Many of us emotionally invest in our anxiety . What do we mean by emotional investment? The simplest way to illustrate emotional investment is when typically someone thinks “I am worrying so much that I’ll make myself insane with worry”, this type of feedback loop of “worrying about worrying” increases the impact of anxiety.
Many of us may recognise this pattern of adding to our anxieties when our child or partner is late coming back home and we add to our anxiety by thinking and imagining something dreadful may have befallen them which in turn fuels the anxiety with scenarios of accidents or other harmful events.
This illustrates the “anxiety habits” many people have developed, worrying about the anxiety that they are experiencing in the first place. Recognition of these anxiety creating habitual patterns of thought is the first essential step towards addressing anxiety. Mindfulness meditation provides an excellent opportunity to recognise our habitual mental patterns and learn to become aware of our present moment thereby reducing fear and anxiety.
EXERCISES:
Mindfulness (by Dav Panesar)
Symran (by Dav Panesar)
