When Anxiety Is Loud – Try This

When anxiety gets loud, most of us wait for it to calm down before we move.

In this short talk, I share a different approach: instead of fighting anxiety or trying to make it disappear, we treat it as a slightly clumsy protector that’s actually on our side.

You’ll hear a simple, practical way to speak to your anxiety – thanking it for trying to keep you safe, inviting it to sit beside you – and then take one tiny real-world action anyway. Make a cup of tea, step outside for some air, send the message you’ve been avoiding.

The aim isn’t to get rid of anxious thoughts, but to show yourself you can keep moving even when they’re there.

If your mind often says “What if everything goes wrong?” on a loop, this is a gentle, honest reminder that you’re not broken… and you don’t have to let anxiety drive.

*Please note: This track is for supportive purposes and is not a replacement for professional mental health care.*

Transcript

Anxiety is a terrible communicator, But it is trying to help you. Anxiety never says, I care about you. Instead it says, What if everything goes wrong? And it says it on a loop sometimes all day and even all night long. And I know that loop all too well. And it can leave us feeling so overwhelmed that it stops us moving forward. So next time anxiety talks loudly to you, Try this. Just raise your hand, Even if that's only in your mind, And say, Alright anxiety, I see you. Thank you very much for trying to protect me. Now please, Just sit next to me here while I do this one thing anyway. And then do something tiny and real. Make a cup of tea, Step outside for a breath of air, Or send the message that you need to send. You're not waiting for anxiety to leave before you act. You're showing it that you can keep moving when it's there. It just doesn't get to drive, But it does get to come along for the ride. Let me know in the comments how anxiety is trying to help you at the moment.

Reviews

Excellent, finely distilled wisdom from Kevin, here.
He asks, “Let me know how anxiety is trying to help you.”

This weekend, collectively, we are marking our 250th year of existence in this country, and folks certainly do have a lot to say about it.

We are truly at a tipping point, with so many intersecting crises and major concerns, that the predominant mood seems to be, “Just what is it that we are to celebrate, right now?”

High anxiety has been in the air for some time, now, and I’ve been deeply affected by it, personally. The body and mind simply were not built for chronic crisis mode, that’s for certain. And yet, every day, there’s some new atrocity or appalling development. There’s no apparent rest from it, no seeming escape, and, perhaps most cruelly, most of it lies outside of our control. We feel overcome by the sheer magnitude of the problems and knock-on effects of a very complicated, interdependent society, rocked by culture wars and astonishing gluttony, greed, ostentation and toxic mistreatment of others.

What my car-ride companion Anxiety, Junior has shown to me is •when• I need to take a break from the firehose of chaos and deep concern, when I start to get that feeling of overwhelm, where the ground seems as though it’s being removed from directly beneath you. If I’m feeling rattled by external stimuli, it’s a poke in the stomach, gently urging you to snap out of it, and move to something more life-affirming and uplifting.

So I do as Kevin suggests, most times. I start to unplug. Shut off the news streams, the media outlet notifications, the endless chatter of talking heads predicting our burgeoning demise, any minute now.

I pop outside, mostly, rain or shine, freezing or sweltering—even if only for a minute. There, nature always greets me with its calm, grounding smile. I begin to really look around, to name this or that flora or fauna. “Nature,” it is said, “rewards those who pay close attention.” Not only do I find this to be true, but as an effective salve for an addled soul, there is little equal.

Wishing deep, abiding peace and freedom from suffering to •all• beings—all creatures, great and small; all, so wild and wonderful... 🙏🏼☮️🤟🏼