Anxiety is a feeling that many people just take for granted as part of the game of life. You’ve got a lot on your plate, you’ve got bills to pay, maybe a family to provide for, a relationship or the lack of relationship to worry you, there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do everything that needs to be done in the day. Sound familiar?
If you are like the rest of us, you probably spend a lot of time and energy just managing, keeping things going and in the best order you can—but still things slip through the cracks. So you’ve got good reason to be anxious, right?
Certainly our complex and fast-paced lifestyles demand much from us. But I think what’s going on is actually much deeper. Chances are there are parts of yourself that you’ve squelched in the process of trying to manage everything, trying to stay on top of what actually cannot be tracked and controlled—it really is just too much. So the story goes, I don’t have time for myself, I can barely get (healthy?) food in my mouth much less take the time for a walk, or to write, or to meditate, or to stare out the window. Yet space—temporal, physical, psychic, emotional—for yourself is critical to your well being.
I was working with a client recently, and he mentioned that he experiences high anxiety quite often. I asked him what he thought that is about, and he said that there is a “dark” part of himself that he would rather avoid. Earlier in his life he’d connected more with this part of himself through writing, but more recently he’s got family responsibilities and he’s put his writing on hold. That part, too, feels chaotic and it’s scary—so he has been willing to ignore it. But now he’s realizing that the anxiety is getting to be more than he can handle, and he’s worried that he might somehow damage himself. And he’s right–he just might, if he doesn’t pay attention.
In my next post I’ll talk about that “dark” part inside. Here I just want to note that anxiety is a warning sign, not something to be ignored or normalized. It’s a sign that something is amiss, that our attention needs to focus somewhere it hasn’t. While it may be easy to be captured by the news, the internet (te he), your thoughts, your family’s requests/demands, or whatever—focusing outside yourself is just a habit. And it’s a habit you can change. Your peace of mind, your health, and certainly your joy depend upon it.
Next: Anxiety: Part Two, The Little People Inside
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