“Anxiety is a temporary departure from who you actually are.”
When we think about the term ‘warrior’ we may conjure up images of the old Scottish vikings or Maximus from the movie Gladiator. In this case though the meaning of ‘anxiety warriors’ is much different, and prefers peace instead of fighting. Anxiety warriors are open minded, self loving first, and work towards creating a natural flow in their lives. Here’s a deeper understanding of what an anxiety warrior truly is.
W – Lessened Willpower
Anxiety warriors understand that willpower is a finite resource, we have very limited amounts of it. This means that instead of utilizing a mindset based around ‘fighting’ anxiety, or anything that occurs on the outside, we take an opposing viewpoint completely and work towards flow. The word transition, as in “I am in a beautiful transition” shows up for an anxiety warrior during setbacks. This lessens the need to fight our thoughts, and beat ourselves up for mistakes we might have made.
A – Produces Alternatives (Thinking)
“There’s a big difference between remembering and thinking,” as the founder of NLP Richard Bandler has said. Many people think they’re thinking when in fact they’re just remembering, playing out the same thinking patterns and behaviours day after day.
A true anxiety warrior works on growing their skill sets around thinking. This means producing alternatives to any pessimistic, catastrophic, or negative thoughts that arise. These anxiety healing audiobooks I’ve created for you will help you to understand how to produce alternatives in a systematic and gentle manner.
A good example of this would be when a person begins mind reading other people. They believe they know exactly what another person is thinking about them. In this case an anxiety warrior would quickly remind themselves that there are hundreds of options as to what the other person may be thinking. And most likely, it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with what they need to do in their own lives.
This video will help you to understand how to produce alternatives in your thinking quickly:
R – Reframes Past Events
Reframing is the core of my teachings and what I’ve applied into my anxiety recovery programs. To reframe a past memory that we may label as being traumatic means to discharge the energy that was repressed due to the event. This repression of emotional energy can cause much of the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety we experience today. Anxiety warriors understand the importance of learning how to communicate with the infinite memory system within that we call the subconscious mind.
When we practice reframing on a daily basis, we begin to feel lighter. The heaviness that we carry around each day based on the same perceptions we hold over past events start to change. With this change comes changes in our perceptual filters in the present moment. This opens us up to new ways of perceiving our present and future, as well as new behaviours to implement.
This Video Explains This Idea In Detail:
R – Responds, Rather Than Reacting
Anxiety warriors understand the difference between responding and reacting. Responding means to utilize 40% of your brain called the frontal lobes. This conscious part of us is rarely used throughout the day though. Responding means utilizing logic, rationality, and considering all options before acting. Reacting on the other hand is much more automatic, and in turn doesn’t use up as much brain juice.
It’s easy to think, feel, do, and imagine what’s been habitual, but if the results in your life aren’t what you desire, it’s time to begin learning how to respond more. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) does a great job with this in regards to general and health anxiety, and you may want to consider this method as an option for healing anxiety.
I – Utilizes The Imagination Consciously
Our imagination can lead us towards heaven or hell in this lifetime. Heaven, if we choose to implement visualization with a rich sensory experience to go along with it, and hell if we allow the images in our minds to overtake our emotions. If the latter is the case, it will mold us into a frightened human being. One excellent way to implement conscious imagination for personal growth is to imagine the type of experience you want to have prior to the experience happening in your life.
The video below will provide an example of utilizing the imagination for exposure therapy, prior to the actual physical experience:
O – Becoming Open To Uncertainty
This is one of the most difficult principles to adopt, but definitely a necessity for all anxiety warriors. The need for certainty provides a sense of safety, the lack of certainty many times leads to a sense of un-ease. Soon a person perceives every unfamiliar event as a threat to their survival (involuntarily many times). The balance between certainty and uncertainty must be attained and anxiety warriors understand this, and take daily steps to gently explore uncertainty again in their lives.
R – Recaps The Day
Anxiety warriors consistently recap the day and recognize where they created good progress. They also bring to their attention moments in the day where things may have gotten away from them, such as a catastrophic thought that spider-webbed onto more and more negative and pessimistic thinking. It’s easy to focus on what’s wrong, what could go wrong, and what’s gone wrong. This is the automatic way of perceiving the day through an anxiety persons mind.
Conscious awareness on the other hand brings us full force towards the exciting journey that we’re on (which is where our Facebook community is excelling in). Healing anxiety once and for all, rather than coping with it and accepting it as an identity. It’s never who you are, it’s always something you’re doing. And it’s much easier to change something we’re doing rather than change an identity as a whole (which comes naturally when a growth mindset is undertaken).
