Why You Can't Think Your Way Out of Anxiety

Our body reads danger before our mind does.

Neuroception is our nervous system's automatic scanning for danger.

It happens faster than conscious thought.

We draw on everything we've ever experienced.

Including our childhood and things we see on media,

To assess whether this moment is safe or dangerous.

It's not always accurate and we might feel alarmed in a situation that's actually safe.

Or if we're in a freeze response,

We might not accurately assess the danger that is here.

This explains why reasoning with yourself when you feel anxious often does not work.

The signal of danger is coming from below conscious thought.

We feel it in our body.

We might have thoughts that arise about that as well.

And this interplay between thoughts and energy in our body is what makes it feel so real,

So compelling.

We can make our neuroception more accurate.

When we pause and look at the thoughts in our mind,

Sometimes we find that we're way back in the past.

Our brain is really good at picking up associations.

And it's not always accurately applying them.

What was threatening to us as a child.

Might not be any longer and yet we're still responding to it as if we're a child and we don't have the agency and the resources that we have now as an adult.

All of the practices of coming into this present moment.

Taking a deep breath.

Relaxing our body,

Help us to become more accurate in our neuroception.

Witnessing thoughts in the mind and becoming familiar with energy in our body are ways that we can pick up on the signals earlier We can pause,

Take a breath.

We can see what's actually going on and we can make a more accurate assessment of our present moment safety.

It's really helpful to bring the unconscious processes up into awareness.

That is how we heal.