“There’s a part of me that is continually alert to any danger or imminent threat…”
Eduardo writes:
There’s a part of me that is continually alert to any danger or imminent threat and that which is called anxiety. It is aware of any physical symptoms, immediately interpreted as confirmation of the threat, a disease that will kill me. This aggravates my symptoms and these aggravate anxiety and stress.
Dear Eduardo:
That sounds like a hard thing to be going through — and you are not alone in having this issue. I hear about it from many people. Something in you is doing its best to protect you from any threat but the protection itself ends up being stressful.
The key here is for YOU to be present to that one in you that is so anxious and alert for any threat.
You might sense how it feels in your body, where you feel it the most, and then let a gentle hand go there. With your hand, say to this part of you, “I know you are there, and I am with you.”
Let it know you really sense how anxious and worried it is that you will be hurt.
Then be curious. Take time to sense what worries it the most, what it is reacting to, what it is afraid will happen if it is not alert.
It doesn’t matter that YOU know there isn’t imminent danger right now. It won’t do any good to tell it so!
What this part of you needs is not to be told what to feel, but to be listened to. It needs to feel that YOU are with it. That might not happen instantly, but over time, it will begin to know you are there…and it will start to change. (Even though you are not trying to change it.)
