Anxiety
Our thoughts shouldn’t feel unmanageable or overwhelming every day.
Anxiety is a very normal and healthy emotion to experience in response to our day-to-day life. However, anxiety becomes an issue when it impacts our ability to function normally.
Do you routinely envision yourself in worst-case scenarios? You might board the airplane and immediately worry about it crashing in flames.
Have you noticed that your thinking patterns seem extreme? You might place people and situations in categories as either “the best” or “the worst,” or use “should” statements regularly.
Do you have a way of continuously discrediting the positive? Maybe your boss praises you in front of your colleagues; however, when someone mentions it later, you deny that he really meant it.
These thoughts seem to have a life all their own…
You may feel frustrated when it doesn’t feel as though you’re in control of your own thoughts. Your thoughts constantly turn and spin, which creates endless exhaustion, need to self-medicate, and inability to concentrate.
These thoughts seem to intrude no matter how hard you try to block them out. You think about your thought and say (to yourself):
“I am having that thought again…”
“What’s wrong with me that I’m thinking that?”
“It must mean something about me.”
“I have to do something to make sure this thought doesn’t become a reality.”
“I have to stop having this thought.”
You are noticing that thought over and over… interpreting it as something significant – something about you.
Your anxiety continuously creeps up in all areas of your life…
…from your personal or intimate relationships to how you interact at work or school.
Anxiety makes normal and previously enjoyed activities challenging, which has a negative impact on your well-being, happiness, and daily functioning.
If you are tormented by anxiety, you are not alone.
Whether you find yourself experiencing…
Excessive racing thoughts, worries you are unable to control, panic attacks, phobias, obsessions, chronic tension, avoidance of people or places that you used to enjoy, stress when socializing, or chronic butterflies…
Anxiety can be crippling and pervasively affect your quality of life.
Anxiety, the body, and medical problems…
Since nervous energy or anxiety is experienced in our bodies, it may be confused with many medical problems.
The physical side effects of anxiety may feel like digestive issues, sweating, difficulty sleeping, lost or increased appetite, restlessness, panic, pounding heart, shortness in breath, headaches, or chronic pain due to the buildup of stress.
Therefore, many of the tools to manage anxiety are rooted in helping the body and nervous system feel “settled.” When we feel our bodies becoming activated by anxious feelings, the experience may feel so unpleasant that it makes us even more anxious.
You are limiting yourself and not doing the things you want to do because your anxiety gets in the way!
Here’s how we’ll get your anxiety OUT
of the way…
Together, we will learn many skills in order to help you manage your symptoms so those feelings naturally pass… rather than feed on themselves.
One key skill that we will develop is called “mindfulness and grounding,” which is the practice of being aware of what’s happening and what you’re experiencing in the present moment. Using deep breathing, meditation, and focusing on body sensations, we will learn to experience our emotions in a healthy, non-judgmental way.
In addition, we’ll work to heal the underlying issues behind your anxious symptoms. By using traditional talk therapy, mindfulness, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), we will look at patterns and cycles in your life to help you understand why your anxiety exists, help you manage current symptoms of anxiety, and decrease symptoms in the future.
Your life doesn’t have to be consumed by anxiety!
Through evolving conversation and time spent together, you’ll be able to change old patterns of behavior, thought cycles, and create new ones that will serve you better.
If you are anxious in any of its many manifestations, from stress to panic attacks and everything in between, please reach out today. Life doesn’t have to be this way!
Call today for your free 20-minute phone consultation and let’s tackle your anxiety together: (720) 254-3085