Anxiety, my superpower

Yup, I said it.  Anxiety is one of my superpowers.  I have anxiety and for much of my life I saw this as something uncontrollable, to be ashamed of and seek professional help for.  Let me just say that if you are a sufferer of anxiety, you absolutely should seek professional help— a counselor, a coach, a mentor, etc.  Actually, I think that anyone at any point, regardless of their mental and physical health, should have one(or more) of these.  Anyway, that being said, I have spent the last year or so really trying to embrace my anxiety and develop a new perspective around it.  What if this anxious energy, this hype in my belly, these butterflies in my chest and throat could be used to my advantage?  What if instead of trying to hide them with medications I instead embrace them with open arms, study them hard and let them grow wings with the intent to help my fly?  

Anxiety actually evolved as a healthy emotion and I think it CAN and should be used to our advantage.  I have learned to embrace my levels of anxious emotion as just one of my many super powers.  The trick for me in finding balance between keeping my feet on the ground and unicorn souring into the next galaxy has been finding the magic mixture of movement, meditation and what goes in my mouth!  

I function better as human when I move in the morning but also know that there are days that I just REALLY need that extra hour of sleep and learning to allow myself that and not losing extra sleep over it has been life changing.  On the flip side, there are days when I need to grab my sneaks or hop on my bike or drum up a spin class and just put all that anxious energy to good use busting through the miles, minutes and glory of a cardiovascular sweat fest, leaving the pumping chest anxious energy in the dust behind me.

Being particular about what I put into my body has also been life changing for me and actually studying how I react to certain foods is something I do on the daily.  I am a food addict ya’ll.  Yeah I said it and yeah I believe it.  Have you ever eaten something that you truly can not just have one, two, ten, twenty, TOO MANY of?  If the answer is no, I HATE YOU!  No, just kidding, I envy you though.  This is definitely something that I struggle with.  Give me a handful of trail mix and you better be ready to fork over the entire bag.  Anyway, before I get to far down a rabbit hole, I have recognized that there are certain foods that I must stay away from in order to avoid overeating them which then just makes me more anxious.  These are also  the foods that I reach to when I’m feeling those butterflies in my belly.  The cycle that can drive an anxious food addict CRAZE and hence why I must keep what goes into my body in check!

Meditation or deep breaths.  I’m not a woo-woo meditation goddess… yet.  I really am terrible at it and I’m not sure there’s even a “good” way or “right” way to meditate but I do know that there’s times when my heart feels like it’s going to bust right out of my chest and do a front squat and press with 45lb weights right before my eyes.  This feeling usually comes during a day when there are lots of good things happening or just lots of things happening, period.  I taught an exercise class and everyones energy was ON POINT, Aaden made it to school with washed hair(you better believe I did the sniff test) a full belly, two-minute-timed brushed teeth, I managed to get out of the house in time for work and  capital R-ROCKED an important presentation.  Oh by the way, it’s only 10AM!  These are the days that I have learned that I must sit, breathe and bring myself back in check and focus at certain points.  This is done best with quiet time and several long, deep breaths. Sometimes just playing  meditative music or instrumental tunes can do the trick.  Lindsey Sterling radio is a FAVE!

I believe that some of the most driven, passionate, effective and successful people would admit that they have some level of anxiety.  What separates those people from the rest is their magical mixture of whatever helps them  be the best version of themselves and willingness to embrace it as superpower.  My anxiety gives me the ability to vibrate at a higher frequency and I really like the mindset of people on that level and……

the view really ain’t so bad either.