Anxiety is energy. Move it or transmute it.
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Continued from my post ‘Weaning off Prozac is going well with the help of 3 simple habits’.
When we experience difficult emotions it’s easy to feel consumed. Instead of beating yourself up about it, take action. Since I decided to wean off anxiety medication I’ve been trying this simple concept on for size and experiencing a much greater sense of control. I’ve been feeling so good in fact, that I have stopped taking Prozac completely and although it’s only been a few weeks, so far so good.
I’d love you to try it too. Let me know how you get on in the comments or over on Instagram where my like-minded, supportive community hang out.
Emotions are energy
At the most fundamental level, thoughts and emotions are energy. We don’t necessarily think about them in these terms day-to-day, especially if this concept is new to us or if we are in the throes of uncomfortable feelings, but there is great power in understanding that everything in the universe in energy and that anyone can work with energy proactively to feel a little lighter. Sometimes, a lot lighter.
Let the following sink in for a moment:
- Anxiety is energy.
- Grief is energy.
- Anger is energy.
Whilst that doesn’t make energies like these feel any easier, it does mean you can choose to facilitate them in healthy ways, to move them through your system. When we resist feeling our feelings, we do the opposite. We unwittingly contribute to letting these energies get stuck and stagnant within us. Left unchecked, this reaps havocs with our physical health and our lives.
How to MOVE energy
The healthiest thing we can do to prevent energetic blockages, is to allow ourselves to feel everything fully moment to moment. Young children naturally do this, but we can’t behave like children forever (sighs). As adults we must strike the tricky balance between acting in a socialised way, which means keeping a lid on tears and tantrums, and letting those feelings flow at appropriate moments. Examples of appropriate moments include:
- Journalling — Get it off your chest without censoring yourself.
- Talking to a trusted friend or loved-one — if you cry, that’s fantastic progress. Flowing tears = flowing energy.
- Talking to a professional — A certified therapist or coach. Ideally someone who comes recommended e.g. client testimonials.
You can also shift energy without saying a single word. In fact, while talking can help you re-frame things in your mind, talking alone does not address the underlying causes of anxiety, anger and so on: the big waves of energy caught inside our system. Try a reputable, time-honoured energy healing modality instead:
- Breathwork — You don’t need to talk to feel better. Certain kinds of breathwork, like Transformational Breath®, act directly on energetic blockages which get stored in our tissues e.g. fascia tissues. This powerful therapeutic modality allows trapped energy to ‘come to the surface’ so to speak, so it can be integrated and resolved. Each time you practice Transformational Breath® it’s like peeling back a little bit more of an onion. Layer by layer, tensions and past traumas are gone. Permanently.
Finally, don’t forget:
- Moving your body — Yoga, a workout, a walk to the park, dancing in the kitchen, mowing the lawn. Even 15mins counts. Recently I’ve been working with PT and Coach Rachel Benton and her work-outs are really helping me to feel strong — in every sense of the word.
You can also TRANSMUTE energy
To ‘transmute’ something is:
“To change something completely, especially into something different and better.” — Cambridge Dictionary
When we think about anxiety, we typically think about reducing it or — better still — getting rid of it entirely. But what if you could transmute it instead? Change it into something better? Something wonderful? We’ve already established that anxiety is energy, but it’s time I got more specific and told you that anxiety is creative energy. Allow me to explain…
When we’re anxious we’re either stuck re-creating the past or creating an imagined future:
- ‘It was so scary when I crashed the car.’
- ‘I’m scared I’m going to I crash the car again.’
While the crash in this example was once a very real and traumatic event, the reality is it’s no longer happening in the present moment. Whenever we’re not in the present, our minds-eye is at work creating.
We have the option to create more consciously instead, to quite literally make something out of our feelings — except this time with intention. Your options here are endless:
- Writing: Journalling, blogging, writing poems, lyrics, a letter or a postcard to a friend. Take that nervous energy and transmute it with language.
- Images: Photography, drawing, painting, collaging. Transmute the blues into something visual.
- Crafting/Decorating: Baking, embroidery, macramé, jewellery-making, pottery. Revamping an area of your home, like a weekend pantry or patio makeover. Gardening is also a great way to relax the nervous system. Transmute anxiety into tangible objects and spaces.
- Sound: Singing is a fantastic de-stressor. Much like breathwork, using your vocal chords to sustain long held notes helps clear blocked energies. We call it ‘toning’ in Transformational Breath® and when a client needs to take a break from the circular breathing technique we instruct them to do in a breathing session, it’s toning we ask them to switch to instead. Transmute stuck energy with music and song.
“Creating does move us on.” — The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
It’s easy to be flippant at the notion that something as simple as knitting or baking can help us move through emotions as big and ugly as chronic depression and anxiety. And yet it is my experience that being creative is the very thing that has the most impact on my wellbeing. For me it is writing that soothes the soul, serving as a container for the endless rumination that would otherwise ruin the day. Better on the page than running riot. And in getting them on the page, they are changed. They are transmuted.
Slowly slowly catchy monkey
If you’re struggling right now, I send you love. It takes grit, determination and a leap of faith to try something different - to embrace new tactics in the fight for mental health - when all you really want to do is give up. My last piece of advice is to go gently. Choose one thing off the list of ways to MOVE and TRANSMUTE energy — and only one thing. Do that thing for just a few minutes each day. Good habits are best formed when you allow yourself to come to them in the smallest of ways, with the least effort possible. Tell yourself you’ll do 20mins a day, when you’re starting from zero, and I can almost guarantee it won’t last. When it comes to getting well, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
But you do have more control than you might think and I wish you all the very best in discovering that for yourself one small step at a time.
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Disclaimer — This piece is not intended to offer medical advice. It’s aim is to inspire and inform. Take what resonates with you.
