How Anxiety Can be a Motivating Force Instead of a Debilitating One

Anxiety is often discussed in terms of being one side of a two-sided coin.  The other side is excitement.  It a short journey to harness the power that is accessible to a person in recovery through the experience of anxiety. There is tremendous opportunity in learning how to transmute anxiety into excitement.

The first opportunity in this journey is by beginning to use anxiety as a cue.  This is a pathway to increasing your awareness about your emotional presence throughout your day.  Anxiety is more manageable when you can observe it in its beginning stages.  As you move beyond the beginning stages, it gains momentum and power.  So, beginning to learn the signals as to when it has begun will be a great tool.  

In order to be able to identify anxiety, you will first need to cultivate awareness about how it shows up in your life.

• What are the body signals? Some possibilities are stomach pain, neck tension, or headaches.
• What are the mental signals? Perhaps you begin to have a repetitive thought pattern or begin to excessively think abou the past or future.
• What are the emotional signals? Do you detach? Or do become excessively angry?

These are just two possibilities.  Learn what your mind, body and emotions do at the beginning of an anxiety cycle and begin to use these as guides to develop tools to harness the power of anxiety. Once you have cultivated awareness of your early stages of anxiety, you can begin to develop tools to harness this energy and transform it into excitement about your life!

There’s a bit of a bridge between being spun out on anxiety and arriving to a place of excitement. Remember to be kind and compassionate with yourself.  You can begin to develop some tools using the following suggestions and guidelines:

• Perspective: the bridge between anxiety and excitement is mostly built upon bricks of opportunity.  Begin to train yourself to look for the opportunity with that causing your anxiety.  
• Medicine: once you are aware of your cues, you can use these to build tools by taking opposite actions.  For example, if your pattern is to become angry when anxious, teach yourself how to release anger with more ease.  

Remember, this is a journey. Allow yourself to blossom within it!

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