Anxiety
Anxiety requires reaching out. It has a tense, relentlessly tingling quality that speeds up your heart rate, gives you a stomach-ache, and sends your thoughts into a spin that can make your situation seem worse than it is. It’s as if your whole body becomes one big tuning fork that can go on vibrating for hours on end unless you do something about it. Passivity and isolation usually do not help – the fork just keeps on quivering. The best way to stop the buzzing, in my experience, is to reach out to other people. It is as if constructive contact with other human beings stops the vibration, like a hand that grabs the tuning fork and muffles it. I call my friends, tell them how I feel and ask them to pray for me. Works every time. I reach out to my higher power as well, asking for protection and for the anxiety to be removed. It has an immediate, soothing effect on me – like wrapping myself in a warm, soft blanket. A hot shower can have a similar effect. When I feel anxious in the middle of the night I say my prayers and listen to a podcast or audiobook instead of calling someone. That, too, gets me out of my head, gives me a sense of company and gears my system down.