A common type of anxiety is physical anxiety, where the emotions are felt in the body rather than ‘in your ’head’. This is typically a racing heart accompanied by short shallow breathing. This can sometimes lead to you hyperventilating. You’ll find that it’s hard to settle yourself as often you will begin to feel agitated, and it can be difficult to bring yourself out of this state. These physical sensations of agitation which occur with physical anxiety can affect your behaviour making you irritable and short tempered.
When you’re agitated it’s natural to hold more tension in the body, often across the back or shoulders, and sometimes experiencing feelings of tightness in the chest, which can further restrict your breathing. You might also be reminded of old aches and pains that have long since passed which is your body’s natural defence mechanism to perceived threat that is triggered by the anxiety.
With physical anxiety you’ll often find that it’s hard to settle yourself down, this is because there is an excess amount of energy in the body as you are in this prolonged state of alertness that’s difficult to shift. Being able to bring yourself back into a calm relaxed state can be a struggle. This can affect your sleep as well, either getting to sleep or having broken nights because it’s difficult to relax and switch off. This leaves you feeling tired the next day and over time leads to fatigue and mood changes which all feeds the anxiety even more and you end up in what I call the ‘cycle of suffering’.
Thinking your way out of physical anxiety is unlikely to be helpful as you need to bring your attention into the body. Listening to the body and recognising the changes that are taking place within when you’re feeling anxious. In therapy with me we’ll explore these physical feelings and tailor treatment to calm and soothe the body. Together, we will decide which tools best suit you and then use them to increase your understanding of the intricate mind-body connection created by anxiety. This will then help you regulate your physical anxiety in the future.
As The Mind & Body Guide, my aim is to explore these connections to help you gain insight and awareness. This could be looking at present problems or those that are more deeply seated: events that have affected you in the past. Things that you have been told and experienced which have shaped who you are now.
My approach to therapy is to help you to understand yourself mentally and physically. Then you can start moving forward at a pace which respects the whole of you. Book in a free call to see how I can help.
The Mind & Body Guide
Therapy for the whole of you
