There's heightened anxiety in the air
Anxiety is definitely in the air. I don’t know much about the planetary alignments currently and whether that is to blame, or maybe it’s the effect of this now being eclipse season, or maybe it’s just that collectively our intuition knows that something is amiss, but we don’t yet know what exactly that is, or just a general vata-autumnal ungrounded thing going on, but it is real.
The majority of my clients this week have been anxious and some of them experiencing anxiety on a level never felt before. Many of them are not usually anxious, so are surprised about the intensity of the anxiety they have been feeling, deep in their solar plexus, so that they are actually getting physical symptoms, such as stomach ache, nausea and inner restlessness/churning.
I know I have blogged about this recently, but it’s still taking me by surprise, the extent that people are feeling it. They are manly ungrounded, too much mental energy, trying to work things out, stay in control, make sense of life as it is unfolding, with all its various challenges, which seem to be accentuated for many currently.
I know its easy for me to sit here and write about how we need to dig into trust when all anyone wants is something concentre to tell them that life will be OK, that they will be OK, that whatever they are worrying about (even if it is imagined and not real) will all work out OK, but really we have no choice, not if we want to maintain our sanity. We have to trust in something and try and elevate the perspective, see the good where we can ad know that ultimately, for now at least, in this moment, we are safe.
The trouble is, once anxiety takes hold then it can be difficult to shift it as the whole physical, mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual bodies get involved and sometimes we do need someone to help ground us and get our mental energy back down, into heart, and feet on the earth. Sometimes we just need some space out in nature to process and connect back in, or a chat with a close friend, to share whatever is bothering us, lighten our load, come back to centre and let go of stressing about things.
Often it is a letting go that is needed. Of trying to control things. Because let’s face it, we’re out of control down here. I mean we try to control things, but every once in a while the universe will remind us that we’re not in control, not really.
What I do know is that this way of living is not working for us as a society. Mental illness is prevalent. In England & Wales last year, the suicide rate was 6.9% higher than 2020, that’s the equivalent of 10.7 deaths per 100,000 and that’s only those who were formally registered as suicide. The greatest suffering is depression and anxiety. It’s everywhere. To me its an indication that we’re not living well. That we aren’t able to cope with the demands placed on us by the way society and our place in it has become. When will it stop?
It interests me what happens next. Because I can’t see how we can keep feeding the system and expecting things to change, how we can keep on this hamster wheel of busyness and financial pressures and not lose ourselves to it, not all crack up over it, lose our minds, stay under the duvet, unable to cope and be interactive in the world.
I was listening to The Chameleons today and they have this fab song called “Look Inwardly” and it’s ace, because the message is clear, ‘look inwardly”. That’s all we can do, look into ourselves and notice, and be honest about what isn’t working in our lives and maybe if enough of us do this, if enough of us say that this isn’t working for me, this pace, this technology, this automated world we now live in, then maybe something will change, and maybe we won’t be so overwhelmed, and anxious and depressed. And this really, is the only thing we can control - the choices we make and the way we think and relate.
And always there is the spirit, faith and digging deeper - as I wrote earlier - into trust.
So if you’re navigating anxiety be assured that you are not alone. Feel into it. Notice it for what it is. An emotional state. A mental game. An imagining. A need to be in control yet not managing to feel this. A worry. Whatever it is, notice what underlays it, the fear. Fear of dying. Fear of suffering. Fear of criticism. Fear of rejection. Fear of abandonment.
And when you have identified it, reassure your mind that all is well. Thank it for trying to help you. But let it know that it isn’t working anymore. And breathe. Find your roots. Imagine them from your tail bone down through your legs and take nourishment all the way up to your centre. Then come to your crown and imagine spirit flooding in and down to your centre. And breathe here. At your centre. Be in your centre in the here and now. It really does help to change things.
This too shall pass.
Love Emma x
