Do you have a worry free mind? Can you imagine what your life would be like if your mind was completely free from all worry? Wouldn’t this be such a gift in life? Then again, if I had no worries would it mean that I had lost sight of reality and that I was living in ‘la-la’ land?
At one point in my life I found myself living in a constant state of anxiety. I felt anxious every day and it was killing me. The first step I took that really started to liberate me from anxiety itself was the conscious practice of positive feelings. The experience of positive feelings takes you out of feeling drained by negative emotions into an experience of being in a state of energized positivity.
First, recognize that you are in a state of anxiety, see how it is draining you and its’ effects on your life. When we are anxious we tend to ‘not have the time’ to be considerate towards others; we become oversensitive, competitive, are on a short fuse and are feeling ready to explode.
The second step in freeing our minds is to begin to study and learn about the mind. See the connection between the type of thoughts you have and how you feel. Play with this. Remember that any new way of thinking requires focus-time and patience.
Thirdly, learn to look after your mind. Learn to use your mind in a positive way. Practice positive feelings, such as, mercy, understanding, generosity, love, etc. Note: seeking out others already doing this is a big help in sustaining this practice.
Beware: practising positive feelings doesn’t mean to suppress any negative emotions that I experience. It isn’t about pretending everything is alright when it is not. There will sometimes be deep seated or painful things that I may need to face up too. This isn’t about avoidance, it is about building up the inner strength to be able to face, to find the benefit in situations and to learn and grow from negative emotions. Why is it that two people in the same situation can respond so differently? One becoming devastated and the other strengthened? This shows us that it isn’t the situation itself that is the cause of our stress but the way that we respond to it is.
Fourthly, come to see negative emotions for what they are, i.e. signals that we are in ‘inner’ deficit/that something you ‘need’ in your life is missing. Take the time out to work out what it is that is missing and re-fill.
Anxiety is a signal that we are low on fuel and the best way to re-fill is to learn to nourish the self internally (spiritually). More and more doctors are seeing the power of meditation and tools like autogenic training in teaching people how to switch off and recharge. Another aspect of this is changing out approach to life from one of neediness to a more giving one.
Once there is fuel in the tank witness how:
– your relationships and your sense of well-being improve.
– you now have time to listen to others and don’t feel that you have to run away from their pain but instead can offer them support.
– you can see the mistakes you have been making and have the power to learn from them and also to ‘make them good’.
To learn to nourish yourself spiritually means to recover, sustain and experience your real humanity. Our humanity -our innate kindness and goodness- is our real nature, not that of being anxious. We become stressed when we are living in such a way that we aren’t expressing our true humanity, living it allows us to live in a worry free way.
