I have always felt guilty that I consider myself to be a “spiritual” person, and yet I continue to suffer from anxiety. I have felt like I had to try to hide my anxiety behind a mask of “spirituality.” But this internal struggle only created more anxiety, because I was functioning out of the false self, from behind the mask of “spirituality”, rather than from a place of authenticity. I felt guilty and confused that my “spirituality” did not erase the anxiety that I continuously felt about life situations.
I have sense come to terms with this issue realizing that anxiety is a disorder just like a myriad of other disorders that plague mankind… And “spirituality” is not the “cure all.” So now that I have come to that recognition, and acceptance, what to do *about* the anxiety.
There are many methods, approaches, techniques and treatments, and we each have to find the way that works for us. For me it is a combination of several approaches. One was working with a therapist who used a mindfulness based approach to bring awareness to the anxiety itself; to work with it in a mindful, unafraid way. The other is my present spiritual path which also provides a way for me to sit with the anxiety, to be present to the experience of it in the moment and just be with it, which defuses the intensity of it.
Recently I discovered a program that combines both of these approaches and more. After reading through the Panic Away Program I began to recognize that anxiety had become a habitual pattern in which my body, mind and emotions responded to life circumstances.
The perpetual cycle of anxiety creates, or sets up, a cycle of sensitization to stressors on these three levels that just keeps repeating itself, exhausting the body and mind, over stimulating the nervous system, leaving one feeling more susceptible to stress, generating more anxious thoughts about being anxious. This information relieved me of the guilt of not being able to control my anxiety, and provided me a new way of relating to it that is allowing me to interrupt the endless, exhaustive loop; to recognize it when it starts and move with it; to acknowledge how my perceptions have been distorted, and to change the way I *react* to thoughts and sensations as they arise – releasing the feelings of anxiety and panic.
The Panic Away Program is a complete package offering information, explanations and tools to successfully address this serious debilitating disorder. With this new information the guilt of anxiety is diminishing as I practice new ways of seeing, feeling, experiencing and interrupting the cycle of anxiety – living life with Aliveness and Fearlessness.
john krol
