Anxiety Doesn’t Have to Be Your Story
Anxiety. It plagues many women. If you’re dealing with high functioning anxiety, know that you aren’t alone. It is chronic and it won’t go away...and there are ways to manage it so you don’t feel like every system is overloaded and overwhelming!
Does this look familiar to you?
You’re feeling overwhelmed and completely stretched thin. So thin, you’re basically a piece of plastic wrap, trying to hold everything together and getting stuck to everything but what you really are intended to cling to.
You’re aware that something’s gotta give and you vow, “No more! I can’t make any more commitments!”
Then, an opportunity comes up. (I’m going to use the term “opportunity,” but know that it may not be a rockstar invitation that you’ve been waiting for. This opportunity may be having to do a last-minute thing for your kids. Or your parents ask you to help them with something. Or a business thing that you have to deal with shows up.)
In the heat of the moment, you agree to whatever that opportunity is. At the same time, you think to yourself, “Oh $hit what have I done?”
But you want to make everyone happy and comfortable. You want to be pleasing. You’re the dutiful daughter, the one who always shows up, the person who “can be counted on.”
I am completely guilty of this exact situation. In fact, I used to be a frequent repeat offender. But I worried that people wouldn’t accept and love me if I said no. I was terrified that if I changed my mind and backed out of the commitment I’d made, I wouldn’t be in integrity.
I used to tell myself “I’ll just make the best of it now" with hollow promises to myself that “maybe I will get it right next time.”
Often, that is at the detriment of our own happiness and, most importantly, our nervous system.
If you stay in that state of high functioning anxiety too long, you may experience:
Anxiety, Depression, and/or PTSD
Insomnia and sleep disturbances or overall chronic fatigue
Digestive issues
Mystery aches, ailments, and pains
Adrenal fatigue and/or other issues like frying your nervous system by overloading it
So what to do about it?
I’d firstly recommend speaking with a trained professional. Therapeutic help was a life-changer for me when I was working through my own high functioning anxiety.
You can also practice some visualizations and call in your angels to protect you and help you with tools to combat the fear that arises when you begin to break the patterns that you held for so long. Breaking those patterns is so essential and can also be a lot to process.
Finally, I’d like to invite you to do this exercise to access the peace that your body is so desperately craving right now:
Find a quiet place in your home or outside to take a few deep breaths and invite peace in.
In that space, think back to a time you felt calm in the storm and breathe into that. Can you feel it again?
If any thoughts that come that contradict, question, or challenge the peace… Allow them to come and then release them with love
There is no overnight solution or magical pill you can take that will 100% erase your high functioning anxiety in an instant. It is a journey. But we get to decide when it’s time to retire the people pleaser costume and step into being the leading ladies of our own lives.
If you need anything, I’m here for you, just an email away!
