What does Anxiety mean?

If someone could snap their fingers and make it go away, why wouldn't you want that?? Because...Because anxiety is not the problem.

Ok so first off - I had major anxiety and panic attacks for years.

Now, I spend the majority of my day listening to and coaching women with anxiety

So... I know how much it sucks and how desperate it can feel.

Anxiety is a signal. It happens when our brain gets stuck in a chronic survival pattern.

This can happen due to trauma, loss, heart break, chronic stress, social isolation, medical emergencies or complications, or simply the way we were taught as kids to handle difficult emotions and interactions.

(It does not happen due to a genetically-inherited chemical imbalance. That’s a very prevalent myth pushed by pharmaceutical companies that is not supported by science.)

Staying in fight or flight for years or decades takes a massive toll on our health. Anxiety is the signal that we need to do something differently, to shift out of fear and into a new way of being. It’s a signal that something needs to change.

And here’s the cool part: when we listen to the signal and make the changes we need to make, a lot of good things start to happen.

There is a lot of gratitude, presence and joy on the other side of anxiety that we might never have found if we weren’t prompted to dig deeper.

So here’s a crazy idea: When you wake up tomorrow to a wave of anxiety, take a moment and say thank you. Say thank you to the fire alarm for letting you know there’s a problem that needs fixing.

Snapping your fingers and turning off the anxiety would be like running into a burning building and just switching off the fire alarms. Don't do that.

We need to:

• Contain the fire

• Put out the fire

• Prevent future fires

In resilience,
Caitlin