It’s a good thing. It’s a crippling thing. It can inspire agency. It can take a life.
Anxiety: the poster child for Paradox
For so many reasons, most obvious our dependence upon constantly updating information that unsettles at best and terrifies at worst, we post-modern humans have created and are perpetuating The Age of Anxiety. Anxiety is why so many streaming services are successful; they are the massive technological equivalent of the memorable late-70s and 80s commercial’s catch phrase:
“Calgon! Take me away!”
A water softener in warm bath water may reduce, at least temporarily, the anxieties generated by family and professional life. Water, the universal solvent, has spiritual and emotional power when we are open to its metaphorical as well as practical cleansing abilities. Unlike technological replacements which often leave a highly activated human nervous system even more charged, a bath, shower, or plunge into an icy pool physically and emotionally lowers sensations of stress if such activities are chosen and feel good to the chooser.
As good as water is at soothing the nervous system, anxiety is tough to calm and befriend because of its physical roots. The body anticipates the worst because of past experience, concern for a loved one, or reading about the pain of others throughout the world. Therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, farmers, clergy, teachers, soldiers, park stewards, police officers, paramedics, doctors – this lengthy list covers every profession serving people, animals, forests, and gardens. The members of these professions “catch” the anxiety of others as surely as we “catch” mild to very serious physical infections. Add to these professional service providers the marginalized in every culture and we find anxiety stalking us at every turn.
When left unchecked, anxiety is divisive because it promotes fear. And yet – here comes the paradox – anxiety can be unifying when it seeds compassion. How many times each day do we think or say that we know just how someone else feels. In its capacity to generate compassion, anxiety humanizes our perspectives so we see more similarities with others than differences.
In its early stages, anxiety galvanizes the will to take action. Think of community efforts in restoring a neighbourhood after climate disasters. We feel anxious about our loss of comfort and stability, and we harness this energy to return, to rebuild, replant. These signs of restoration demonstrate anxiety’s original purpose – to support the human genius for problem solving when we are threatened with harm.
However, when we cannot apply anxiety’s energy to problem solving, perhaps because it comes with overwhelming trauma to the body and soul or goes on for a long time, it flips from supportive to destructive mode and becomes a mental illness treatment target.
It is helpful to view anxiety through a therapeutic lens.
From the Psychology Today article “The Biology of Anxiety” – “. . . anxiety is both a mental and physical state of negative expectation. Mentally it is characterized by increased arousal and apprehension tortured into distressing worry, and physically by unpleasant activation of multiple body systems—all to facilitate response to an unknown danger, whether real or imagined.
The cognitive feelings of dread in anticipation of some bad outcome, and physical sensations such as jitteriness and a racing heart are designed for discomfort. Anxiety is meant to capture attention and stimulate [us] to make necessary changes to protect what [we] care about. Occasional bouts of anxiety are natural and can even be productive. Anxiety can be considered the price we humans pay for having the ability to imagine the future.”
See: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/anxiety
That second paragraph (my bold) is worth a second and third reading.
Like so many of our reactive sensations, anxiety is meant to lead us to action. However, to make necessary assessments and follow through with effective changes, we must have physical focus, emotional calm, intellectual clarity, and spiritual tenacity. Prolonged anxiety makes effective change impossible because it robs us of our vital physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual strengths.
Mass media’s negativity bias increases anxiety.
“If it bleeds, it leads” has driven news sales for more than a century, ensuring human viciousness, victimization, deceit, and brute force dominate news and entertainment. Every form of human cruelty and excess commands the biggest headlines. Since the human nervous system can take only so much bad news without harm, our anxiety escalates. After all, we are mammals. Like other herd animals, we thrive in nurturing, cooperative communities.
Technological sources of news and entertainment with their emphasis on humiliation, outrage, physical/emotional pain, and isolation make us vulnerable to obsessive thoughts about random and planned acts of violence that are provoked by this bias. Anxiety’s purpose as a call to protective action is lost in this technological maelstrom. We are at sea and drowning in imagery that emphasizes the worst human actions and experiences all the time.
What to do?
Take breaks away from sources of negative news and entertainment.
When managing technological negativity sources, routine is key. A daily practice of journaling provides a safe place to reflect on life with pen in hand, a place we can record our thoughts and feelings and insights. This process soothes the nervous system because it honours our thoughts and feelings as resourceful adults.
Healthy unprocessed nutrition – as suggested by Michael Pollan’s “eat food, mostly plants, not too much” also supports emotional regulation and general health. Overly processed foods temporarily satisfy cravings but do not contribute to overall health. To live with this constant barrage of anxiety producing stories, we need foods that promote health in body, mind, and spirit.
Finally, movement – a walk outside for Beauty Breaks interspersed with activities more vigorous and focused on increasing balance, strength, and endurance – supports befriending the anxiety that is meant to protect us from harm but cannot if constantly activated by technologically sourced negativity biases. We breathe deeply when we’re outside away from traffic. Perspectives expand. We take in the sensory joys provided by sunshine and the firmness of the Earth beneath our feet. Noticing and feeling gratitude for the beauty of the natural world is as restorative as a good night’s sleep.
Sometimes we need more support to befriend anxiety.
Help from a professional anxiety specialist is often expensive and not available in moments of greatest distress. For such times, it helps to develop tools that we can employ quickly and effectively to regulate our emotions. An Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) practice meets this need. EFT, the name of a set of tools quickly learned from videos and immediately available for anxiety triage, helps to calm the nervous system when anxiety seems to hunker down for the long term.
By engaging the body’s acupressure points through tapping or touching or visualizing, EFT tools increase our awareness of the negative expectations that are anxiety’s calling cards. Transforming these expectations into a more realistic version of what might actually occur is EFT’s strength. Its practice of tapping and talking, thinking, or feeling regulates the nervous system, and when we are regulated, we are calm and able recall past challenges we handled with resourcefulness. We are also open to insights as well as hunches about how to solve actual problems.
With frequent EFT use, our ability to resist anxiety’s pull to fear. As we process our thoughts and emotions using the techniques, the heart slows to regular, steady rhythms, and our prefrontal cortex returns to full functioning with helpful thoughts and strategies for moving forward. We laugh, we yawn, we sigh, we may even shed a few tears. These signals suggest that anxiety is ebbing and we are more resourceful and capable of handling the anxiety we feel.
If you would like a more detailed guide to befriending anxiety, see the Adverse Childhood Experiences, Adult Trauma, and the Return to Wholeness page on this website. This short book describes in more detail the reasons for our vulnerabilities to anxiety. It also includes action plans for the use of several tools, EFT included, to support our return to a calm sense of wholeness and competence despite the technological influences that rob of us peace.
Until next time,
Jane