How To Beat Anxiety And Get Off Meds

Photo by Christina Victoria Craft on Unsplash

A lot of people find anxiety relief through medications. Nearly all those people don’t realize they don’t need medication to rid themselves from anxiety.

That’s because anxiety is a blessing. Left unchecked though, it can become a curse. It can enslave one in discomfort. So much discomfort the only choice that person thinks they have is relief through a pill.

The medical profession is only too quick to oblige people who suffer from anxiety. That’s why almost 20 percent of Americans find themselves with anxiety “disorders”.

But anxiety gets labeled a “disorder” needing “treatment” because so many don’t understand the benefit anxiety brings to those with it. Now, I already can hear the rebuttal:

“Easy for you to say,” some anonymous reader may offer. “You don’t struggle with anxiety.”

Well, I respond, listening to me might be a good idea then. Because you’re right, I don’t. Or if not me, take the example of a client who just today instantly caused their anxiety to disappear.

How emotions benefit

She came to her session complaining about sleeping poorly the night before. We explored the reasons and the main one was a “general anxiety.” I explained why anxiety shows up for her and suggested she could benefit from the benefits her anxiety offered.

We talked about that briefly, then we dove into an exercise which brought her near instant relief. I’m sharing that exercise here. But first, here’s why anxiety is beneficial.

Anxiety, like any emotion, tells humans something they must know. If they want fulfilling, happy lives, the must know what emotions tell them. But if you ask ten random strangers (or strange friends 😊) why we have emotions, i.e. what their purpose is, you won’t get good answers. Most people don’t know why emotions exist.

Emotions give us clues about how to get everything we want. I talk about this and how to use the clues with clients every week. It takes convincing, of course. That’s because other people convince us they know better than our emotions about what’s right for us.

But for those who use their emotions correctly, charting a path to happiness is inevitable. That’s why emotions – including anxiety – exist. They help us discover our happiness. They also light up the path to everything we want.

Negative emotions such as anxiety offer far more benefit than positive ones. But when used incorrectly or not at all, they can spell trouble. And when people mask them with drugs, their benefits get masked too.

How to get the benefit

The key to unlocking those benefits looks like using emotions for their intended purpose. That means using negative, or unwanted, emotions to chart a course to more positive, better feeling ones. That’s the purpose of the exercise I gave my client.

It worked near instantly. And, she could tell it worked that fast. Looking at her face and reactions, it was obvious.

The exercise involves a series of statements that begin with acknowledging the unwanted emotion then moving through that into better feeling emotions. Statements made are declarative, succinct and include increasing levels of emotion as those emotions show up.

My client asked that I make a recording as an aid for her so she can use the recording to practice. Once I did it, I realized readers of this blog could benefit too. So, here it is free of charge. Simply click on this link. It will direct you to a google drive where you can download it to your computer or phone.

The first minute or so offers instructions, then the remaining eight minutes offer the exercise.

Don’t be fooled

As simple as this may sound recorded, the exercise contains great power. Used alone, anyone suffering from occasional or mild anxiety can eliminate such experiences from daily life. Used in conjunction with other practices I offer in my Positively Focused sessions, even those with chronic, medicated anxiety can find so much relief over time, they can eventually get off their medication.

It’s hard when so many people give so much advice about things while not really understanding the purpose and origins of such things. Emotions are one such thing. Without understanding them, doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists do people a disservice.

I realize they’re doing their best and many sincerely want to help.

Of course, there are severe conditions existing where putting people on medications provides needed relief. And from there, a person can eventually perhaps discover ways to better manage chronic anxiety and other unwanted emotions, such as depression.

But for the vast majority of anxiety and depression sufferers, there are very good reasons why such experiences happen. They don’t have to happen. But unless one understands why they happen, finding the way out remains elusive.

Don’t be fooled. Anxiety needn’t be a constant companion. Discover your own inherent, natural relief from anxiety. Then use it for its intended purpose.

Then you’ll find yourself appreciating anxiety for what it is: a blessing. Not a curse. Want to know more? I can help.

I Don’t Need Trust When Evidence Abounds

Untitled_Artwork

I need trust when there’s no evidence. But there’s evidence everywhere that I create the life I live. It’s important knowing where evidence is. That way I see it.

Evidence is all around me. The more I see, the more I see. There is overwhelming evidence. The only thing keeping me from seeing all that evidence is me.

More specific: What keeps me from seeing all the evidence are old beliefs I keep alive in my Moment of Becoming. Beliefs contrary to what I now know.

When these old beliefs, these old stories stay active, I don’t see the evidence. That’s because these old beliefs say “‘you create your reality’ is bullshit”.

They say my birth was a random chance of molecular and genetic predisposition. They say the universe is uncaring and objective, separate from me. They say I must do as others do to get what I want. They say I’m not unique. I’m not powerful. That I’m not eternal. That I am a small speck.

