Heart Pocket Word for the Day is Anxiety!

Image by Pauline McGee - Click here to see more of her beautiful work! 

The word from my heart pocket is Anxiety. 

The word itself raises our blood pressure. 

Anxiety is a secondary emotion. It acts as a mask for all sorts of real emotional offenders like jealousy or hurt or disappointment or fear. It's what is known as a "secondary emotion" because it distracts us and provides temporary protection for us to wear. Defenses come in artful disguises. We usually choose the one that best fits the underlying primary emotion. It could be by rationalizing the situation intellectually or by trying to ignore it or by distorting the situation and selectively seeing only what we fear most. Sometimes we "project" our feeling onto others and despise them for it or attack before we can experience any more negativity. This is commonly known as "the best defense is a good offense."

No matter how we color it, anxiety is a reaction that results due to an emotional threat. In its best light, anxiety is a GIANT CLUE that something is amiss. When anxiety occurs, it shuts down the awareness of the source emotion and in many cases, this defense temporarily aids us in functioning, riding on the secondary emotion until we can open the window a bit wider to allow reality to show itself. It also limits our thought and creativity.

It is when we hang onto worry that anxiety takes its toll ... on the body, on the mind, on our lives. All sorts of illnesses have been exacerbated by a person's focus on fear, sadness and jealousy, including cancer, heart disease, and strokes. 

There are some wonderful ways to release anxiety. Just knowing that anxiety is a warning device, a siren that goes off to alert us something is wrong but is not the root of the bad feeling, allows us to stop right where we are and examine what is happening. Once the signal is acknowledged, we can find a quiet place to calm our anxiety, to breathe deeply and slow our pulse. Clearing the mind through exercise (brisk walking or running or swimming) helps curb our anxious armor, and gets us to a more relaxed state of mind so we can organize our thoughts without the cloud of high emotion. The image of opening a window - wider and wider - helps us feel less trapped during a panic attack. When we can see ourselves "taking off the sweater of anxiety", laying it across a chair while we face what is really bothering us, we know our defense is in proximity if we need it. We don't feel so alone.

There are deep rooted anxieties that require relief with the help of professionals trained in guiding us to a place of revelation and release. There is no substitution for having a "safe place" to unleash our biggest fears and our most painful grief. When our anxiety is immediately noticed and given the attention it warrants, it is more easily soothed and our underlying emotions more effectively resolved. Imagining a safe place in our minds allows us to ease into a more relaxed frame of mind. Our muscles loosen, our mind thaws and even expands so we can once again think clearly enough to move to a next step.

The next time anxiety knocks on your door, imagine excusing yourself to open a window, and another and another and another, if need be. Let the air clear your brain and lighten your heart. Thank you, Anxiety, for sounding the alarm. I can take it from here ...