understanding anxiety & calming your anxious mind

Jul 11, 2016 | Other Popular Teachings

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summary

Next week marks national Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK, which this year focuses on the subject of anxiety.

Anxiety and anxiety related health issues are something I work with on a daily basis as clients from all over the world contact me seeking a drug-free, alternative and spiritual solution to empower them take control of, heal and rebalance their mental health and emotional wellbeing.

If you suffer from the uncomfortable feelings that are commonly labelled as anxiety, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic-attacks or a phobia of any kind, I’ve recorded a practical teaching and a guided meditation on the subject to help you calm your anxious mind…

listen to the podcast

full teaching transcript

David James Lees:

Defining anxiety

In West anxiety is often described as worry or fear that often arises because of a perceived threat or a perception that something going wrong in the future.

Anxiety can affect you psychological health – your ability to concentrate, your sleep patterns, and your general mood. It can be like a vicious circle between your physical health and psychological wellbeing.

Around 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem like anxiety each year and in the US anxiety disorders affect 18% of the adult population.

You may occasionally experience fleeting and brief moments of these uncomfortable feelings that are commonly labelled in the West as anxiety,or perhaps these feelings are a more familiar, regular and ongoing for you? You may have even been diagnosed as suffering from: panic attacks, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) or a phobia.

I prefer not to use these emotive labels as, in my experience, they confuse, corrupt, and even negatively re-infect your thinking, and in turn can increase the uncomfortable emotional feelings that you may be experiencing.

Let’s look more deeply at anxiety – what is it really?

The term anxiety is actually a description of a range of physical feelings, such as: a churning or ‘butterflys’ in your stomach, a tightness in your chest, a weakness or tenseness in your muscles, dry mouth, dizziness etc.

I find it more helpful to call all of these feelings red-light feelings, because they are telling you something is misaligned in your thinking and that you are currently out of your spiritual balance.

These red-light feelings, no matter how unfamiliar, uncomfortable and unwelcome they may seem, are NOT your enemy, in fact they are your best friend, when used correctly. They are highlighting that you have a personal or spiritual lesson to learn in this situation – this is what the ancient Taoists call ‘a blessing’.

So you have a choice…

You can choose to learn the lesson being presented and accept the blessing by mindfully working through the process of using your feelings as a helpful spiritual guide and understanding how to love and trust your unique abilities to authentically deal with any situation you are presented with in a loving a flexible way.

Or you can choose to ignore the lesson by attempting to avoid the situations or people that have highlighted your spiritual misunderstanding and created the subsequent red-light feelings.

Or you may choose to try to mask the acute red-light feelings with suppressants like alcohol, food, drugs, shopping – anything that diverts you away from having to take responsibility for the situation and your authentic thinking.

Unfortunately these types of avoidances are just an illusion, they will never work!

If you try to avoid or ignore the red-light feelings they will come back, sometimes even more acutely, as the Cosmic life lessons will re-present themselves again and again, perhaps in different way, as a different situation or person, but they will always return until the spiritual lesson is learnt.

You need to understand that when you avoid your red-light feelings like this you are also limiting your life fulfillment, constricting your potential and, more importantly, betraying your self-worth and your Cosmic Contract. This paradoxically increases the red-light feelings.

Remember, you have a spiritual contract with the Cosmos you came from to live your spiritual truth, so take responsibility for yourself and your life journey, honour that unique divine Oneness within you.

This process will not always be easy, straightforward or even comfortable. But the rewards are immense and profound as you raise your Qi energy vibrations and start to open yourself up to, and aligning with, the Cosmic flow of energy and love that is all around you and just waiting for you to reconnect.

You can take control right now – take the first step!

I want you to learn to be able to change your red-light feelings into green-lights, these are the feelings of joy, contentment, satisfaction and bliss.

This state of being is your birth-right. Remember, you don’t have to earn love, you are love! This is a state of inner balance and harmony, or what the ancient Chinese Taoists call Wu-Wei. This is when you are in your flow or your ‘sweet-spot’, operating to your highest and fullest potential.

Simple things you can do right now to regain you inner balance and find your Wu We

#1 Try talking to someone but ban the ‘F’ word

Don’t focus on your feelings, instead examine your thoughts and beliefs that created those feelings and try and find your spiritual misalignment.

#2 Be soft and loving to yourself… don’t fight fire with fire as it just makes the fire bigger!

Make friends with your feelings and use them as your guide: keep diary so you can become mindful of what thoughts create what feelings. Look out for those spiritual lessons that are being presented to you every day. Be interested and happy to explore those lessons – these are your blessings!

#3 Develop your self-love and self-worth with healthy lifestyle habits:

Avoid excesses such as too much coffee, sugar or alcohol as these can over stimulate an already sensitive situation.
Find ways to positively channel your sensitivity and creative imagination by doing things you have a passion for and artistically stretch and stimulate yourself in a positive way.
Explore relaxation… why not try mediation or gentle exercise such as Qigong, tai chi and yoga – all of these are excellent practices.
Above all, ask yourself when you encounter these life lessons: ‘is this my spiritual truth?’… and always live in your spiritual truth.

This will move you away from your red-lights and connect you back to your green-lights, your birth-right, and who you really are.

This is your spiritual journey: drop your shoulders, breathe deeply, relax – always live in your spiritual truth.

Yi Tao Qi Tao

David

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