Do you let anxiety take over your life? With modern day lives, sometimes it can be hard not too! Meditation expert, Jody Shield, is here to guide us to a life that is a little less anxious.
I HATE anxiety. Passionately. And yes, being a spiritual person and self-help author, I’m supposed to tell you that:
• Anxiety is a sign you’re growing (which it is) into new territories, new relationships, new phases of your life…all of which are unknown and unfamiliar
• Anxiety keeps us from achieving amazing things (which it does) and the reason I’m telling you this is because it’s grip often holds us back from stepping out into our potential
• Anxiety is hiding something magical on the other side (which it is) on the other side of your anxiety, lies the insight and answers you need to take to take your life to the next level
• Anxiety is your crazy mind playing tricks on you (which it is) as soon as you manage to emerge from an “episode” it’s very clear that what you thought (and worried about) was happening, isn’t actually the case
• Anxiety can be easily reduced and managed (which it can) be open to this possibility, your ability to reduce and manage your anxiety has a lot to do with you being open to believing you can
Photo: @jodyshield
And yes ALL of these are true. Yet when you’re having “one of those moments” (freaking out about eating too many slices of cake, stressing over Insta likes, or missing too many spin classes) anxiety SUCKS, big-time. It ruins your day/week/month and can pretty much take over your life, if you let it.
And neither you nor I want that. Absolutely not. It’s unnecessary. Why spend our time freaking out and worrying, when there are so many better things to do? So much more of life to live!
In today’s world, anxiety seems standard, a normal part of life. It’s especially obvious when we have an upcoming deadline, a presentation or something that we’re afraid of doing. Yet oftentimes, we feel anxious and we have no idea about why we feel this way. It’s as if anxiety’s a default setting, and we’ve been switched on.
And it isn’t a surprise that Millennials have been dubbed the “generation of anxiety” because we’re constantly being encouraged to reach for the unreachable, travel to every corner of the world, be high-achievers in our careers, socialise like it’s the last ever party we’re going to attend, and still get up for early morning yoga the next day. This means succeeding in everything, right now!
It’s unsurprising that a quarter of young women in the UK are suffering, or have suffered from, anxiety or depression.
Photo: Jody Shield
I know how hard it can be to “snap out of it”. Which is why my mission is to stop anxiety from ruining your life. Here are a couple of tips on how to kiss your anxiety goodbye:
- ANXIETY SOS: Your 100% natural chill-pill. Your daily audio sessions for healing your Anxiety. Including a panic prevention bonus feature podcast, this is the ultimate secret weapon to free yourself from your nutty monkey mind, and stop you from falling into that dark soul-sucking spiral of endless worrying. Download onto your iPhone, pop in your earphones and get your instant anxiety fix whenever you need it. The best bit? It’s only £27 (less than a good bottle of prosseco to numb your stress, and waaaaay more effective!)
- BREATHE into it. Anxiety is excitement without the breath, so give it breath and breathe deeply into it. Breathing moves it around the body, and gets it unstuck. Nothing shifts unless something moves, so get it moving!
- EMPTY your mind. Get your notebook out now, and write down everything on your mind. Get it all out, everything, no matter how crazy you sound. It all needs to go somewhere so best to get it out onto the page. Once you see it right in front of your own eyes, you can see how mindless the worry is.
- SURRENDER and LET GO! Amazing things happen when you LET THEM GO. Try saying to yourself: I let go, I surrender, I let go, I surrender, and witness what happens. To go a step further, lie down and close your eyes, and say the phrases over and over again until you feel your whole body letting go. It’s magic!
Photo: @jodyshield
