Are you anxious about current events? Read on…
Dear Readers,
Yes, I’m anxious about the US election.
But I’m not as anxious as I would be if I didn’t have Focusing.
From my point of view the issues are so monumental, the consequences of one outcome or the other are so hugely different, that it’s hard to stay calm and take one day at a time.
But I’ve learned something about anxious parts….
Anxious parts like to show disaster movies. They send us horrific images and thoughts about the worst that can happen, the things they are truly anxious about.
Then our bodies react as if the horrific thing were truly happening right now, and stress hormones flood into us. Not a very comfortable feeling — and not actually helpful if there’s nothing (or not much) we can do to affect the outcome.
So here is what I’ve learned to do instead. I use the language of “something in me” to make it clear that not all of me is anxious… only a very scared part of me.
I feel my body grounded on what I’m sitting or standing on, and I get in touch with my breath. I find the place in my body that’s anxious, which helps me realize that it’s not all of me.
I put a gentle hand there (it’s usually my stomach) and I let it know I can sense how anxious it is, and that I am here with it now.
And that truly does help. At this moment, I am actually not anxious. I’ll be making phone calls to Pennsylvania on Friday — not because I’m anxious, but because I believe in doing what I can.
If you’re a registered voter in the US, do vote. And wherever you are in the world, if you feel anxious, say to the anxious part of you, “I know, and I am with you now.”
