The four steps I’ve laid out based on my experience with people affected by anxieties are only one model of how to do all this. There are certainly a number of others, and any mental or emotional health professional can do a more relevant, personal assessment and summary of your experiences as part of their effort to help you design strategies that are really customized to your experiences, challenges and needs.
What I have seen is that when people do incorporate this or another strategy, that it makes it much more possible and likely that they are able to live the life they want. It doesn’t mean that things go perfectly. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t setbacks and new challenges. But it does mean that, once you’ve established what your own process is, that you have something you can remember as a success and remind yourself of when new versions of these old challenges arise.
I think that’s one of the most important aspects of this: reminding yourself of what you already know. When you have a success, no matter how small! That you pause and let the feeling of that success really wash through you, so that you have a kind of ‘body memory’ of having worked effectively with the sources of tension, fear, pain and anxiety you’ve carried with you.
Remember: when you’ve had a success and you meet a new version of that challenge that you can always look back at how far you’ve come, what you’ve accomplished, and how good it feels to experience yourself as more whole and complete.
So this brings my hope, prayers, caring and expectation that you are capable of achieving this, and that, if professional help is needed you are able to establish a productive collaboration that helps you even more!
