Stress, anxiety and to be now
It seems inescapable, but if you really think about it, worrying about the past and the future is often actually a waste of time. If you are already dealing with stress symptoms, worrying about the past and the future just adds extra stress and anxiety to your life.
Let me explain. The past is a given, it’s fixed, done and gone. You can never change it, no matter what. It simply does not exist. Past moments live on in the programming that experiences have left in the depth of your mind. These continue in the patterns that experiences have written in your subconscious.
And then there is the future… Planning ahead is a wise strategy. It is, however, good to realise there is also a snag: you will never get to the future. The future is merely an idea, a projection that constantly shifts ahead. Like the past, the future simply does not exist. There really is only now and there never is anything else but now. Just let that thought sink in for a moment. A moment is really all there is, moment after moment, after moment… All the rest is merely an illusion.
So how does it help to realise this? First of all, being aware that there really is only now, can change your appreciation for what it actually means to be in the moment. It might encourage you to enjoy the present moment. That in itself could reduce some of your stress and anxiety. When you dedicate your time and energy to things that cannot change and/or that will never be, life passes you by. Being now minded helps your happiness and health.
Our issues and stress trap us
Our issues tend to trap us in previous (unresolved) moments in time. When issues resurface in our current moments, we react as though we are once again in the situation in which the pattern was recorded in our subconscious. Your subconscious has deemed that particular pattern to be the solution for your current situation. That may have been the case back in the original moment, but that does not have to be the case now.
Many of these patterns were recorded at a very early age. Since what goes on in our subconscious is by definition outside of our awareness, we are not even aware that this is happening until it is happening or after it has happened, if at all. When the pattern applies, it plays out in our reaction to the situation, such as stress, anxiety, fear, shyness, freezing up, anger, etc. It’s all too often rather unpleasant and it detaches us from the here and now.
Some examples that lead to stress, stress symptoms and anxiety
Let me give you some examples, you might for instance feel like a 3-year-old or inadequate in some other way, every time you have to talk to your employer, your GP or a member of another sex. Perhaps you react with fear every time you accidentally drop something or maybe you do not dare to speak up or you freeze in a group, in a meeting or during a presentation. It could also be that you feel anger every time someone points out what they perceive to be a flaw in you. We all know plenty of examples from our own life and that of others.
If your reactions are manageable and do not cause any major problems in your life, then that’s just fine. But what if they are not? What if they control your life and you rarely get to be in the moment? What if your patterns cause a phobia, lead to you smoking, to persistent self-sabotage, to a low level of self-esteem or to a lack of confidence. Are there options if you really need to free yourself from some of these recorded patterns, from a chunk of your stress symptoms and anxiety.
Possible solutions to get out of stress, stress symptoms and anxiety
To bring yourself in the present moment, there are quite a few things you can do. Simply concentrating on one or more deep breaths will bring you instantly into the here and now. Another way is to concentrate on your body and on what is around you. Meditation or hypnosis is also an option. You can meditate on your own or follow a guided meditation or hypnosis. Focusing on a behaviour, issue or problem during meditation or a hypnosis session can bring new insights to light. These insights can then help you get to a core pattern that needs to be dealt with.
Another more fun way, that I prefer, is to go for a walk and bring a camera along. This will almost instantly make my stress fade away. Many people will have a camera on their phone, but looking through a lens really focuses your attention on what is here and what is now. Zoom in on interesting details, tweak the lighting and/or shutter speed, and a whole new world will open its doors to you.
If you do this regularly, you’ll find that you get more and more focused on what is around you. You’ll acquire more of an eye for detail, and after a while you’ll start to notice things you never noticed before. These things were always there, but maybe you missed them because your thoughts were elsewhere.
Of course you’re also welcome to book a session with 2FreeMe. 2FreeMe can help you bring to light patterns that keep you out of the present. We dispose of an array of skills and techniques to help you reach and rewrite these patterns. Let’s face it, if you’re now, then when are you to be?
