T.S. Eliot once wrote, ”I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”
One meaning of this is that if someone sees fear in a handful of dust, then they suffer from a lot of fear.
Fear takes the form of anxiety in most people, and this feeling is sometimes helpful when it lets us know that something is amiss or when a situation needs our attention. Anxiety has kept people company for a long time; it has been the feeling that alerts us to possible dangers.
Anxiety becomes problematic when it is free-floating or without apparent cause. It happens when everything seems normal, but we still cannot shake that sensation that something is out of place. Experiencing this condition leads people to look for various anxiety management methods.
Techniques to keep anxiety at bay include deep breathing while focusing on a stationary object, repeating statements to yourself, such as “I am calm,” and picturing yourself in a peaceful place.
Having confidence that you are capable of reducing anxiety is the key to controlling it.
Panic attacks result when tension from anxiety builds to the point where our nervous systems feel overloaded. Your heart may race while you start sweating, and you may feel like you are losing control. It feels overwhelming because emotions left untended need an escape route, and they are letting you know.
The fear that leads to anxiety is a primary emotion. Along with sadness, it forms the basis for secondary emotions like anger.
That is why it is good to confront any anger you feel by asking yourself, ”Why am I afraid?” Most of the time, any fear we feel is not based on solid evidence found in the reality of our situation. Finding lack of evidence for fear, we dismiss the feeling.
Evidence checking helps us keep fear in a more positive perspective, and we need to do this to keep communicable feelings, such as anger and anxiety, from spreading.
Contentment, peace, joy and happiness seem harder to achieve, but catching these emotional states makes us feel much better.
“What if” thinking tends to foster anxiety. We may find ourselves asking, “What if this happens, and I cannot deal with it?”
If we go no further than that question, we tend to get tangled in the fear of a negative outcome. However, if the question leads to a well-thought plan to handle a possible scenario, then we have helped ourselves.
Choosing to bury emotional responses to life can result in giving uncomfortable feelings more power over you than they deserve. If you confront what is going on with you by looking at it from an improved angle or by talking to someone uplifting, you will shrink your problems to a less threatening size.
Looking back on something that unsettled us at the time makes us question why we allowed ourselves to get so upset. This reminds us that anxiety is fleeting and transitory. It stays with us longer if we feed it, and we send it elsewhere if we concentrate on what brings us more settled states of mind.
Knowing and accepting that you are your safe place at any moment helps solidify your ability to face fearful moments. This means that the resolution you seek to what frightens you can be found in the calmer times that you can bring to your life.
Scott Toler is a licensed mental health counselor living in Plant City. He can be reached at etoler25@tampabay.rr.com.