Your Anxiety Archetype
The Survivor:
You have mastered ‘mind over matter’ and have the tenacity to accomplish great things. But at what cost to your wellbeing?
How does your body tell you that you’ve reached your capacity to process and release the stress and anxiety in your life?
You tend to experience physical symptoms (that knot in the pit of your stomach, feeling hot and flushed, headaches, or trouble focusing & sleeping).
We’ve all heard the shocking statistics about how stress is a main contributor to disease and imbalance in the body. If you’re experiencing unexplainable physical symptoms, it could be your body’s communication systems letting you know it’s overwhelmed. The mind/body connection is real, and when the pressure hits and anxiety takes over, it shows up in your physical body.
Do you find yourself dwelling, pushing yourself to live up to your own harsh criticism, feeling stretched thin and worrying constantly? ‘Am I falling behind?’, ‘Am I doing enough?’, ‘Am I getting life right?’ Then the heart starts racing and the breathing gets tough. You’re not alone! This is part of your body’s physiological reaction to stress, and your mind is trying to keep up with it.
Ready to stop being consumed by self-doubt? Imagine feeling ease and confidence as you go through your day.
You’ve are in the right place! The truth is that we can’t always stop the stressors in our lives from happening, but we can change the way we relate to them. Feeling GROUNDED is not all about changing the circumstances of your life to feel more centered (although sometimes that’s needed). It’s also about changing things WITHIN to adjust the way you respond to external things. This is where your power lies.
Solutions:
Practice being present. Build new habits. Create resilience.
Get to know more about your mind/body connection so that you can work WITH it instead of against it. Without this awareness, you will continue to feel ‘controlled’ by anxiety rather than you being able to tame IT.
You have the power to diffuse some of the intensity of your emotions (and it's OK if you need some help figuring out exactly how). Practice naming emotions that are present. For example: 'Sadness is here... Worry is present... frustration has shown up!' and acknowledge them without judgment. See if you can allow yourself to experience the emotion and ride it out without becoming anxious about being anxious. It’s the fight against discomfort that spirals into misery (been there!).
When you learn to float back and ride the waves of stress and anxiety, you feel SO much relief. And when you build further skills to reduce it's intensity even more, your confidence soars!
Easier said than done, I know. Be patient with yourself. Getting support from someone more experienced in this area to speed up progress can be helpful, to learn particular strategies that you can try and build consistency over time. Managing overwhelm and mindfulness practice is a lifelong practice, and getting support along the way makes it much easier!
The sooner you start, the sooner you find release and build your mastery.
Are you ready to feel more confident and grounded?
Join Me In My Mini-Course 'A Guide To Taming Anxiety'
My name is Katy Bandy LCSW and I work as a mental health therapist with 15+ years of experience treating anxiety.
I am also a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) - Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™ as well as a Mindfulness Coach for Women!
I am passionate about helping women tackle stress and overwhelm, to feel more confident and build self-trust. A big part of that is learning to play on your own team, and dropping the fight with yourself.
I created a Mini-Course for busy women like you, to get fast access to high-level tools for navigating overwhelm and self-doubt. This means getting to know the system of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. Research (DBT, 1993) has shown that learning concrete tools to navigate these things is often more effective than just ‘talking it through’.
If you’re tired of dreading your anxiety response, sleepless nights, constantly thinking, ‘Did I do enough? Am I doing life right? Am I falling behind?’ and having trouble ‘ramping down’ after a long day.....
