What If Your Anxiety Is Just Trying To Get You To Connect With Yourself?

As a somatic therapist, specifically a dance therapist in San Francisco, I work a great deal with people who are trying to “control” their anxiety. Most people want a way to alleviate their anxiety. . .somehow make it go away completely or have it vanish entirely. Unfortunately, in our society anxiety has become synonymous with something awful, to be dreaded, instead of a normal part of being a human with feelings. Paradoxically, we often feel the most anxious when we are not allowing ourselves to feel emotions. When we wall off parts of ourselves, anxiety increases. It is as though our bodies know when we are not allowing ourselves to be whole and the response is anxiety.

However, at other times, our anxiety can be our bodies response to what we perceive as a threat. The threat may or may not exist but we are responding in a pre-programmed way. It is then important to find ways to soothe or diminish anxiety as well as increase our capacity to tolerate it. . . To expect anxiety to vanish forever is unrealistic and can only by numbing all our other emotions. Many people do ty to numb themselves with substances, food, or other means so they don't have to tolerate the discomfort of feeling—either anxiety or other emotions.

So how can we tell when anxiety is due to losing a connection with ourselves and is information for us or when it may be just an automatic reaction to a not very real threat? Here are a couple of ways to help assess.

A Somatic Therapist's Questions To Assess If Your Anxiety Is Trying To Get You To Connect With Yourself

1) Have you attended to all your biological needs i.e. sleep, food, etc.?

Anxiety can crop up due to lack of sleep or if you are hungry. In this case, you may have been ignoring the physiological signs of hunger or fatigue and anxiety may be a sign that you should take care of those needs.

2) Have you done a self check-in for your emotions, asking yourself how you are feeling and what you need?

If you have not done a self check-in, your anxiety may stem from ignoring your emotions. If you ignore your feelings, you may definitely find yourself with residual anxiety. It is important to take time each day to do a check in with your emotions and attend to your emotional needs.

3) Lastly, does your anxiety appear only in certain situations or with specific people?

If that is the case, you may need to pay attention to those situations. What is it about that situation, person, or relationship that you may need to attend to?

These questions will help you to see if your anxiety is trying to get you to connect with yourself or just an overactive biological response.

Lastly, if you find that you have lost your connection to yourself and your emotions or are just having a difficult time with your anxiety, please feel free to email me at lisa@lisamanca.com