Anxiety
Anxiety is a messenger arriving to alert you to the fact that something is awry and needs your attention. This is not the message we receive from the culture, but when you can shift your mindset from seeing anxiety as evidence of brokenness or as a burden and instead view it as a wise gift from the unconscious designed to help you grow, you will begin to heal from the root. This collection will guide you toward shifting your mindset and offer effective tools for healing.
For a comprehensive exploration of anxiety, including in-depth tools for how to break free, please see my book, “The Wisdom of Anxiety: How Worry and Intrusive Thoughts Are Gifts to Help You Heal,” which will be available in May 2019
Anxiety is a Game of Whack-A-Mole
The anxious mind can latch onto almost any topic: What if I don't have enough money? What if my kids aren't okay? What if I don't get pregnant? What if I get pregnant? What if I have cancer? What if I don't love my partner enough and I'm making a terrible mistake?...
When Anxious, Start at the Beginning
Anxiety is a messenger, a symptom, and a gift. I know that statement flies in the face of everything we learn about anxiety in a culture that is pathologically obsessed with eradicating shadow at every turn and consequently attempts to "get rid of" the symptom of...
Anxiety: A Portal to Serenity
On the other side of anxiety lives serenity. When you walk into the forest and face the fear-vines of your mind - swashbuckling at first then sitting down in the glade and simply watching - you eventually unfold into an open field. You cannot know this until you walk...
Anxiety: Ambassador of Wholeness
"Dreams come in the service of health and wholeness." - Jeremy Taylor, author of "The Wisdom of Your Dreams" A few weekends ago I attended one of the most inspiring, nourishing, revelatory workshops of my life. It was a workshop on dreamwork facilitated by the...
Invite Anxiety to Tea
If anxiety is denied, shamed, or judged, it often shows up at the back door, as what demands to be known will always find its way into awareness for the purpose of consciousness and healing. A backdoor arrival of anxiety often sounds like: I don't love my partner...
In Bed With Fear
We hear a lot about the power of fear these days, and the way we culturally/psychologically talk about it speaks to our beliefs that there are forces "out there" that are dark or evil that we need to overpower. In the early days of my work, I also spoke of fear in...
Separation Anxiety and the Fear of Death
Many of those who fall on the anxious-sensitive-creative spectrum and find their way to my work describe a common experience: struggling with separation anxiety as a child. When a client shares with me that she dreaded going to school, hated the beginning of each new...
Travel Anxiety
In our culture that upholds the extrovert ideal as the pinnacle of a life fully lived, I often hear from clients who share that they often feel shame when they don't fit the mold. I hear from clients in their 20s who feel like they "should" enjoy going to parties and...
The Witching Hour
I had a chuckle at myself a couple of months ago. I had been mentioning the 3-4 am witching hour - the time when many people wake up overtaken by panic or anxiety - in my blog posts, and then I found myself waking up at that hour myself. It had been a long time since...
The Best Piece of Advice I Can Give You to Reduce Your Anxiety
Our era has been called the Information Age, the Technology Age, and the Digital Age. But it could also easily be called The Age of Anxiety, for anxiety is rampant and can manifest in so many ways: social anxiety, test anxiety, work anxiety, relationship anxiety,...