Hello all. I’m having one of those rollercoaster days. I woke with heightened anxiety and its persisted throughout the day. I have been listening to this podcast called Your Anxiety Toolkit hosted by Kimberley Quinlan and I have been finding it extremely helpful during days like today. I recently listened to one where she talks about how to be uncomfortable without making it worse. One of those ways is to sit with the discomfort without fighting it….allow space for it. Is it strange that I find this comforting? I have always struggled to fix it, distract myself from it or figure out why I am going through it. To my dismay, none of these have worked. I mean maybe they did temporarily but anxiety has a way of returning with a vengeance. Quite simply the more we resist anxiety the more we feed our brain that it is important and scary so it releases more anxiety hormones.

Although I find this idea comforting, sitting with anxiety is really hard. I love to ruminate so I have had to catch myself beginning that cycle and stop it in its tracks. For me, its the rumination that feeds the frenzy. This is about retraining our brain, which can be done with persistent awareness and work. And let me tell you I have been doing a ton of reading, listening, journaling and reflecting. I’m looking for lasting change and I’ve realized the only way to achieve this is to commit to the journey. So as always I will keep you posted as to my progress and will always share what I find helpful along the way.

Let’s Pause, breathe and embrace the journey.