Unexplained Anxiety · Foundations of Ascension

Mercedes Aspland

🔥

4d • General discussion

Unexplained Anxiety

Have you ever woken up anxious for no obvious reason?

That was me this morning.

My stomach was doing loops.

My thoughts were racing.

And there wasn’t a clear cause.

One thing I’ve learned is that when your nervous system is activated, your brain will search for a story. It will try to explain the feelings in your body. And for me today, it latched onto the news and social media.

I read comment sections I should never have read.

Negative threads about asylum seekers.

Vile opinions.

And my brain started spiraling.

Even though I’m white, people have assumed I “must have” Black family members because of how I look. I’ve experienced racism for that. So the spiral in my mind became, what if I’m treated as a target? What if my son is?

Completely worst-case scenario.

But that’s what anxiety does.

The old me would have run with that story all day. I’d have tried to “solve” problems that didn’t even exist yet. I’d have let fear steal my focus and energy.

The difference now is I know how to catch myself.

I pause.

I notice what’s happening in my body.

The churn in my stomach.

The tightness in my chest.

The shallow breath.

And that noticing alone is powerful. It pulls me back into the present moment. It reminds me that this too shall pass.

Sometimes I use box breathing.

Inhale 4. Hold 4. Exhale 4. Hold 4.

A few rounds can shift everything.

Sometimes I just remind myself that “I am safe now.”

Other times I’ll move my body, go for a walk, put music on, dance it out.