Anxiety Anchor
There is no underestimating the importance of having an anchor when you are in the throws of a panic attack or experiencing persistent anxiety. Having an internal place that is unaffected by the changes of life, unaffected by complexes, or triggers, gives you a third place to return to whenever the there is a need to soften the noise of anxiety.
Excerpts
— Anxiety, like depression, takes many forms. We can be so acutely anxious that we are outside of our ability to control ourselves, or it can be so subtle and unconscious, that we hardly realise our behaviours stem from a source of deep discomfort or fear.
Anxiety can be inherited. We are given epigenetic familial burdens that can arise suddenly, from the depths of the unconscious, and take over our entire lives.
Anxiety can be a symptom of lack of boundaries, or complex post traumatic stress, it can be a result of sensitivity to sound and texture.
Sometimes we are able to look back and be so grateful for our anxiety, after it led us to some internal parts that helped deepen our connection with ourselves.
— The objective of this week’s theme is to provide someone with an anchor that they can put down when they are feeling overwhelmed. The yoga nidra practice is the start and a great space to return to, but the idea is that in the midst of a storm of anxiety we can close our eyes and find this thing or place that can give us the securing that we need.
An anchor should not be a person or an animal. An anchor should be a practice, a symbol, or an internal place. You can have more than one anchor, but let’s start with just one.
— What we are looking for is something that can be regularly returned to, something that stands outside of our day to day life, that we elect to do, acts as a third place, a place that is able to frame the stuff of our lives into a new perspective. Reduced of their idealism, Removed of their disappointment. A place where we are able to access a part of ourselves that is perennial, unswayed by the fluctuations of jobs, relationships, and states of health. A place to access a more stable and reliable position within ourselves, a part of us that is more stoic, compassionate, fair, and even-keeled.
— When we are in a state of uncertainty, Jung suggests very simply, that we “Do the next right thing.” Many people who have gone through an alcohol anonymous programme will have been told this and that is because AA was heavily influenced by Jungian principles. Do the next right thing, is exceedingly good advice when someone is in a storm of confusion, anxious about future outcomes, overwhelmed by the complexes that are being triggered.
Jungian psychoanalyst Joseph Lee said something that I think is as excellent advice as do the next right thing, he said that when a complex is triggered in us, the best possible thing we can do is sit on our hands and shut up.
— Internal Family Systems would seek to negotiate with that anxiety, encouraging it to relax its position so that we are able to get in touch with the fear that it is protecting. The fear that the man has, the fear that he will become like his father, can be brought back into the conscious mind, it can become a part of our self awareness, a valid voice that can take part in internal discussions as we make choices, but it is no longer an unconscious driver of our lives.
Jung says “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
By having this internal space, this anchor to return to, we are able to essentially sit on our hands and shut up. We are able to return to the memory, the knowing, that we are a being, worthy of love and security, removed of shame and narratives about who we are or why we are uniquely broken. Through therapy, through inner work, we can bring these unconscious elements forward and integrate them. But in the meantime we can do less damage to our nervous systems by pausing and finding this internal anchor. You do not need to always be in a state of crisis to put down your anchor. If you have chronic anxiety, close your eyes and return to this space as often as you wish. Put on the recording of my yoga nidra if it is easier to stay present in this internal space with the help of a guiding voice.