“Don’t let a bad day or month or year make you feel like you have a bad life.
Instead of fixating on everything that’s going wrong, focus on all the things that are going right. Let the power of gratitude remind you that there is so much to keep fighting for.” – Daniell Koepke
Fear is a huge driving force in humankind, and when we get drawn into our fears, we tend to only see things which reinforce them more and a vicious cycle is born, where our fears feed on the narrow stream of information we connect with.
These fears become magnified, and obsessive thoughts feed the downward spiral.
If even when a mildly distressing event occurs, anger can spew forth because the obsessive fears have heightened the Amygdala in our brains and have trained it to react negatively.
So many of the angry, racist outbursts we have all been witnessing on various social media sites are first fueled by obsessive thoughts driven by a person’s fears.
The event which triggers the outbursts are merely the tipping point, spilling out the negative thoughts which have been festering inside.
Fear is triggered when we feel out of control of life events.
Often when we go through a difficult time in life, where we just don’t see a way through, we become even more susceptible to our fears.
When we fixate on the negatives in our lives, we see more of the negatives.
How can we change this cycle?
It’s important to divert our minds away from the sources of information which rigger the fears. Unfortunately, these days many sources of information have become corrupted by outright lies or gross exaggerations of the truth, presenting a very narrow, slanted viewpoint, which has been having the effect of pushing people further and further down that negative spiral.
If you recognize yourself, or someone you care for in these words, it will take gentleness, reassurance and care to refocus the brain away from the negative triggers and into more positive reassuring thoughts and messaging.
We need to look for more positive messaging where we feel calmed and reassured.
Often people become obsessive in their search for negative information which feeds the anxieties and fears. The Amygdala in our brains become strong, overtaking our brain’s ability to see reason or truth, because the negative has become the total focus.
To soften the effects of the Amygdala, effectively re-wiring our brains, we need to leave the triggers, because these have become the drug of choice our brains have come to crave.
We need to step away from the events, the images, the people, the articles, the websites, the radio and TV shows. These have all been working in concert to heighten once dormant anxieties into a frenzy of fear.
When fear has been stroked over and over, it wants an outlet, so angry outbursts become a way of handling the rising fears.
All this further amplifies the Amygdala, making it dominant.
It is possible to tame the Amygdala, it is possible to rewire the brain to not automatically run to level 10 fear and anxiety.
We need to consciously step away, exactly how a recovering addict will step away from their drug of choice and the environment they became comfortable in.
New healthy habits need to be started.
As with any addict, one of the first steps is to start practicing good self care.
Sleep deprivation due to constant anxiety, anger and fear is common, so maybe take some Melatonin or other natural sleep aid to help the body to relax and get 9- 10 hours of sleep per night! This is necessary to refresh and heal the nerves.
Nutrition often gets sacrificed during these manic times, so practicing to eat well and nutritiously is important to rebuilding the nervous system.
Gentle exercise like walking in the park is wonderful for the soul and the body!
Prayer. During highly stressful times, spirituality and prayers often get forgotten or cast aside, for the anxious mind isn’t able to see the benefits, and so lets it go.
I have found that praying while walking to be so very nourishing to my spirit, for I can very privately pour my heart out, release my fears and anxieties, while breathing in fresh air. I have found my spirit feel far more refreshed when I do this than simply praying at home or in a place of worship.
Gentle positive input. Gentle affirmations, inspirational words, beautiful poetry all work to build new Neural Pathways in the brain, teaching our Amygdala to calm and to release the pressures and anxieties.
This takes time. Healing takes time. Give yourself space and time to relearn a new way of living!
Counseling. Anxiety, depression, anger… all of these can feel too strong for us to manage, and so having a gentle counselor to guide us through this process is a great idea!
Music. Find soothing music to listen to! Feel the gentle essence!
Art and images. The films, TV shows, Internet sites… all these can have a negative or a positive effect on us. It’s up to us to choose the positive.
