There are a number of people who have said this to me before they go in to describing their feelings of anxiety.  I, like most of us, have spent a considerable amount of time searching around what's new in this person's life that seems to have tripped the mountain lion is coming to get me wire.  Usually it isn't too hard to come up with a couple changes that may have caused the heightened fear response to danger, but often times it feels somewhat inconclusive.

What I have most recently come to discover with most of the people I work with, especially those in college or transitioning to the world of becoming an adult post college, is that it's much more about what isn't happening anymore than what is happening.  Anxiety, maybe more so than our other feelings, tends to feel like an energy current.  Used or channeled correctly it can create a tremendous amount of focus or drive.  What this often times looks like is high school athletics.  What this often times looks like after high school all of a sudden pops out as feelings of anxiety.  In other words, some of us through life have naturally healthy coping tools for periods of our life just because they are there.

I've seen numerous clients who are now looking for tools to combat their anxiety symptoms who historically would 'run' their anxiety out whether that be in literal exhaustion or in having  a twenty to thirty minute brain space that is open to processing.  You've likely never noticed how hard it is to beat the crap out of yourself while you are running.  While the body is producing positive ions it is pretty hard to dump bad mojo all over yourself.  Take that away and you can imagine what the effects are.  An anxious body typically needs to move and circulate to find it's rest.  Ask an injured runner how it's layoff is going and you will find someone who feels out of balance and edgy.

With that said, you don't necessarily have to force yourself to go out and pick up a running regimen.  What you might consider instead is what you may have given up over time that may have been providing a positive processing space.  In a camp of people far away from those who tend to be active are those who have used creative channels.  Creativity typically carries it's own sensory component - often with the use of our hands.  Again, there is an energy transference and the creative space fuels it's on positive ions.

Anixety symptoms can be rough.  Pieces of your past may be the key to managing pieces of your new found anxiety that might have just been there all along.  It's easy to put a few things down when life gets busy whether that's the 18 hour semester or work demanding a hectic schedule. 

You don't have to do it.  They drive you crazy.  The congregating at the water cooler makes you want to roll your eyes so far into your head you are afraid they will get stuck.  If you hear about one more weekend of (insert blah, blah, blah) you think you might scream.  Yet, every morning as you walk into work you berate yourself/pep talk yourself to just be nice because these people are supposed to be your friends.  Right?  I mean that's what mom always said, right?  The mantra from high school was kill them with kindness.  It was easier back then though.  You actually liked the people you ate lunch with.  With these people you'd rather eat in the storage closet than listen to them recount their adventures.  What gives?

Autogroups.  Up through college your friendship world has been driven by autogroups.  It happens elementary through high school and on in to college.  An autogroup is a group that puts people like you around you in a way that you easily gravitate together and become friends.  Once you are an adult it's easy to assume that work is going to be another autogroup and we set out to find our new best friend.  What we forget to notice is that these really aren't your people.  Our work environment has a range of ages and stages of life.  Yet everyone is existing together.  It's easy to feel pressured to be friends with your co-workers because it will look like it's always worked in the past.

I'm here to tell you it's okay not to like your co-workers.  It's okay not to want to chat at the water cooler.  It's okay to want to decline numerous invitations to happy hours.  It's even okay to feel left out the next day when you hear what you missed.  No matter how much you don't want to be invited, you WILL feel left out.  And your world won't end!