Would you believe me if I told you that anxiety resides and lives in the body? Even if you’ve been seeing Practitioners and ‘talking’ for years, your anxiety is likely still residing within your body. And if you may have some resolution around anxiety ‘thoughts’ and loops in your mind….. Anxiety is most likely still present and living within the body.
Let me explain this concept in a few parts.
Over the years, I have observed some interesting similarities with my female clients when it comes to their emotional regulation, anxiety journey and emotional resilience.
Does this sound like you?
Tell me if ANY of the following sound like you:
- You were incredibly empathetic and sensitive as a child?
- You had a parent/parents/caretakers that were physically or emotionally absent?
- You were not taught to feel or process your negative emotions and maybe you were told to ‘just grow up’?
- You were often labeled as mature for your age possibly making you a high- achiever
- You often feel like other’s emotions are your own
- You had to step in and play the role of an adult at a very young age
If so, I think you will benefit from what I am about to share with you next about anxiety!
1. Anxiety is actually a nervous system state. Anxiety is an emotion, it’s not just your thoughts!
Under normal circumstances, anxiety is used (by the body) to protect you and keep you safe, but what can happen is your body can become frozen in a state of anxiety when there is no real threat. Oftentimes, people think that if we can change our thoughts, then our anxiety will dissipate on it’s own, but I am sure you can testify to this as not always being true. So now you know that anxiety does not just reside in our thoughts, but is an emotional and nervous system state, what can we do about it?
2. Our brains do not always respond to thought based therapies!
We oftentimes can not pinpoint the root of where the chronic anxiety came from. There is a multitude of reasons like an accident, injury, traumatic incident, chronic stress, or not having our needs met as a child. This is often why many brain-based self-help practices do not always work. They do not get to and process the underlying root cause of the anxiety. However, we can use other modalities within the bottom-up approach to healing our anxiety that may be remaining and residing within the body.
3. By helping our nervous system regulate ways to work through anxiety, we can reduce it!
There are a multitude of bottom up approaches that can help you work through your anxiety. Cultivating a toolbox of modalities to do so, will help you create neuroplasticity in your brain that will rewire the ways anxiety presents itself. To name a few – hypnosis, emotional freedom technique, somatics, and brain spotting are ways to help the body release and heal anxiety states.
Anxiety in a nutshell
So in a nutshell, anxiety if a nervous system state the keeps us safe, and is held or stored within your body in various organs, tissues and cells. This is why we think and ‘feel anxious’, both at the same time. This is why you may benefit from incorporating brain AND body-based techniques into your healing plan.
If I have peaked your interest and you want to learn more about ways to heal anxiety that resides in the body, book a Clarity Call with me and we can discuss an action plan for your healing.
If you want to learn more about the bottom-up approach and why it is so useful, pop on over to my last blog here.
Lastly, if you would like to be a part of a community where I give regular tips on healing and you have been craving a support system in your healing journey and run monthly Reset Experiences, join my MindBody Reset Membership!
If you enjoyed this article and found it insightful, share it with a friend or family member that could benefit so they too can grow on their healing journey. As always, thank you for saving space for me in your day and I hope you have a beautiful week.
