Does Slow and Steady Really Conquer Anxiety?

I’m sure you want to significantly decrease your anxiety and you want to be feeling calm and in control of your thoughts now. You want to stop overthinking so much. You want to stop worrying all the time. You just want to be able to enjoy the moment you’re in now.

I get it. Uncomfortable emotions like anxiety, fear, sadness, grief, anger, hurt, disappointment, and shame signal to our brain’s survival system something is wrong. The brain wants to help get you back into a feeling of safety and control so it sends out the chemicals and hormones to help you survive, in essence making the uncomfortable feelings worse. It’s an amazing how great our mind and body works to keep us alive. And…it sucks.

When the survival system perceived danger that isn’t really there, we don’t need to worry and overthink so much. Yet we do. The survival response is very strong.

We live in a very fast-paced world. We know what’s happening on the other side of the planet in real time. Many people have notifications on for work emails that they feel like they have to respond to even off hours. We can send and receive a quick text instead of making a phone call. We can turn off the lights by asking Alexa. We can push a button and start our car from inside the house. Short reels are easy to watch. The list goes on. Because we’re so programmed for instant gratification, it’s hard to slow down. It’s hard to be patient.

You can take a pill and feel better quickly. Many of the meds for anxiety work very well. You can smoke weed and feel better relatively quickly. There are a number of these “quick fixes”.

But what are these quick fixes doing to prevent or actually fix the underlying problem? Are you really winning against your anxiety if you’re covering a gaping wound with a bandaid?

It sounds like a good idea in the short run. And there absolutely are times and situations that medication is helpful and even necessary.

But if you want to get to a place of relative peace and control over your thoughts without medication, you can and you will.

It will take time but the journey can be just as inspiring as the destination. When you get on an airplane and go from Maine to Florida, you get there quickly but miss the beauty and scenery. When you take a train it is slower, but you get to enjoy more of the beauty and scenery. And when you drive, you can stop whenever and wherever you like. You can take in all the beauty and scenery. The slow path has its inspiration.

But, we’re talking about your body and life in this blog, not the Earth, so to bring it back, what are you missing out in by taking the quick option versus the slow option? What aren’t you learning? What aren’t you enjoying?

Think about it…

Once in a state of overall peace, however, the work is not done. You worked hard to find calm, now you have to work to keep the calm. It will not take as much effort or time, and honestly, it won’t feel like work because you’ll actually WANT to do the things that make you feel that sense of calm. Trust me. I’ve seen it time and again, with myself and with many clients.

Just like if you own a business, work really hard and make a ton of money, slacking off will cause you to lose what you built; you have to work to maintain your sense of peace. The world will keep turning at it’s quick pace.

There are options to help you slow down. Slow and steady wins the race with anxiety because you’re fixing the underlying cause within you instead of slapping bandaids on. You’re worth it.

Are you ready to begin the journey? Schedule your clarity call with me! If you still need to a bit more time, take a look around my site.