From Anxiety to Waking Up with a Smile Everyday
- What Made it Happen?
Anxiety, fear, depression and panic attacks are results
of ignoring our inner voice for too long.
written by Kartika
Psychology considers anxiety, fear, panic attack and depression to be diseases. The Eastern philosophy has a different take — it considers these experiences to be the door for spiritual healing and awakening.
The experience of anxiety, fear, panic attack and depression emerge from our fearful thoughts of the FUTURE. Having healed sever anxiety without any medical support I realized that solution to all these conditions lie in spirituality.
Having healed my severe anxiety completely without any medical help, I wish to share my experience hoping that it might reach someone who is looking for it. Healing these conditions requires just one thing - A TRUE and CONSISTENT DESIRE TO LIVE A PEACEFUL AND FULFILLING LIFE. Slowly everything else trickles down.
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
— Rumi
I healed my anxiety by diving deeper in my inner being. I truly feel that my mental health was just a pointer from the universe to change the direction of my life. I came out of a relationship, traveled solo, discovered my creative side, started earning a good living for myself and most importantly started living a beautiful day, EVERYDAY.
THERE IS NOTHING AS SWEET AS THE PRESENT MOMENT, JUST AS IS.
A lot of us live every day in fear and anxiety without realizing that it does no good to worry.
How do you trust the floor to be there when you take the next step, how do you trust the next breath to come, how do you trust your heart to keep beating — Can’t you trust the universe FOR EVERY LITTLE THING the same way?
Worrying sometimes is also seen as an expression of care — how stupid!
After going through the whole ordeal of suffering I realized the core causes of my anxiety were-
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Wrong beliefs about the life.
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Low self worth.
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Focusing on wrong things.
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Not taking charge of my life.
All of this resulted in-> Getting caught in an UNREASONABLE thought loop.
One very important part of the healing process was what I was giving energy to —
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fixing a broken part
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being a higher version of myself
Energy flows where focus goes.
If I would focus on fixing ‘the broken part in me’ I would be doing that all my life instead I focused on becoming a better version of myself everyday. — WE ARE ALL PERFECT THE WAY WE ARE.
It was very important to not label my problem, I considered it to be an experience that I was going through. Everything is just passing by, isn’t it?
We are not our mind — we have a mind which could get hay-wired but each one of us (no matter who we are) are quite capable of training and controlling it.
We just have to take care of this moment. That’s it! Nothing more, nothing else.
“The point of power is always in the present moment.”
— Louise Hay
I brought these realizations to my daily life by creating new habits. The habits that helped me shift to a life full of joy, beauty and stability everyday are-
Positive Affirmations- I wrote the opposite of all my fears, everyday. I also sang these affirmations. I looked at the mirror and recited them. Yes, I did all of these things, I still do them sometimes. It works, it reaches the depths of your consciousness and shifts your beliefs. These things also showed me deeper, cheerful and higher version of me.
The Path of Highest Excitement-
“Your excitement is telling you that’s the next thing you need to do. Following your excitement is actually the shortest path to what you want.”
— Bashar
I made my healing a priority, I followed my heart, pursued everything that I loved — from moment to moment. Avoided everything that wasn’t helping and created space for the new activities and experiences. This could range from going out meeting people, dancing, writing, live jams and meditation etc etc.
Dancing and Writing - These two activities inspire me, show me direction and connect me with my higher self in different ways. I initially thought that I had no such interests but if you seek it, it finds you :) We all have some interests which can show the us divine in us. These activities can be called inner compass. It could be something as simple as just observing nature. These activities bring us to flow state or the present moment.
Love- Self love and love for others.
Love is everywhere. There is an ocean of love and peace inside of us.
“Love is always the answer to healing of any sort”
— Louise Hay
“The basics of his message was love, the basics just loving yourself and projecting that love onto others
Treat the next man like a brother
And I know it’s hard if you know his words
Then you know it’s God
And they be asking, “what do love got to do with the point?”
It’s the soothe in your water, it’s the truth in your joint
All that gold is overrated
What do you do with your coin?
We gon’ try to spread some love with it
Spread some love.”
— Spread Some Love by Mick Jenkins
“Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.”
