The Anxiety, the Stress vs. Svadyaya
First of all let me preface, that I am not a medical professional - but I am a spirutal seeker and have been my entire life, since very young. In yog, one of the ethical codes, is called Svadyaya (it’s a Niyama)- self reflection, selft study. Often referred to in contemporary self-help books and the reason why we feel compelled to purchase said books. The understanding that there is more within us, and we want to uncover it, rise up to it, one step at a time.
From my personal enquiries, my path into and out of anxiety, is that it can be overwhelming. The panic can get intense with a feeling that our world will shatter “if'“ ___________ fill in the blank. I have lost hair, sleep and happiness over anxiety and stress. What I have learned in yoga, has helped me enormously. I have understood the power of being able to look at myself honestly, lovingingly and compassionately. This self-reflection is svadyaya. With compasison and the knowingness that I was doing the best I could at the time, I faced things that would have make me crumble in the past. It empowered me to do the demolition myself and rebuild.
I demolished the addiction to anxiety and stress. It took time because it was built a long time ago. The angst was familiar, it reflected places, spaces I had called home. The first step, was to recognize, the pattern, the triggers and the familiar feeling of whatever I did would never be good enough (or simply enough) and consequently I wasn’t either. This process is lengthy, we get tired, fed up, give up. That is normal. What is extraordinary is being able to continue the process again after we fall off the horse. For those freedom seekers, the time, the work, the discomfort - is worth it.
For this short blog, some simple day-to-day advice that helped and still helps me:
Take a few deep, long slow breaths, say/think “I got this”. If you are like me, and a pile of dirty dishes or laundry can inflict enough fear to run away - put the timer on your phone to 15minutes or 10 with a promise that whatever gets done in 10-15minutes is enough. You’d be surprised how much we can get done.
For major seemingly insurmountable projects with dizzying learning curves again my process is similar: I may procrastinate a bit- until I find those few deep breaths, I set a timer for one hour with a self-promise that after that I can stop. 9 times out of 10 I am either done before the timer, or I go well beyond, achieving more than I could imagine.
Somehow, the timer trick eases the part of me that descends into a tailspin and then when I see how much I have accomplished - it is extremely empowering. Because, however much I did, I DID it, one step, one minute, on hour at a time.