Conclusion:
Anxiety warriors understand the mud that they have to crawl through to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a necessary path towards healing anxiety and bettering our emotional and mental health. Be proud of your current position, be proud that you took the time to read this whole post. Keep checking in with yourself as you move away from who you believed you were, and towards your true peaceful and loving inner self.
Hello Dennis
I follow your inspirational support daily and weirdly, when I read and listen to your words, I’m in the calmest place. The hard bit comes when I step back into my daily world. What I have started to notice though, is that when I challenge and replace a negative thought at the time, I get a warm sensation in my tummy, akin to a deflating balloon. I try hard to hold onto this feeling because my body and thoughts slow down. More practice needed but your support really helps. Sometimes I get teary trying because it’s hard to have to focus on what holds me back all the time however, I’m making progress and that’s what counts. Thank you 🙏
Love the last statement about progress Ally. Thank you.
Finally beginning to understand my health anxiety thanks to you. It really is not who I am but like you say, something I do. I have begun to transition from coping to healing. I have good moments and bad moments. I never let my anxiety define my days. I take it all in smaller increments. I’ll never give up. I know I am more than anxiety. Thank you for all you do.
What beautiful moments of clarity, thanks for sharing, and I wish you massive progress over health anxiety in the coming months.
Amazing and very inspiring…thanks For sharing.
Much love.
Dennis, I am a 70 year old woman & have had a lifetime of on & off anxiety. So many hours of therapy & years of antidepressants & benzos. Quit 20 years of antidepressants 2 years ago, weaning myself off 2 years of benzos & just finished months of EMDR. Therapists just didn’t concentrate enough on the route of anxiety, which originated in childhood, Three days listening to your podcasts & reading everything I can find of you on utube & on the web, I feel I am on my way to a REAL START on THE REAL JOURNEY to healing. You are giving me an alternative to hanging onto pain & allowing it to take up all the space in my brain, keeping myself from looking at solutions. You’ve heard the saying “the teacher appears when the student is ready”. Well I must be ready because I’ve found the teacher – his name is Dennis the Warrior!!!
THANK YOU
Funny you say that quote, I was just thinking of it when I read your first line. Seems things are connecting nicely, looking forward to hearing your anxiety recovery progress Ellen.
Great post, Dennis. I wasn’t aware that you’d assigned this level of meaning to Warrior.
Grateful Matt your feedback always means a lot to me.
YES!!! We are warriors!!!
Absolutely Joshua.
Hello,
In prolonged spell of acute anxiety (5 months of 8,9, & 10 out of 10. It’s like an anxiety ‘bomb’ exploded in my face. It’s acute health anxiety I have regarding our 20 year old due to what I judge to be a bad parental decision made when she was a dependent, innocent 13 year old. I can’t control the volcanic flow of huge anxiety exacerbated by feelings of culpability. We can’t change the past to reverse a poor decision with potential life long repercussions but my doctor says: ‘ he wouldn’t think twice about stopping worrying due to low risks’ borne out by medical statistics. Only part of day I look forward to with any positivity is when I go to sleep. But every day is Groundhog Day as I wake up with surging anxiety. Never knew a human being’s body could produce so much Adrenalin/cortisol. I’m not young (in my fifties) and also believe I must have damaged my heart or be heading for other catastrophic illnesses. It’s truly awful to be paralysed by fear each day every day and any task, however small, is only done reluctantly with much dread. My punitive conscience and worrisome mind won’t let me rationalise, let go or get any consistency in terms of improving my functionality. It makes me so vulnerable and dependent on my long-suffering and loyal wife.
I would like to use your services in some way if you get to read any of this Dennis, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to be able to digest your teachings, really understand them and therefore benefit. I m drug-addled with prescribed medication in high dosages and this along with intensity of anxiety makes concentration hard. I guess, clear and simple teachings in bite sized chunks are what’s probably needed. Anything more elaborate is beyond my cognitive capabilities. Any pressure, and crumble. It’s such a bleak outlook and I now realise, if the conscious mind can’t find a way out of a persistent worry, it can quickly lead down a very dark path indeed. I’m frozen in time with acute fear; to afraid to live but also too afraid to die. Am I a hopeless case? ( I am receiving some CBT sessions once every three weeks but so far no mind shift or improvement in symptoms. I’m based in the UK). Young are a natural and generous teacher Dennis; even my frazzled mind can see that. God bless you for that. Please get back to me if you think any of your services could help someone in my predicament. It’s a lonely and desperate place to be. Much gratitude if you do read this crie de coeur.