How do I learn to heal my anxiety? Is it even possible?
Yes, it is possible, realistic, and achievable to learn how to heal anxiety naturally, completely free, and without the use of any medication. However, it is not an instant “silver-bullet” solution. It requires intention, focus, self-discipline, and commitment to yourself and your own well-being.
There are many ways that we can re-train our organism to be less reactive to the perceived threat in our environment while increasing our level of tolerance to potential risk.
This does not mean that we will be letting our guard down, acting in a reckless way or jeopardizing our safety. We will be just as responsible, vigilant, and careful.
It does mean that our bodies and minds will no longer be high-jacked by our fears, obsessive thoughts, what-ifs, and unbearable sensations of pounding heart, sweaty hands, shortness of breath, nausea, agitation, ruminations, and many other manifestations of overwhelming anxiety in our body.
As we learn to let our organism self-regulate and allow our anxiety to naturally heal, the anxiety will loosen its grip on our lives.
- We will be increasingly able to remain calm, centered, and grounded.
- We will know how to self-regulate and self-soothe.
- We will be able to look a the situation with a clear mind and develop an appropriate course of action.
- We will be responding to the situation, instead of reacting.
What is Anxiety?
“Anxiety is excitement, the elan vital which we carry with us, and which becomes stagnated if we are unsure about the role we have to play. If we don’t know if we will get applause or tomatoes, we hesitate, so the heart begins to race and all the excitement can’t flow into activity, and we have stage fright. So the formula of anxiety is very simple: anxiety is the gap between the now and the then. If you are in the now, you can’t be anxious, because the excitement flows immediately into ongoing spontaneous activity…” from Gestalt Therapy Verbatim by Frederick S. Perls
Anxiety is not-knowing, but desperately needing and wanting to know so that we can control some outcome in the future. We can not predict or control the future. We can only try to maximize the probability of a certain outcome but it is never guaranteed. When we experiencing anxiety we are dressed in our most protective armor, while simultaneously pumped up and ready to for battle. We are ready to face the danger right now. This would be a good thing if we were actually in battle or the battle was starting shortly. But it is not. That is the disconnect of anxiety. Our body already mobilized the energy for a battle which might not start for days, months, or years. It might be a battle which we would never have to fight. So this energy which has already been activated has nowhere to go, with nothing productive it can do. It is stuck.
Doesn’t Anxiety Serve A Purpose?
Absolutely. Everything our organism does is an adaption to ensure its survival in its environment. Anxiety is a system that our organisms created to keep us safe. We know that animals and even insects also experience anxiety, and some groups more than others. About 20% of the population of deer, for example, seem to be more cautious and slow to engage in new situations. Just like anxious people they stand back in the safety of their hiding spot and watch until they are sure that there is no danger. This means that the other 80% of deer (who have little anxiety and are less sensitive to risk) will probably get to enjoy the juiciest and freshest berries. Most of the time those 80% will be relaxed and well-nourished. However, if a predator suddenly appears those 80% will be the ones who perish. The anxious 20% will get to live and reproduce. It appears to be a very delicate balance that nature created to maximize the probability of survival of a species.
Is It Bad to Have Anxiety?
Anxiety is not a bad thing. It is a part of us, a part of life. Some level of anxiety is normal and even healthy. Anxiety often gets a bad reputation, because when people say that they have anxiety, they often mean that the have an excessive amount of anxiety that does not match the severity of the situation they are dealing with. It also usually means that they are experiencing overwhelming sensations in their mind and body that make it difficult for them to function in their everyday life. This is not a normal and healthy level of anxiety and will probably qualify as an Anxiety Disorder. In this case it would be helpful to seek help from a mental health professional specializing in anxiety or to learn tools and techniques for self-healing anxiety to improve the quality of life and make life feel less stressful and more enjoyable.
How do People Get Anxiety?
Anxiety is a complex phenomena that might arise from various causes.
Physiological Predisposition:
Our bodies might be genetically predisposed to feel intense anxiety because of how we are physiologically built (e.g. some people have smaller amygdala or hippocampus, areas of the brain that control ability to feel emotions.)
Multi-generational:
Stress hormones are known to cross the placenta and affect children in utero. We might be born with elevated levels of stress hormones in our body, with a baseline felt sense of the world as an unsafe place.
Attachment-based:
Anxiety might also be acquired in early childhood due to anxious attachment to the caregiver. This happens when the primary caregiver is inconsistent in their physical and/or emotional attunement with the child. Sometime they are present, sometimes they are not. The child never knows what to expect, creating a feeling of uncertainty in the world and ingrained feeling of lack of safety that they carry with them for the rest of their life. Even though the person does not usually explicitly remember their early years, their organism remembers.
Trauma-based:
Trauma-based anxiety shows up when a person experienced extreme circumstances where they felt so unsafe that their body internalized this feeling, which continuous to show up regularly as anxiety. Your nervous system is constantly hyper-vigilant and on high alert, ready to protect you or your loved ones from danger at any moment.
How Can Working with a Healing Coach Help Me?
Our approach to anxiety relief is holistic, somatic (body-oriented), and skill-based. We will try to understand the underlying causes of your anxiety and identify simple and effective strategies for anxiety relief that are known to work for people in situations and with experiences that are similar to yours. The focus of the work is on learning to regulate your own body and your own internal states so that you don’t get hijacked by them. We will introduce you to the system of somatic self-healing which includes healing posture, movement, self-massage, breathing techniques, and moving meditation. All our work is scientifically-proven to be effective for most people and will equip you with anxiety relief skills that you will rely on for the rest of your life.
Do I Need a Coach to Show Me How to Heal Anxiety?
Once they learn the skills and experience a new way of being in the world, most people can reduce their own anxiety dramatically and experience anxiety healing naturally, without the help of a professional. However, the transformation is gradual and depends on your level of commitment. Typically you will experience anxiety healing faster if you get professional support.
On this website you will find guidance on how to heal anxiety and experience relief naturally and on your own. No matter whether you do it by yourself or with the help of an anxiety healing coach, it will require effort, discipline, commitment, determination, and time.
Your organism developed anxiety for a reason. Your mind-body believes it is protecting itself from danger. It will not want to lower the defenses. That would feel too scary and vulnerable at first. If the task feels overwhelming and you would like additional support on your journey to heal anxiety, we have coaches experienced with anxiety and we are here to guide you. Regardless of whether you are working with a professional or on your own, you are the one who has to do the work.
Get in Touch with an Anxiety Healing Coach:
If you would like to work with a healing coach to get individual support and guidance for learning how to heal anxiety natually, please get in touch with us and let us know more about your situation, so that we can start a conversation on how we can best support you (currently working via Telehealth). You are welcome to ask questions about how to naturally heal anxiety or to schedule a complementary 15-minute phone consultation. We are physically located in Santa Barbara County, California, USA and are available virtually to help clients (children, teens, or adults) residing anywhere in the world. Also, ask us about Healing Groups for anxiety. We look forward to hearing from you.
- Write us an Email
- Call or text us at 805-770-0834
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