I know these stories are petering out in me. But their echos remain like ghosts. I know they’re still around, even though evidence supporting them is less visible. I know they’re still around because of how I feel sometimes.

I don’t feel this way as much as I feel ecstasy though.  These days ecstasy predominates.

But I know those old beliefs are still there. Because I sometimes feel a sliver of negative emotion. Standing there, in those stories, trust is needed.

Because there, I can’t see evidence telling me I create reality. Even though the evidence literally is right in my face.

Knowing where the evidence is, finding it regularly, seeing it in great big piles makes trusting unnecessary. That’s why I don’t need trust. I know.

Evidence “I create my reality” dominates. How else can it be?

• • •

Maybe, because people don’t know how to see the evidence, they create stories like “it doesn’t work” or “it’s bullshit”. Or, they call it “wishful thinking”.

Here’s the irony: It is working for these people too. Evidence is all around them.

That it’s not working is the evidence.

It looks like “it doesn’t work” because the story “it doesn’t work” creates life experience confirming that. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Stand in “It doesn’t work” then look for evidence of it working. Life will show you it’s not working. But that’s what you’re creating. So that’s what you’re seeing: it not working. And it working.

If you don’t know how to see the evidence, you’ll feel insecure, powerless and other negative emotions. You might get angry, or indignant. You’ll think you’re right. You’ll write blogs sharing your righteousness. You’ll post “Stories” on Facebook and Instagram. You’ll have facts. And, of course, you will be right.

Backup2
Life looks overwhelming, with chaotic events, pain, war, nasty politics and violence. It’s enough to keep a person in insecurity and fear. Until that person begins seeing evidence in all that. Evidence showing them they create their reality.

But you’re also not. Life experience created from any attitude (where you stand) matches that attitude. So you are right.

But you’re also not, because the life experience you’re creating is proving what you think. Thus, it is proving “it works” and “it doesn’t work” AT THE SAME TIME 😂😂😂

Negative emotions are strong. Let’s say someone stands in the attitude “it doesn’t work”. Then they look for evidence it does work as a way of trying to prove it doesn’t. In other words, they’re not really looking for evidence it does work. They’re looking for evidence confirming their attitude, which looks like the absence of evidence that it’s working.

When a person does that, they experience a range of emotions. Collectively it may feel like “disbelief” or “doubt”. Even “foolishness”. Foolishness sounds like this:

“I can’t believe I even tried to prove this shit works. I’m an idiot!”

Feeling doubt, the no-evidence-seer will draw to them all kinds of other stories/beliefs. Stories that reinforce their original story. The no-evidence-seer will then act in reinforcing ways. Including telling more stories which create more evidence of it not working. They’ll also draw to them people telling like stories. For the most part, that’s what science does when it considers this subject. 😂

For example, someone who believes science has all the answers might scoff to a friend about what happened. The friend may agree with the no-evidence-seer, themselves being one who also puts great weight in science. Such agreement reinforces the first no-evidence-seer’s beliefs.

What happens eventually is, no-evidence-seers live their lives in insecurity and powerlessness, aka “doubt”. Then they make things happen the hard way: Through effort, struggle, sacrifice.

I know. I was one of those people.

They don’t believe they create their reality. So they look to other people for guidance, advice, what success looks like, what love looks like, what happiness looks like. They don’t know they feel powerless or insecure most of the time because such feelings feel normal to them. Which is why ecstasy feels so extraordinary when it happens. Usually during sex. Or a wonderful meal. But hardly ever any other time.

2
I once stood in doubt and disbelief. Standing there I couldn’t see evidence. So I did many others do in the same place: looked to others, hid my authentic self, concerned myself with what others thought about me. Not any more.

It’s ironic because ecstasy is supposed to be the dominant life experience.

Insecurity and powerlessness tell the person feeling them something. But the no-evidence-seer misses that message. So, they get lost in the spectacle of a willy-nilly created life. Random lives. Lives where dreams die. Where mediocrity predominates.

There’s nothing wrong with that. Statistically, it’s the average person’s life. And eventually everyone sees the evidence. Everyone sees it the moment they die.

That’s not my path though.

I see evidence everywhere. So I’m clear. I’m ecstatic about All That Is, about life, about my life, about me.

I need trust in the absence of evidence.

But I have plenty evidence.

So I don’t need trust.

 

Addendum: While editing this story, Apple Music played a song by Nina Simone. It’s called “Feeling Good”. The lyrics are appropriate given what I’ve shared here. I’m feeling good. You can too…

Feeling Good

Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life for me yeah
Ouh
And I’m feeling good
Fish in the sea, you know how I feel
River running free, you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you know
Butterflies all havin’ fun, you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done, that’s what I mean
And this old world, is a new world
And a bold world for me,
And I’m feeling good
Stars when you shine, you know how I feel
Scent of the pine, you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good