I Didn't Used to Feel This way...

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.