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I don’t really but I am learning to see it as a gift when it shows up.
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Will I see it as meaning something is wrong with me and my life and go back into the old pattern of picking myself apart and negatively comparing where I am to where I want to be and increase the anxiety and withdraw and get sad and get irritable and snap at my husband and find any tiny thing I can to pick apart about him to take the pressure off of me and create conflict between us to further increase the anxiety and reinforce this pattern which to the subconscious mind is its winning formula. Stress = success. 🤨
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Or will I choose to accept it is an invitation to go deeper to heal and transform it and see THAT is why it showed up?
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Will I choose to say, oh hello, I guess our work together isn’t quite complete. Well thank you for showing me I need to heal and transform more deeply and intentionally so you don’t have to come back around again.
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You see, when I hate, judge, or resist anxiety, I make me wrong for feeling the way I do which only gives it more power.
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When I choose to say, hey, great, an opportunity to grow. It’s ok. I still love you. And I love this too because by loving it, I release its charge and its power over me. I can then be curious about what needs further healing.
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When I hate it or criticize it, I feel and act like a victim and perpetuate the lie that I am helpless to change the situation that created the anxiety to begin with.
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When I choose to thank it, I own and acknowledge – hey, whatever caused this, I get to choose to change my response. I might feel anxious because of something but that is giving that THING outside of me power over my emotional state and my sense of self.
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That thing is NOT that powerful.
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I AM.
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I can choose to change my response to the situation, my emotional state, and my sense of self. I can choose to be ok no matter what and count it all joy. 😊
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The question then becomes, “How will you choose to bear this burden?” (Victor Frankl)
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As hard as it may be sometimes, joy is always an option. It is always available to us because we create it from within. We can play with creating a future state where that occurs.
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Anxiety comes from feeling out of control and desiring more control. The one thing you can control is you and your internal state. As Victor Frankl states, “It’s not what you expect of life. It’s what life expects of you.”
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Perhaps this anxiety inducing situation is just the thing to show you who you are called to be to live the life you are meant to live.
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Life expects much of you. ❤️