Could you accept anxiety?

If you have ever experienced anxiety in any form, you would know that it is not the greatest experience in your life.  Panic attacks, anxiety attacks and general anxiety symptoms can reduce people who just want to be happy and live a normal life, to an emotional mess.

I have worked with people who have anxiety in my coaching sessions. It affects them with their work; driving in general or on particular roads; in their relationships; and their ability to embrace this life positively and do the things they want to do.

They feel a range of emotions including fear, panic, uncontrollable thoughts that they don’t want, frustration and anger.  Some clients that have had anxiety attacks relate the symptoms to having a heart attack. It grips their body, exhausts them and can last for hours.

The common thing that all my clients who have anxiety say is that they don’t want it.  Understandably, if you are a confident person going about your life being happy and then one day you go to get in your car and you realise you cant drive, then things change.  What once was a normal everyday occurrence now is suddenly a difficult task.  It changes the way you think of driving.  It changes how you view other drivers.  It changes how you view yourself. The anxiety takes over and it suddenly has more control over you, than you have over it.

One of the first steps to resolving anxiety is to accept that you have it and even though you don’t like it (who does?), it is present in your life right now.  I know you might find this idea difficult to accept, but all too often we reject feelings we don’t like, avoid them like the plague and run away from them.  You can keep running for as long as you like, but the feelings wont go away until you face them and start to accept that your feelings are telling you that some things need fixing in your life.

Once you accept your feelings, you can start to define and acknowledge what is triggering the anxiety. As you start to recognise the triggers, you are then able to resolve those challenges or issues, which starts to reduce the symptoms.  The more you resolve challenges in your life, the less anxiety you will have.

It is important to integrate new coping strategies in your life as well.

In this way you are taking control not only of your anxiety, but your personal confidence and the way you view your world.  You start to feel better about yourself, things look brighter and happier and you are able to think and act clearer.  You realise you can get through this.

Accepting is acknowledging and resolving.