Dooley Noted: 1/13/2014
Anxious people find me like a moth to a flame.
I know why.
I’m certain they can tell – subconsciously – I’ve conquered anxiety.
I used to battle anxiety in my teenage and early college years. At 21, I had such stifling panic attacks that I entered an ER, certain I was dying.
Anxiety is immense energy. It’s actually quite the gift – if you know how to direct that energy.
Chinese medicine does a marvelous job at helping with the physiological and emotional components of anxiety. Also, a great talk therapist and support system can help one learn to channel that energy to a useful place.
My patients are often anxious about their anxiety, perpetuating the idea that anxiety has to be eliminated. If anxiety is energy, then it can’t be destroyed. It simply needs to change form.
I see anxiety not as a problem but an opportunity.
Telling an anxious person to “calm down” is like telling someone to build a house with no tools. But helping someone focus that energetic gift can improve the quality of life.
Anxiety doesn’t need to be stifled.
Anxiety can be embraced and encouraged to change form.
Make anxiety an opportunity to learn how to control the breath. If you control the breath, you control everything.
Anxiety doesn’t have to be a loss of control, but can be an opportunity to learn how to harness control.
But as always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley