Did you know? Anxiety actually helped you to survive.

If you struggle with anxiety read on.

Where does anxiety come from?

The same system that helps you to survive traumatic experience, can also manifest as anxiety in our everyday lives.

We can view anxiety as part of our natural fight or flight stress response.

But though it’s protective, it hasn’t evolved much since we needed to fight off predators hundreds of years ago. It certainly hasn’t evolved to cope with our modern culture.

And our stress responses can be triggered daily through normal – albeit stressful –activities.

Neuroscientist Dr.Wendy Suzuki, states that a bit of natural fear can power us toward greater productivity. Imagine doing a big presentation in the same state as when watching Netflix!

I think we’d all agree that remaining alert can propel us to act when needed. But too much is bad for us.

If we’re constantly stuck in a state of high alert and fear, we can feel it in our bodies – it feels impossible to calm down and relax. Does this resonate with you?

Suzuki shares two powerful ways to calm anxiety by connecting with our bodies:

Breathwork

Slow deep breathing e.g. box breathing, activates the relaxing part of the parasympathetic nervous system, helping our body to return to a calm state. This can be done anywhere at any time.

Movement

When you move your body, neurochemicals including dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins are released. These boost our mood in a positive way, making it a natural antidepressant.

A short session of movement – around 10 minutes – is enough to benefit from mood enhancing neuro chemicals and reduce anxiety.

Any movement is good. Bursts of quick movement such as power walking can be done in the moment that anxiety is felt.

Other movement such as yoga, requires more commitment. But research has shown that it helps regulate the nervous system. And – especially for complex trauma – can improve relationship to the body.

So, in a nutshell I hope you've learned that anxiety can be as part of our natural survival response to threat. Understanding this and using tools like those above can really help you to overcome it. In therapy, I also work with clients to explore how and why these fear responses might get triggered.

Please check out my other blogs for more:

How does trauma get trapped in the body? 

I hope that you found this content helpful. If you struggle with anxiety and would like some support, please visit my website to check out my services or book a call with me below.