Anxiety sucks, right?
It feels like it owns you – but it doesn’t! (Cue Diane Keaton singing “You Don’t Own Me” in First Wives Club!) Don’t believe it when you feel nothing will get rid of it, short of numbing yourself up really good.
I spent a long time getting numb any way I could. It always backfired, spinning the head-stories even crazier and making me feel more panicky. Then I realized I could apply my journaling and the meditation and mindfulness practices I’d been working with directly to the anxiety – as in “stand smack in the middle of an anxiety attack and work with these methods from inside.”
I learned how to break it down – how to disconnect and then dissolve the worry I felt from the physical experiences like tightness in my chest, shortness of breath, exhaustion, heart racing wildly.
And after I’d dismantled the anxiety for over a year, I wrote about in my book called Unwinding Anxiety: Free Your Mind, Get Your Life Back in both e-book and Paperback.
Now, I’ve created two paperback Workbook Journals to help those new to the tools I wrote about. These are a place to chronicle the experience of unwinding your own anxiety – and to watch the gorgeous process that takes place when you do.
Unwinding Anxiety Mind-Spirit Connection: 45-Day Workbook Journal
Unwinding Anxiety Body Connection: 45-Day Workbook Journal
Two Sides of Anxiety
I found two distinct things happening when I experienced anxiety. Part had to do with the Mind-Spirit and the other involved the Body. There are times when we feel either of these more acutely. The books show you how to strengthen your mind, body, and spirit while learning incredible techniques to dismantle anxiety.
Trust Your Wisdom, Find What Works for You
There are many methods and practice to work with. It’s up to you to find the ones that really work for you. Trust yourself and practice the ones that resonate with you. Your wisdom will tell you which will work best each day.
Each day begins with a place to check in and really just take a moment to acknowledge ‘this thing is okay’ or ‘that part of me feels really out of whack.’
Both Workbook journals start with a log to track 3 areas. These are:
Mind –Quiet to Very Noisy
How’s your mind with all its propensity for chatter and discursiveness and downright worrying and exaggerating life details? How much of our ordinary life gets blow out of proportion?
Body – Relaxed to Very Tense
How’s your body doing? Are you tight or loose or somewhere in the middle?
Spirit- At Ease to Very Uneasy
How’s your heart, your spirit, your core? Does it believe the B.S. the anxiety is telling you or are you at ease because you know it’s a big fat liar?
Each book has an Appendix that includes the appropriate chapters from Unwinding Anxiety: Free Your Mind, Get Your Life Back. You’ll find different exercises/methods/practices in each Workbook Journal with a couple that are key to both sides.
Pick up your copy of one or both today and finally dissolve, dismantle, and distinguish that anxiety.
I’ll leave you with this line from the Serenity prayer, “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
You can change this. Anxiety doesn’t own you!
Be well, my friend,
Andrea
