“Lately I am having anxious feelings that come out of nowhere.”
A Reader writes:
I have always had the perseverance to get a task done. Now in my fifties I am starting to feel overwhelmed by my tasks, and to have blocks to doing most things. Lately I am having anxious feelings that come out of nowhere. I had a traumatic childhood and only now I am working more on that. What can I do when I have these anxious feelings?
Dear Reader:
It’s pretty likely that both your blockages around tasks, and your anxious feelings, are connected to your work with your traumatic childhood.
It sounds like the unhealed wounds of your traumatic childhood have been “calling” to you for attention by blocking your tasks.
Increased anxiety could also be connected to your increased attention to those early traumas. Ironically, even though you are doing something good for yourself by working with your early traumas, there may be a “protector” part of you that finds it very scary that you are going into those areas at all.
So when the anxious feelings come, take a pause, if you can. Find a quiet place to sit down with yourself for at least five minutes. Take some nourishing breaths and feel your connection with what you are sitting on.
Then invite the anxious feeling into a gentle conversation. Let it know you want to listen. See if you feel it in your body…and if you do, let a gentle hand go there.
When you feel your connection with the part that is anxious, gently invite it to let it know you would like to know what gets it so anxious…and also, how it wants you to be with it. My guess is that the anxious part of you will really appreciate that kind of attention…and show its appreciation by relaxing.