— Louise Hay
Journaling- Journaling brings clarity. It can help to realize that our fears and worries are irrational. It can help to shape the new life we want to create and experience.
“What a comfort is this journal I tell myself to myself and throw the burden on my book and feel relieved.”
— Anne Lister
“A personal journal is an ideal environment in which to become. It is a perfect place for you to think, feel, discover, expand, remember, and dream.”
— Brad Wilcox
Meditation - Once a friend said mediation is the best way of expressing self love. Starting with guided meditation is ideal for anyone who has no experience with meditation or has a lot of thoughts. Focusing on breath is another powerful way of meditation. The fruits of meditation slowly effect different areas in the garden of our life.
Sleep - I believe sleep can connect us to the source, the divine, the truest from of energy. Sleeping has the power to rejuvenate us. Before sleeping I still ask for love and warmth for the night. Even if I would have difficulty sleeping in the past I would feel and express gratitude for the amount I sleep. Gratefulness shifted my focus to 2 hours of good sleep instead of feeling like shit for the five hours I dint sleep for. Two practices- 1) Setting the intention to sleep well & 2) feeling grateful for the good sleep I get has made me the master of my sleep. Now I can sleep anywhere and whenever :) YEYY.!
Exercise - I made sure I exercised everyday. Exercise releases endorphins, the feel good hormone and is an expression of love for our body. Both these factors bring a sense of security and well being. I am also a very big fan of breathing exercises. I have practiced different kinds of breathing exercises for several years now. I used to practice pranayam from Indian Yogic tradition. Now I practice Wim Hoff (he is a legend) breathing exercise.
Dreaming and Living It - Having dreams and desires for which we live can give a sense of purpose and add a lot of delight to life. Activities that bring us closer to our dreams also being a lot of joy and excitement to our daily life.
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Garbage in Garbage out - Mental, Physical and Spiritual — Good books and videos are food for the soul and mind. Its important to gain motivation and inspiration from different sources to shift and create new patterns in your consciousness. Once we consciously shower ourselves with good books, talks and people- the subconscious mind slowly changes. It is important to take care of what we are putting inside us. It effects our state of mind significantly.
Physically - You are the food you eat. :)
I have had a morning schedule for more than a year now where I do some practices with the intention of personal well being and growth. It has improved the quality of my life multi-fold.
All these practices have given me muscle memory and set a subconscious mind which is relaxed and joyful. My mind also knows by memory how to stay calm and feel love in almost all the situations.
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
— Allan Watts
If depression and spirituality are two sides of one door, wont we also like to see it from a scientific perspective? So, where is it in the brain? Lisa Miller, Clinical Psychologist and Scientist conducted a research and found it in the broad and pervasive regions of the cortex.
The research was conducted on two sets of people — 1) People who were deeply depressed and 2) People who had traveled through the darkness and were out of the depression with a deep spiritual foundation.
They found out that the part of the cortex which was withered in the first group was completely thick ‘like a tree in the amazon’ for the second set of people. They also observed that the back of the head of the second set of people gave energy of a certain wavelength which we call alpha waves. Alpha waves are also found at the back the head of meditating monks. Alpha wave has the same wave length as of the earth crust- the spiritually engaged vibrate at the frequency of the earth crust.
There is a sacred field in us, through us and around us. This consciousness and love matrix covers all living earth. Through the field of love, the guidance is always available to us and it can reach us in different forms like people, books, animals etc. The world is alive and infused with the sacred field that we measure as high amplitude alpha.
You can find the video around this research — Depression and spiritual awakening — two sides of one door
(If you are going through a tough period in your life you might feel you need some external help like a drug or a psychologist, but if you have the support of a few loved ones, anxiety just requires a series of fresh perspective towards life and you can heal it yourself. I have been there and I know how difficult and desperate it can feel. But all our answers and solutions come slowly if we seek them. The best part about healing without any external help is that you gain complete control over yourself and its a permanent solution. Anxiety was my dear friend. It gifted me the other side, this beautiful life.)
I would highly recommend the free book — You Can Heal Your Life by Louis Hay. — this book worked like magic for me and I still follow it. This book was the starting point of my healing process and everything else followed and is still following :)