I highly recommend reading positive and healing messages. There are many wonderful sites, and a couple of my personal favorites are Dr. Wayne Dyer and Louise Hay.
Anxieties and fears create certain chemicals in our bodies, which have been proven not only to be detrimental to our mental health, but terrible for our physical health too.
Having done the work to overcome my own anxieties and depression, I do know it is possible!
It just takes time, and effort!
You’ll have ups and downs, good days and not so good days.
Keep going! You can do this!
You are worthy of feeling at peace within yourself, and letting the anxieties become a part of your past!
I’m sharing more posts that may be helpful for you:
- 10 Steps to Owning Our Happiness
- Setting “Boundaries with consequences”
- Making a change… “How do I take that first step?”
- Affirmation: Today is a new day! I can do this!
- As we practice being gentle and kind with ourselves, we actually help to speed the process of helping our lives become more positive!
- Always believe that wonderful things can happen!
- A healthy outside starts from the inside!
- Brain Rewiring
More good stuff:
Teaching ourselves to like, even to love ourselves
By changing our inner dialogue, we change EVERYTHING!
Red Ocean or Blue Ocean? How do you think?
An answer to dealing with the Inner Critic!
My top 10 most viewed posts, plus a few bonuses!
A helpful trick to be able to overcome negatively Comparing Ourselves to others…
Do you only accept yourself if you look a certain way?
Please go to my Archived Posts page to find more wonderful posts to check out!
Blessings!
Thank you for sharing this post and for following me!
Tamara
https://tamarakulish.com/ Archived Posts: https://tamarakulish.com/archived-posts/
My books: Developing Happiness When You Can’t Find It and How to Heal Your Life on a Deep Heart Level are available in paperback and Kindle. Audio book available!
Guided Journals help you work on a particular issue by answering questions to help see patterns and to find solutions:
Removing Inner Blocks, Anger Journal, Guided Anxiety Journal Joy & Mindfulness Journal My Boundaries Journal My Inner Thoughts Journal
Thanks for buying my books on Amazon!
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Tamara Kulish 
So many gems of helpful practices you have described here. Self care is indeed so significant and relevant to everything that we experience and how we end up processing it. There are so many triggers that can take away our mental peace and it is very important to return to some basic ways we take care of ourselves during stressful times so we don’t get caught up in them.
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Absolutely! These are all critical things to focus on when trying to recover from severe anxiety.
This was a difficult post to write as I was seeing a connection between extreme anxiety and how some people are focusing their inner fears onto hapless people around them, usually against a minority group and/or a person of color. I’m not trying to minimize racist behavior but instead to try to reach out in a nonjudgmental way to anyone who may have committed this behavior.
Severe anxiety can trigger behaviors uncharacteristic to a person and the political climate in the USA gave rise to many people feeling they had permission from a leader they trusted to do so.
As many people shake off the misconceptions they accepted and seek to return themselves to a state of solid mental health, I feel it’s important to give some solid guidance to make this possible.
Once extreme anxiety and fears are dissipated, a person’s mind and body need to heal.
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yes very well said. What happens out there is a reflection of what is happening within us. Come down to healing time and self care as you so perfectly point out. I personally am having to slow down and take time to the fullest so I choose my roles with more clarity.
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I think as we will all be emerging from the pandemic, we need to take a pulse on how we’re doing inside. None of us will really be unscathed, as this has been a collective long term stress for all of us. Taking a look at our roles and behaviors is a very healthy way to be able not only to move forward but to choose what we want to keep and what we may want to discard in our lives as we prepare to move forward!
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I agree with you. There seem to be a lot of moving pieces to this. While there are those with whom we feel aligned in our views with, there is also this unknown about how we are going to evolve in our relation with those that see differently. You are right we keep some things, we discard some and also there is somethings that will need to be watched for how they emerge anew and how we relate. So important that we stay grounded in self care!
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I totally agree! This will be a work in progress for each of us!
Focusing on the basics of self care is such a huge piece and we generally overlook it until we’re forced into it again!
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🙏🏼💛✨
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