As someone who has anxiety this is spot on. I avoid the terms "suffers from," "dealing with," etc. from my descriptions now. Anxiety for me is biological. I just have these weather systems in my body that can be exacerbated by the environment or my attempts to manage them. I had to give up the idea that it would ever go away completely, …
As someone who has anxiety this is spot on. I avoid the terms "suffers from," "dealing with," etc. from my descriptions now. Anxiety for me is biological. I just have these weather systems in my body that can be exacerbated by the environment or my attempts to manage them. I had to give up the idea that it would ever go away completely, but I could learn to live with it like a wild animal pacing the room -- don't provoke; don't attempt to tame; just let it be wild. Walking meditation works for me and looking back on my early years I realize how much of my wandering was walking through the anxiety -- burning off adrenaline and opening myself to the dialogue in my mind. It was becoming a parent and professional that began to limit my ability to work out the anxiety on my own that left me with the problem of anxiety attacks.
For too long, I waited for my anxiety to be cured before I could focus on writing. But it was when I started writing again that I realized writing itself was the walk in the desert that I craved. I could get into a flow state and keep moving through the anxiety. Key to that was allowing myself permission to be terrible, incoherent, and inconsistent. The one voice I allow in my head is, "Keep going." The goal is to see where this is all going. And the deal I made with the beast was, "When I'm done you can eat this work instead of me."
Love this. Thank you, Kevin. Sitting down and writing ameliorates much of my anxiety. Walking, hiking, riding a bike or swimming helps with the rest of it.
As someone who has anxiety this is spot on. I avoid the terms "suffers from," "dealing with," etc. from my descriptions now. Anxiety for me is biological. I just have these weather systems in my body that can be exacerbated by the environment or my attempts to manage them. I had to give up the idea that it would ever go away completely, but I could learn to live with it like a wild animal pacing the room -- don't provoke; don't attempt to tame; just let it be wild. Walking meditation works for me and looking back on my early years I realize how much of my wandering was walking through the anxiety -- burning off adrenaline and opening myself to the dialogue in my mind. It was becoming a parent and professional that began to limit my ability to work out the anxiety on my own that left me with the problem of anxiety attacks.
For too long, I waited for my anxiety to be cured before I could focus on writing. But it was when I started writing again that I realized writing itself was the walk in the desert that I craved. I could get into a flow state and keep moving through the anxiety. Key to that was allowing myself permission to be terrible, incoherent, and inconsistent. The one voice I allow in my head is, "Keep going." The goal is to see where this is all going. And the deal I made with the beast was, "When I'm done you can eat this work instead of me."
Keep going. That is the all and everything.
The alpha and the omega; the alphabet omelette.
Love this. Thank you, Kevin. Sitting down and writing ameliorates much of my anxiety. Walking, hiking, riding a bike or swimming helps with the rest of it.