Writing to Cope with Anxiety
An important part of our recovery process is learning how to handle our anxiety. Many of us with addictions and mental health issues experience anxiety on a regular basis. Our addictive behaviors are often an attempt to relieve our anxiety, and when we have go-to coping mechanisms, it is often anxiety we’re trying to cope with.
Writing is a very effective, therapeutic tool to help calm our anxiety. There is no right or wrong way to go about it. Use a journal, notebook, phone or computer to write everything that comes to mind- everything you’re worried about, all the pent-up fears you’re holding onto, all the anxious recurring thoughts you’re having a hard time letting go of.
As we write, we allow the energy to flow freely, energy that we have been storing in our minds, hearts and bodies for years. When this negative energy is stuck within us, it creates all kinds of blockages. Anxiety is one of the many symptoms of our energy blockages.
If you pay attention to how anxiety feels in your body, you might notice that the energy feels like restless tension, nervousness or panic fluttering through your body. Our normal coping mechanisms such as our drugs of choice and addictive behaviors don’t make these feelings actually go away, they just provide us with a temporary distraction from our anxiety. All the while it’s still within us, growing stronger the more we don’t face it head on. When we allow this energy to flow in healthy ways on the other hand, we loosen its grip on us, and we give ourselves a chance to let the painful symptoms recede naturally.
Writing is an actual coping mechanism in that it can actually help us to cope. We aren’t burying our anxiety, distracting ourselves from it, numbing it, or self-medicating to avoid it. We are consciously dealing with it, which allows us the opportunity to heal it.
Writing is a meditative process. It allows us to connect with our inner voice and higher power. As we write, we often feel a sense of calm come over us. When we are filled with anxiety, our minds can be filled with noise and clutter, limiting beliefs and painful thought patterns. Writing can help quiet all of that. It is in that quiet space that healing energy can come to us. When we allow ourselves to be open to that healing, it flows through us, and writing is a powerful tool to help in that process.
Enlightened Solutions can help you explore healing tools that will support you in your recovery. Call (833) 801-LIVE.
