Hello Worry Free readers!
I mentioned in my previous post that I was invited to chat on an excellent Podcast, Black Girl Can’t Cook. The host Brihanna asked me where I thought most anxiety came from. I shared with her that most anxiety stems from overthinking and negative thoughts. Before you continue down the spiral of anxious thinking, you have to reframe those thoughts.
From my personal experience and also the experience of others that I’ve spoken with, the one commonality with anxiety was negative thoughts. Not only negative thoughts, but lack of self-esteem, self-love and confidence are HUGE anxiety producers. Think about it, if you’re lacking self-love, you’re most likely down on yourself. And when you’re down on yourself, you’re more anxiety prone.
Going back to negative thoughts, if you go around telling yourself that you’re anxious all the time, what else could you possibly be? Your brain will respond to those thoughts telling yourself that you’re anxious and flood your body with anxiety! What if you were to walk around telling yourself that you are calm? What do you think will happen? Most likely you will calm down!
For example, my anxiety experience includes agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). I was taking a day trip with my family to Ocean City, MD and we had to cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I was feeling slightly anxious due to the openness and the bridge itself. My sister asked if I was freaking out. I said to her “I’m just going to close my eyes.” My shoulders were tense and hunched up by my ears. Then I took the opposite approach. I stretched out my arms, smiled and exclaimed, “I LOVE this Bridge!” The anxiety left me immediately!
Long story short, if you start teaching your brain positive ways to deal with anxious or triggering situations, the anxiety will leave just as fast as it came! I know we can’t always control when anxiety arises, but we have control over what we do after it comes.
Going back to my talk with Brihanna, we discussed all things anxiety, self-love, self-confidence, body image, and cooking. It was such an empowering episode. I got to share with her my ups and downs on my self-healing journey as well as my entrepreneurial journey. And also how I’m able to turn my Panic into Power.
I love you for reading this post and listening to the Black Girl Can’t Cook Podcast. Episode 26 is the one I’m featured on but check out the entire podcast!
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Bye for now!
