I really enjoyed psychotherapist Bruce Tift podcast about anxiety and the interrelationship between
Western therapy and Buddhist wisdom ways of healing .....
"We can learn to live a more than biological life ....."
Anxiety can be incredibly overwhelming , to fix, to solve
Anxiety is a completely legitimate aspect of being human !
It has been on the planet for many years. The hardwiring of our nervous system
Anxiety and fear meaning the survival of the species
Anxiety grabs our attention and forces us to look for a threat !
It is the perception of threat ......
Anxiety can occur even when we do not know the origins. It can exist
just because we are human.
Is it helpful to look for a cause ?
Or accept as just being human ?
If we have a relationship with anxiety we can expect to be triggered like an
off and on switch ; everyday - maybe even many times a day - until we die
Looking to the cause - can we find a solution ?
Buddhist teachings suggest to not dwell on the what and why but more on the How - the flow
That we respond - without interpretation and analysis
It is about How we relate to it rather than the cause
Western therapy will identify the patterns of the experiences. This helps to become aware of
patterns of behavior of the unnecessary suffering and Buddhist principles notices the immediacy of the disturbance and then move on
There is no blame e.g. it may be a set of circumstances, or a relationship as the cause or trigger
In this way, a person is more likely to take responsibility and ownership for working with the
anxiety. This can act as an antidote instead of blaming our partner, our circumstances, our parents etc
This becomes the wisdom of the self **
Buddhist principles consider a deeper sense of awareness of the anxiety, in a sense , creating a
freedom in this life - not a future fantasy or arranging and re-arranging our circumstances and life
to lessen the anxiety
Buddhist principles notices how we relate to our experiences more than what this experience
How - we relate to our experience - gives rise to the experience - unlike science - therapy and spiritual arising and passing - a flow - how we relate to anxiety - forms our experience
Anxiety has a biological , physical, psychological experience of reality
We are sensitive , biological life forms - humans
It doesn't have to have essential meaning
It's just anxiety
Adrenaline
Name it
The body is doing it's thing
The subconscious
we are adding all sorts of interpretations, stories, hopes and fears
so from a psychological view we can fill the apparent cause and mistake a trigger as a cause
Non-interpretative
Embodied experience
Where is this problem
Immediate sensation - experience
No - interpretation
No - commentary
No - identify drama
Where is the evidence that my survival is being threatened ?
Nowadays , our anxiety is not necessarily a good indicator of a real threat
We can have the luxury to train our selves to not allow our biology to rule
We can train ourselves to ride this panic through - it takes care of itself
Don't have to heal it - process it - understand it - just be with it
Embodied - just stay embodied and keep it company
Don't have to re-arrange my life for avoidance of anxiety
Not running with the feelings - not creating the behaviour or decision making -
just staying - embodied - experience - with lots of practice and guidance !
Being open to the present moment
ground - less
Staying with that exposed vulnerable experience
we can discover that it's not actually harming us to do so !
It's essentially called 'exposure therapy' in the Western therapy
and Buddhist principles - a way of being .....
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