Self Honoring Wednesday~Anxiety Busting Blog Tour

I'm Honored to be the first stop on the Anxiety Busting Blog Tour and to introduce you to my friend and Circle sister Gina! Gina's mission is to share awareness tips and tools in order to help other creative women who suffer with anxiety to wake up to their life, so they can unleash and share their gifts with the world. Gina says it's time to stop holding back and hiding out and time to create more freedom, love and connection! Enjoy!

Calmness of Mind, Connection to Spirit ~ turn inward to reconnect to your inner essence and heal anxiety.

How connected are you feeling to your spirit, to your inner essence, in this moment? When we suffer from anxiety, we lose touch with the truth of who we are. We feel separate, alone and lost.  We live and act mostly through the thoughts in our head and have lost connection with our body; especially the breath, which is a bridge that connects our body and soul.

How do we go about recovering this connection when we are in the deep dark hole of anxiety? We do anything we can to avoid a painful anxiety or panic attack. It's not fun to feel this way. It's not fun having to stay home in fear of the shame and embarrassment we feel in front of others. It's hard to show a happy face when all we want to do is run home, where we feel a little more safe and secure.

Do any of these thoughts flow through your mind? "Why do I feel so isolated and separate? Why can't I just go on with a normal life? Why do I have to deal with this issue? Why does this hurt so bad?" It hurts because our mind is in turmoil and the connection to our spirit is missing.  Why does this happen? Technology is one of many culprits. It's harder and harder these days to get away from all the technology that is a part of our daily lives. Our cell phone, computer, ipad, television, ipod etc. We are bombarded daily with this type of 'noise' and it tends to pull our attention away from our self, and keep it focused on the outer manifestations of the world.  If we lose balance and do not purposely take the time to recharge our own inner battery, how can we expect our mind to get out of this turmoil?  And, why has it become more important to say Yes to others, satisfying the needs and wants of others, before you say Yes to yourself?  By the time you are finished 'doing' for everyone else, you are too tired to 'do' for yourself."I'll exercise, meditate, go outside for a walk, journal, read, have tea with my good friend, another day." Then that day comes and you haven't done one thing for yourself, and then the next day, and the next and the next. Somehow you've jumped on this hamster wheel and can't seem to jump back off.

I know this cycle. I've been on that hamster wheel and at times, still catch myself hopping back on.  But I finally realized that what I was doing was not working for me anymore.   I was sick and tired of feeling anxious, overwhelmed and frustrated.  So, I decided to get back in touch with some of the things I love to do.  First I had to remember what lights me up and makes my heart sing.  It took some time to get used to the new rituals I started creating for myself, but creating these and feeling connected to myself again felt so empowering and liberating.

Below are some things I researched and started implementing when my anxiety was at its peak to calm my mind and connect to my spirit. Fortunately, I was somehow led to these tools. I also didn't know years ago that these tools were bringing me back into the present moment.  I just knew that I felt better when I practiced them.  Maybe I was listening to my intuition way back then, even though I didn't know it.

8 Calm Mind, Spirit Connecting Tips:

1. I learned about yoga and started practicing yoga 2-3 times a week.
2. I read about meditation and did my best to meditate daily.
3. I listened to guided meditations, especially while falling asleep as I used to have trouble sleeping.
4. I listened to relaxing music….music for meditation and yoga.
5. I studied aromatherapy and implemented using essential oils daily to calm my mind.
6. I found people to help me in this process….a spiritual teacher, Ayurveda practitioner and a chiropractor.
7. I used to wake up every night around 2-3am in a cold sweat and with my heart racing, so I started journaling at those times, writing down everything about how I was feeling when I was in that anxiety/panic attack state, and it helped calm me down within minutes.
8. I stopped drinking anything with caffeine, watched my sugar intake and starting drinking calming herbal teas.

I still practice all of these tools. Plus, I have learned a lot more throughout my ever-evolving journey of healing anxiety.  And I want to tell you something important…..I'm not talking about curing anxiety…..I'm talking about healing it. There's a big difference.  By healing anxiety, I mean working through and integrating it, not getting rid of it.  By getting rid of it, it's like tossing out a part of you, something that is separate from you, when it's not.  Also, anxiety plays an important role in life.  It lets you know when something needs your attention.   And when dealing with anxiety on a daily level and at a more acute level, our normal 'fight and flight' response is much more overactive.  But this higher level of anxiety is still trying to get your attention about something…….something that needs some exploration in order for it to be integrated and healed.

The word heal comes from the Old English haelan, and means to become whole.  Healing is remembering that your origin is wholeness.  When you're whole, your you're healed.  And this is why I talk of healing anxiety.  By remembering to include all parts of you as a whole, even your anxious part, you come to see anxiety with a new perspective.  You see it as a part of your wholeness and as a part that wants to be acknowledged and accepted.  It is here, from this new perspective and viewpoint, that anxiety begins to heal.

If you'd like to learn more on how to heal anxiety, I am holding a free hour-long content rich teleclass in which you will learn:

~ One of the MAIN, KEY factors that causes anxiety and how to break free from it. This key factor I will be talking about is a main player in most people's lives and bringing awareness to it will release the grip of anxiety and bring more freedom and spaciousness to your life.

~ During  this call I will also give you a preview of my new anxiety busting program that starts on January 23, 2012 (the day of the first new moon of 2012….a wonderful time for new beginnings :).

~ Toward the end of the call, I will also share a special code that will give you a very special price for a limited time for this program.

I hope you'll join me!

Go here to learn more and register for this free call:
Anxiety Busting Retreat

For more juicy reading on Anxiety, be sure to stop by Emmanuella Lambert's blog "Plans on a Comet" on Monday ♥
 
inhale~enjoy~exhale,
Gina

Gina Rafkind, CPC Holistic Anxiety Coach

Gina is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Reflexologist, Reiki Level 3 Practitioner & Licensed Cosmetologist.

She founded VedaSun to help women bust through anxiety so they can wake up to their life and achieve their dreams. Gina does this by sharing the knowledge and wisdom she has discovered throughout her evolving journey of healing anxiety. Her passion is to share these discoveries with you so you, too, can open the channel of awareness and by 'waking up', live a happier and healthier life.