that needs to be cultivated. It's super important to take the time to tune into oneself through meditate. Connect with that deeper part of ourselves and not push information aside.
Often it seems it's the best option to push them aside or push them down because we don't want to feel something although that is where things have the potential to come apart further down the track. I can also respect that people do push these things down or side as they don't have the tools to get to the bottom of it and to resolve these problems. You certainly can find and use such tools within the context of hypnosis and NLP. Within this filed are inroads to alleviating and ultimately resulting these problems.
So if we are self aware and connected with ourselves and able to have that deeper relationship with our unconscious mind this is the beginning of anxiety being a friend because we can really read those signs that are on the road to our goals and noticed that there's something to be addressed before they come so uncomfortable that we can't manage. If you have any questions about how to develop these tools and how to become more aware please reach out as I'm happy to help.
Get access to the rest of the series here:
Anxiety is your friend! - Article 1 of 4