Anxiety is creating problems that don't even exist.

I'm not sure where I first heard that saying, but it is something that has resonated with me big time over the years.

"Anxiety is creating problems that don't even exist." 

At the time I heard this, my life was a mess.  Everything was collapsing around me.  My dad was sick.  I didn't know where to turn and every where I did turn, it seemed things fell apart.

My monkey mind was on overdrive. I've always had a very active mind.  I can get lost in thought tangents that take me all the way down the rabbit hole, imagining 10,000 different outcomes for the same situation. However, during this particular period, I was victim to that monkey mind.  I couldn't sleep.  My digestion was off because I had little to no appetite.  I was physically, and mentally, drained.  I was sick and reaching burnout.

What no one ever told me though was that I had full control of those thoughts, that I wasn't a victim to them.

So when I heard 'anxiety is creating problems that don't even exist,' the saying stopped me in my tracks.

Those problems could exist! I had to be prepared for every possible scenario! (Guess what - most of how things turned out wasn't how I imagined it at all, for better or worse. Not in any one of my 10,000 thought tangents of what to prepare for.)

It might seem overly simplistic to say, "Control your thoughts, control your life," but that is the reality.

Is it easy? 

HELL NO.

You see, our brains and neurons form patterns.  If you've been a reader of this blog, you'll know I've talked about the Law of Attraction.  The same is true with our thoughts.  Like thoughts will attract like thoughts.  'Neurons that fire together, wire together.' (Not sure who first stated that, but again, it's a saying I've heard many times over the years).

What that means for us is if we have negative thought patterns, those negative thoughts will attract more negative thoughts.  Likewise for positive thoughts - the more positive thoughts we have, the more positive thoughts we will attract.

It's not easy to change our thoughts because there are so many components that actually impact our mind. 

Did you know our gut has as many, or more, neurotransmitters as our brain? So that means that the food we eat literally impacts our thoughts and well-being.  Eat like shit. Feel like shit.  (Don't believe me? Try eating the S.A.D diet for a week - Standard American Diet.  Oops - most of us already are....no wonder we have a population of people who are more sick than ever!)  

But I digress....

Our body literally reacts to our thoughts.  When our thoughts become anxious, we stop breathing.  That means that physically we are now suffocating our body and depriving it off oxygen.  What happens when we go without air?  Our heart races, our chest hurts, we feel panicked....and when we start to feel those symptoms in our body, our mind amplifies them. "Are we having a heart attack? Something must be wrong or I wouldn't feel this way!"

See the connection?

Anxiety literally creates problems that don't even exist.

It takes practice and awareness to shift things.  It takes integrating all aspects of ourselves to function at our best.  Western medicine has trained us that the body is segmented into areas and that one area has no impact on the other, but it's simply not true.  

We are one being.  A problem in one area of the body isn't going to stay confined to that area, because that's how we have studied it.  Everything in the body is literally connected to everything else. 

And we haven't even touched on the energy body or how spirits and entities may be playing a part...

It might seem overwhelming at all the ways our body and minds our connected, but I find power in that.

No longer am I victim to outside forces (or my monkey mind). I can actually do something about it.....and I did.

I started with one area, went to the next, tried for a month and if that didn't work, looked at something else.

Do you know what happened?

Things did get better.

I was able to sleep.  I was able to eat.  

Little by little I was able to shift my thoughts from 10,000 outcomes of doom and gloom to thinking about what I actually wanted and all the fun ways that could happen.

And when anxiety does rear it's ugly head, I stop whatever I'm doing and breathe.  A deep, life fulfilling breath, drawing that sweet air all the way down to my belly and feeling the air as it moves its way through my body.

By the time I exhale, I'm usually already feeling better.  If you can remember, try it for yourself.  It's one of the easiest tricks to stopping an anxious thought in its tracks.

Disclaimer - I am not a doctor nor am I attempting to diagnose or prescribe anything. I am simply sharing what I learned and what shifted things for me.