Anxiety is a sense of fear whether the trigger is real or imaginary. This state may be obvious or it may disguise itself. In my opinion, anxiety is our most useful emotion because it’s often our body’s first feedback loop made visible. Body is telling us: pay attention…something isn’t right. Something needs to shift. Anxiety is meant to be a prompt for change not a way of being. Making matters more muddled, we tend to stay on hedonic treadmills* pursuing what feels good, what society rewards, and avoiding pain at all costs. This unaware path only increases suffering, exhausts our mind-body and courts illness. Bypassing isn’t the answer.
What if you are reading this and you’re thinking, “Well, this all makes sense and is fine and good. But what if I can’t tell if my anxiety is an issue?” My response is: I understand where you are coming from and have a seat next to me at the communal table. What you are feeling is absolutely normal. Welcome to the human tribe. We humans were never meant to be an animal that evolves on our own in isolation. We, our bodies and our brains, evolved and adapted to cooperate and regulate with our environment and with one another. We are social creatures. So amidst the chaos of the pandemic, things have gotten a little hairy for all of us.
I’ve been living with anxiety for so long I just thought it was natural to feel the way I felt. Not so much.
