A hard-wired instinct that can feel like it’s gone haywire
I’m just going to come right out and say it. Anxiety sucks. I know, that isn’t a very clinical term. But it’s accurate. Anxiety sucks the energy, freedom, and flexibility out of life. It can feel like the world stuck a straw directly into you and is slowly, insidiously sucking out your personal power.
But here’s the thing: anxiety has an important purpose. It’s there to keep you safe; to keep you alert and aware of danger. In fact, anxiety has literally been hard-wired into our brains over millions of years of evolution. Think about it. Our ancestors who felt zero anxiety probably walked up to the tiger stalking them and said, “Nice kitty.” They didn’t live long enough to pass on their “courage.” The ones who survived were the ones who felt cautious when out hunting and gathering; the ones who looked over their shoulder and constantly surveyed their surroundings for signs of danger. Thankfully, most of us aren’t threatened much by marauding tigers, but we still have that same wiring, and that wiring can sometimes feel like it’s gone haywire, becoming hypersensitive and keeping us trapped instead of keeping us safe.
Rewiring to regain a sense of control
The good news is that rewiring is possible. And I’m not just using that as a metaphor. It really is possible to change the neural networks in your brain to change your response to situations, places, people, and thoughts that could trigger an anxious reaction.
Together, we can work to broaden your tolerance for those triggers, consciously control your body’s reactions to them, and change the way you think about them. This approach can help whether you experience anxiety related to:
social situations
job or test performance
physical sensations
specific types of relationships or interactions
thoughts of not being good enough
a tendency toward perfectionism
spiritual questioning
or a more general, hard-to-pinpoint sense of dread