Damaging Effects of Stress & Anxiety

A wake-up call to the real you

Last year I talked about mitigating fear, breathing, identifying pressure points, de-cluttering and creating silence to facilitate a sense of calm. Within my practice, and within society, I’ve seen an explosion of anxiety ramping up since 2018—one of the most profound observations I’ve seen in years. It’s why calmness emerged as a facet of my 2020 campaigns. Anxiety is part of our DNA for sure, but it seemed like something was about to burst at the seams. Everyone was so ready for a fresh start and a new beginning in 2020, but the exact opposite happened. The first half of 2020 had taken stress and anxiety to the boiling point on a global scale. Job loss, pandemic, and isolation sprinkled with some fear and mistrust on top of what we already had…..is a recipe for disaster. Nothing like a global shutdown, and financial decline to brighten your day, let alone the illness itself, all wrapped up in a nice political package delivered to you first class by a 24/7 news cycle. The damage to an already fragile collective psyche on a global scale is beyond surreal. One by one, I’ve seen people just give up, retreat, and shut down, getting by in survival mode. Our nervous systems are not designed to sustain extended periods of high stress. That mechanism is modulated perfectly in the animal kingdom, but humans can perpetuate a state of anxiety just by thought alone. Stress doesn’t just degrade our immune systems, it can erode our spirit and create fertile ground for disease.

So what do you do in the midst of any kind of external confusion, stress, pressure or tension?  Experts, practitioners, and healers have come out of the woodwork in full force to offer free webinars, new gadgets, supplements, and breathing techniques as if there’s a newly discovered holy grail to be had—all at discounted prices—for now. Suddenly, the topic of anxiety is all the buzz. On one level, it’s nice to see that people are being offered something to help navigate the crisis, but what I find a bit disturbing is the level of snake oil that’s risen to the surface as well. Some people are genuinely there to help, and do really great work, but there’s plenty out there who are simply capitalizing on the widened landscape of money-making at the expense of people’s misfortune. It feels like something akin to raising prices when supplies are limited, take masks or hand sanitizer for instance.

I am a strong advocate of keeping things down to earth and real. In my opinion, there are no quick fixes, or simple solution to complex problems. Sure, its common sense that you should increase your personal practices such as yoga, or expand your breathing routine, if you have one.  These are all great practices for managing stress and anxiety, and they really do help. I do them myself. But, all of it can come undone in a split second by thought alone, or triggered by some external event. Partying, laughing, socializing, and recreating are all nice diversions too, but the relief is temporary, and with shutdown, it’s become all too infrequent. Eventually reality sets in, and this is where I think the deeper work comes in, and your internal perceptual map comes into the picture. When anxiety hits, stress levels mount, or you start to feel like you’re losing yourself, take a deep breath, and start observing your own stream of consciousness. Pay attention to your self-dialogue, and the story you’re repeating in your mind. This is the only spot where you can truly alter your internal state, and begin to craft a new future. This is the arduous task of analyzing your story according to both psychological, and shamanic principles. Accepting the fact that there will always be things outside of yourself that you can’t control, or that are threatening, or unjust aspects to life is a baseline starting point. Life is an abundance of rich experiences including good times, and some bad ones thrown in once in a while. Unraveling and navigating your personal process is the area where I feel people need tremendous guidance with, especially during, and after what we’ve dealt with now and last year. For some, this is the first long term traumatic exposure they’ve had to endure. I can be quite derailing. There’s no simple, easy, fun, or any sort of quick fix out there, so don’t be sucked in by marketing hype. You’ll waste your time and money, and be left even more bewildered. As they say, “The only way out is through.” Getting calm, grounded and centered is step one. Then, identifying your story, unraveling how the story got there to begin with, and finally learning how to create a new vision are all critical components of the process to permanently reducing the damaging effects of trauma, stress and anxiety, and ultimately crafting the life you desire.