I Was Fine Before the Pandemic and Now I'm Anxious!

Hello Friend

I ran into someone the other day that said, “I was fine before the pandemic but now I’m anxious!”.

If you’re resonating with that, I want you to know that makes so much sense and I’d like to share with you why and what you can do about it.

Viewing everything from the perspective of the nervous system (because it controls what you do and how you feel, described in last week’s blog, “why you can’t talk yourself out of feeling anxious“). Let’s take a look at how the pandemic has affected the nervous system.

I’m going to start with a simpler example. Let’s say you had parents or caregivers that were not supportive of you expressing your anger. Perhaps you got yelled at or punished in some way when you got angry and you learned how to clamp down that anger. The anger itself is energy that wanted to be expressed but it felt unsafe to express it so you had to shut it down or repress it. That anger gets stored in the body as “trauma” or stuck stress energy that never digested. And, of course, this doesn’t happen one time but many many times in the child’s life so there’s an accumulation of stress-energy. Eventually can create mental health issues, physical health issues, and of course different relational patterns of not being able to speak up when you need to which is a very important part of having safe and connected relationships.

You can think of the pandemic in a similar way. Your body wants to do something and that impulse was pushed down.

There’s an impulse to reach out to a friend to hang out or to be social or go to an event and you can’t so you have to push down that impulse/stress-energy because of shelter in place. And that impulse/shutdown response happened every day throughout the pandemic so a lot of stress-energy accumulated in your nervous system. Those unexpressed impulses will create anxiety!

AND on top of that, there are other effects of the pandemic that are adding to the stress and lack of safety in our nervous systems.

wearing masks - affects our ventral nerve’s ability to connect with others
not wearing masks - fear of covid/having autonomy over one’s own body and how we affect others
lack of physical touch - lack of sensory input to the nervous system can create more anxiety or shut down in the system
sense of uncertainty - what does the future hold? will we ever go back to normal? what can I rely on?

And so much more!

So…if you’re feeling more sensitive, reactive, sadness/grief, anger, irritation, or anxiety I just want you to know that it makes sense. Your nervous system is trying to protect you.

AND

Most importantly, you can shift these patterns and start to feel like you’re more in control of the way you feel. This is what my work is all about and I would be honored to walk side by side with you.

Want support to shift from feeling anxious into feeling easeful, grounded, and in control of how you feel??

It's time to reply to this email and schedule a 1 on 1 consult for private Somatic Experiencing sessions.  Let's get you moving towards how you truly want to feel in your life.

Rather join a Somatic Movement Class this week to add regulation tools and healthy movement to your life.

This Weeks Schedule

Monday 6-7 pm CST (Somatic Yoga)
Wednesday 9:30-10:30 am CST (Somatic Bowspring)
Friday 12-1 pm CST (Somatic Yoga)
Saturday 10-11:15 am CST (Somatic Yoga)

Recordings Available
Register here

With LOVE, Courage, and Regulation

Dorie

P.S. Tried to talk your way out of feeling anxious and you’re not feeling less anxious? Read last week’s blog post, Why you can’t talk yourself out of feeling anxious.