Anxiety , Overwhelm and Overthinking

Been thinking a lot...about thinking. (HAH, of course!)

The head really gets so much air time.

Are you an overthinker too?  Do you ever get sick of your own thoughts repeating over and over again?  Judgments, complaints, self-criticism, ruminating about the same conversation over and over again, planning, deciding.  OY!!

It's exhausting!

If only thinking through things worked, you’d be healed by now, my friend.

On a purely literal level, it is so ridiculous to only use 1/8 of your resources.  Your little noggen, the orb at the top of your body, YOUR head is a small part of the whole of your physical body.  Also, the brain in your head is attached to the brain in your spine, organs, and entire body system.  What about all that OTHER information?  When do you pay attention to the rest of your body experiences? 

It's not usually when you're having a nice time with someone or appreciating a movie or taking a walk outside. 

I'll tell you when. 

You pay the most attention when you're having pain or discomfort.  When your heart is breaking or you're irritable or having cramps.  How would you feel if you were ignored for the most part all day, even though you're right there in the room?  It would take me all of 5 seconds to be hurt by that and I might want to throw a tantrum. The struggle with anxiety, depression, overwhelm is your BodyHome saying, "LISTEN TO ME"

I'm very curious about what it can feel like when I let other parts of me have some air time.  What's it like to take more time during the day to feel sensations? to notice images in my mind? to feel impulses and emotions?

Think of your body as a community.  When it comes to any community, collaboration from the members brings about greater expansion.  Letting the mind experience these other aspects of yourself, Images, Emotions, Impulses, and Sensations, you can be more efficient in how you spend your life energy.

Have you been riding extreme emotions these days and tried thinking yourself through it on your own or in therapy? All of the thinking has been helpful but you're still not feeling the way you want to feel, perhaps now is the time to approach healing in a new way, from your body.

Somatic Experiencing will help you reclaim more of yourself and build a lifelong relationship with your BodyHome. You will feel that you're more in control, that you have the capacity to handle the emotions that arise and you will feel as if you're coming back to yourself. The best is you will have more sustained energy.

Ready to reclaim yourself with 1 on 1 work? Click here to set up a complimentary 30-minute consult

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What To Do When You're Anxious

It can be such a strange experience to be anxious. You may find yourself feeling that way doing something completely relaxing like trying to meditate, doing yoga or walking around your neighborhood. Your mind is like, um i’m not doing anything stressful. And yet your body is all amped up. Or it might hit you in the middle of a day where you have a lot to do and it’s hard to stop.

The first thing to do when you’re anxious is realize that there’s nothing wrong with you. For some reason, and you may not know why, your nervous system has a high sympathetic charge. This happens a lot when the tasks, decisions and pacing of everyday life become too much for your system at that moment. It can also happen when old stress energy is triggered. Like an iceberg, the in the moment experience may seem small, like the tip of an iceberg, but then it brings along the rest of the iceberg which is 100x its size down below.

Once you’ve discovered that your body is having a defensive response from too much stress, the next step is to get in your body. I have a million tools for this but for the sake of our purposes here are some simple steps to try.

1. Notice where you feel anxiety in your body and start to get to know it. It’s likely that you’ll feel it somewhere along the central channel of your body, so that’s a nice place to start. Just touch in like you’re checking in on a sick kid. Notice where it is and what it feels like.

2. Next, go to the ground. Notice all of the places where your body is touching the ground and begin to feel those places of connection.

3. Orient to the environment around you. Move your head, neck and eyes together noticing some objects around you. It’s really important to name the color and the name of the object you’re looking at. Look around you naming 5 objects and remember to look and see what’s behind you.

4. Check back in on the anxiety experience in your body and see what it’s doing. Is it changing or staying the same? Change is where we wanna go.
   This is really important!
   We’re not trying to FIX it, we’re helping the stress energy to digest and finish. If you are noticing a change, you can repeat this a few times and see fi it helps that feeling to finish. If nothing is changing, its time to find a way to lower the stress in your body, try doing the exercises a little slower or faster and see what happens. And find a loving witness to support you. Sometimes having support is what the system needs as trauma is too much too fast without an empathetic witness. (You can reach out to me for this support here)

Anxiety is very common these days and its not natural nor good for our bodies to be so revved up all the time. It’s very taxing on your system and can cause numerous physical and emotional challenges like

• Migraines

• Autoimmune

• Chronic Pain

• Anxiety/Depression

• Procrastination/Stuckness

To practice more of these tools with support, come to Somatic movement classes or contact me for 1 on 1 work .

With LOVE and Regulation
Dorie