My Anxious Thoughts

Sometimes it feels like everything will erupt, pour out like a volcano and everyone will be saturated in the mess. Other times there is stillness, like a calm lake on a summer’s day, peaceful and inviting. Then there are the times in between when the stillness goes and is busy, with sights and sounds everywhere.

Feelings can be so unstable. They change depending on circumstance and how we perceive them, and this can affect our behaviour and our thoughts. A feeling is what happens in our body as a result of an emotion. Our brain is making sense of that emotion by giving us feeling based on our learnt experiences. Do certain situations cause particular feelings and thoughts? Do these thoughts affect how we behave? Of course they do. It is so easy to let our feelings dictate how we behave. Feelings can seem so powerful and so real. They have a direct effect on our thought process.

But what if we can change that?

Let’s start with a situation: ‘walking into a busy supermarket’
What are the feelings you’re having? Fearful, anxious, frozen
Based on that situation and the thoughts, what would normally happen? And how would it end up?

It often seems easier to ignore the ‘supermarket’ and work around it, to avoid the feelings. How would I know if things were better? How we feel and think would change, it would become easier. Start to look at the big picture, change what can be changed, one step at a time. Think about what is good and enjoyable.  Let’s challenge ourselves to change how we respond to situations, that’s when we become powerful over our own thoughts.

That feeling, the one that erupts, will eventually die.