People say strange things about anxiety. They say, “I suffer from anxiety”, ‘I’ve got anxiety’, I’m prone to anxiety’. How do you know? Did they test for it? Can you see it in a blood test, a test tube? FMRI scans can certainly see the results of anxiety, but not anxiety itself.
So here’s the deal.
Anxiety is not a thing. We are only hardwired for two types of anxiety – The fear of loud noises, and the fear of falling (not heights). The rest is a software issue and software can be reset. It’s learned behaviour, a groove we have gotten into. One thing science has discovered is that old dogs can learn new tricks and our brains are highly neuroplastic and capable of rewiring far more that we ever thought. Even if you have been thinking anxious for years, you can rewire and Stop thinking anxious. Because that is all it is, thoughts. Feelings come from thoughts and if you change your thinking, your feelings will change.
We’re not born anxious.
We learn it from others. Holocaust survivors who came out of potentially one of the worst possible experiences one could have, grounded and positive, did so by looking forward. They dreamt about what they would do when they got out, who they would see, eat, do, music they would listen to, books they would read. They didn’t spiral the drain going over how hard life was, they didn’t think about all the bad things that might happen to them. They looked for the small joys in life and looked forward.
Dampen, dip, apply, wipe.
One of the most grounded people I ever met worked in a ceramics factory, putting handles on cups all day. Dampen, dip, apply, wipe. All day long, five days a week, but she loved her job. When I asked her why she loved it so much, she told me that the simplicity of the job meant that she could do it on autopilot and so she was never bored. She travelled in her imagination, she wrote menus for the week, mentally did her shopping list, remembered holidays she had with her family, went through them in detail, smiling and loving the memories. She said, I am free to do whatever I like in my mind, so I have fun all day. That’s why I love my job, and never forget a birthday!
The factory reset.
Peace of mind is within us all, good mental health is just a thought away. Many years ago now I suffered anxiety after a most unpleasant company I was working for treated me very badly and I was given antidepressants by the GP. Unbeknown to all of us I had the most appalling reaction to them and became very ill. It was all in the side effects list, but the party line was- oh no, you’re anxious and depressed – you must take them. You’d be worse without them. It was only some time later when I had to come off them temporarily, that I suddenly just woke up. They were out of my system, and I felt completely normal, I could not work out what had been going on but I knew that if I didn’t do something fast, I would be a write off for the rest of my life. So I reset myself. No one believed me at the time of course, but I’ve never been ill since.
Being mentally well can be taught.
The technique I used, I hadn’t learned, I didn’t know it was NLP and self-hypnosis, I did it instinctively just as those holocaust survivors knew how to think. But when I discovered NLP and hypnosis techniques nearly identical to what I did all those years ago, I had to learn them and pass them on to others. Our society doesn’t teach us how to think, some people who get it right, don’t realise they do anything differently. But being mentally well can in most instances be taught, and relatively quickly. There are growing numbers of people who know the secrets and are telling others. It comes from within, and we can show you how to tap into it
