Anxiety develops from a lack of actionable intelligence, compassionate support, and/or alternative balancing energies.
I'm struck by how much we are all willing (myself included) to run the What if...? program in a pessimistic context more than an optimistic one. And beyond that, how much we will stay stuck in Wonder without moving beyond the dizzy spinning in Head Space to the simple application of the practical. All the hocus pocus and mysticism -- the intuition and creative power -- don't do much to affect the reality of our daily lives.
Gathering Intelligence
- Do you have facts?
- Do you know where to find the facts you require?
- Is there someone who has/ can find the answers if you can't?
Without facts -- specific information, data -- you can't make decisions or take meaningful action.
Inviting Support
- Who may have the information that you require?
- Is there someone you can ask for help?
- Are you trying to bear your burden in secret?
- Are you stuck in the vacuum of your own bubble where your perspective is skewed?
- Do you just need someone to be a sounding board, to listen while you process/ work through your options?
You are not alone. You are most likely to receive the answers to your prayers, the potential solutions to your problems, from other people. You're here reading this, which means you have access not only to information but to people all over the world.
Taking Action
- What is the next most obvious step? Don't jump ahead to Steps X, Y, and Z until you've chipped away at A, B, and C. You may only need to take one small step to start a chain reaction that creates momentum, that starts a domino effect that reveals an entire path forward to your goal.
- What's the next most obvious step after that? Course correct if necessary. If your first option didn't lead to much, that's great -- you have just gained a valuable insight into what will not work and you can cross it off your list. Anxiety feeds off an over-abundance of What if scenarios -- the more of these options you can remove, the lighter you will feel.
- Are your intentions and potential courses of action grounded in the Present (or at least tomorrow morning)? If you're time-traveling into Past or Future actions, you've slipped out of reality.
You might assume that Imagination likes to pal around with Intuition -- but actually, it's Fear that loves to engage the Imagination. Fear, Worry, Anxiety, the Ego, the Thinking Mind -- the voices in this part of your channel reveal themselves by how much they love to invent endless variations on a theme.
Often the very first thing you need to do (or the next thing you can do) is a combination of all three of the above. The next right course of action may simply be asking someone who has access to the information you require.
A client came to me worried that he might not be able to get out of a contract...
Do you know for sure that you can not get out it? No... Have you dug into the details of the contract for any loop holes, time frames, etc? Not yet... Have you asked someone who knows? I need to...
Another client came to me with three goals for the coming year, all of them involving travel and event planning, and had already convinced himself that he could not accomplish all three because he was fearful that there could be timing conflicts down the road which would force him to sacrifice one or two goals (possibly all three)...
Do you know the exact dates for each event? Well, I know one of them is definitely in August... Not sure about the dates for the other two. Do you know where you can find out? Is there someone you can ask who knows? I can probably find the dates online... Have you considered the possibility that all three events may be divinely timed so that it is effortless for you to attend all of them, without any scheduling conflict? I guess I'm rushing into the worst possible case scenario, huh?
Another client is starting a business and worried that she won't have enough money for all the start up costs. She's not sure if she may need a bank loan, a partner or investor, or if she can cover everything with savings...
Have you sat down and created a simple plan, breaking down with a list of everything you need and how much each will cost? Well, a friend of mine told me her total start-up was $ X,XXX. Is she running the same kind of business? Not really... Do you know someone with a business model closer to what you have in mind? Yeah, I do, actually. He said he'd sit down with me over coffee and let me pick his brain sometime... I'm just shy about bothering him.
Spinning When your Fear and your Imagination start building a time machine in the backyard and taking you on a lot of trips through the Looking Glass, to Narnia, across Parallel Universes -- congratulations, you're the proud proprietor of your own inner Film Studio, complete with props, special effects, imaginary characters, and infinite potential dramas.
My closest friends know that when I say I'm spinning it means I'm paralyzing myself spinning scenarios that may have nothing to do with reality. It's all story-telling spun like cotton candy so that it looks like it has greater mass than it really does. Once you take a real bite, or grab hold of it, it quickly shrinks. Or it's a cocoon of wispy threads that, cumulatively, over time, can turn into a smothering straight-jacket.
We even have a Spinning Scale of 1 to 10 to describe how much we need to be unwound, unraveled.
Alternative Balancing Energies
- Are you having any fun?
- Are you taking breaks and getting away from what you're working on?
- Are you allowing yourself to mentally escape or relax?
- Are you getting any physical activity?
So Much Air You Can't Breathe Worrying, over-analyzing, over-thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, weighing options -- these are intellectual, logical, mental activities.
Intellectual ideas, information, data, and communication are associated with the element Air. We are currently living in the Age of Aquarius and the Information Technology Revolution -- we are overwhelmed by Air. Collectively, we are hyper-connected. Individually, this can be greatly magnified for those with a lot of significant Air in their astrological charts.
Cerebral, elemental Air activities must be balanced with Earth (physical grounding in the third dimensional body and its environment), Water (emotional engagement, social interaction, simple joy), Fire (passion, expression, energetic release), and Spirit (the intangible synergy of holistic divinity).
An over-abundance of any of the elemental energies may bleed into and effect the other aspects of your life, and they make very poor substitutes for one another.
Image Credit Meredith Farmer via Creative Commons on Flickr