The best thing I can do to keep anxiety flowing strong and free through me, is to lose grip of the moment I’m in. To let my mind drift to all of the things I have to do for the day, to let my mind drift to all of the things I have to do that are anywhere outside of right now is the perfect way to keep my prescription of Celexa coming (Now, I believe in medication because it is biological fact that sometimes our neurons don’t produce enough of what they need to produce or the Serotonin left in the synapse isn’t left there long enough to take effect… So medicine is necessary. I was just trying to make a point. And now you’ve had a quick biology lesson in the process. You’re welcome.)
One major practice for calming an anxious mind is deep breathing. Taking some time in the middle of the day, or at night, or in the morning, or when you feel like you’re going to jump out of your skin, and taking very deep breaths. Focusing on the breaths coming in through your nose and out through your mouth. That is an actionable strategy we can employ to bring our minds and our focus back to the moment we’re in.
When we have anxiety coursing through our systems, it isn’t this tangible sort of thing that we can just grab and get rid of. If you’ve put on a sweater and it’s uncomfortable, irritating and itchy, you can just take it off. Anxiety isn’t like that. It is very uncomfortable and irritating but we can’t just grab it and throw it away. Anxiety is that itch that we’ll never be able to reach 🙂 It’s intangible. Which kind of gives us even more anxiety. We feel a loss of control because we can’t just grab it. But breathing, that is a tangible practice that we have control over.
We may not be able to grab anxiety as if it were some embodied being (wouldn’t that be great? Because I would punch it right in the face) but we can begin breathing deeply and focusing on our breaths until this specter has vanished. Don’t focus on it vanishing, because it never will. Also, don’t focus on not focusing on it vanishing. And don’t focus on not focusing on not focusing that it will vanish. We’re all insane, I could go all day.
When we’re breathing and focusing on the breaths, we also focus on something or some things we’re truly grateful for. The work we do, our gifts, the people or a person in our life that we love… We just breathe. We breathe in love. We breathe in gratitude. We breathe in an appreciation that we can breathe on our own without the assistance of a machine. We find joy within ourselves at that very quiet moment of reflection and it’s there that we find perfect peace and perfect love.
Accomplishment alone will not bring peace… Rather, heartfelt focus on this moment.
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