For as long as I can remember, I struggled with anxiety. My heart would race, my mind would spin out of control, and my breathing would get shallow. If you’ve ever experienced a panic attack, you know they aren’t pleasant and rent massive space in your head. From “how long will this one last” to “oh no when’s the next one coming”. You always feel like one foot in and the other out in life.
I used to pray that the anxiety and overwhelm would quickly decrease. What I didn’t understand at the time was that more often than not, my body was in shock. Shock meaning I was dissociating, felt paralyzed, or started to hyperventilate from too much energy. I had the benefit of learning from my spiritual mentors how to use breath work and hypnotherapy as a way to holistically work through my anxiety. Below are the 7 steps I take anytime I need to shift my energy and step into energetic alignment!
7 steps to Energetic Alignment
Step 1: Acknowledge the feelings that are coming up (fear, shame, guilt, etc)
Prior to experiencing high anxiety or having a panic attack, there’s an emotion that triggers the anxiety. This emotion sets your body into fight, flight, or freeze mode.
Actions: Identify the emotion that triggers the anxiety, you’ll be able to engage in preventive measures in the future.
Step 2: Identify where in your body you feel it (head, stomach, gut, etc)
The location of our anxiety within the body is significantly important. It allows us to see not only what emotion gets triggered but where it directly affects our body. By engaging in this step, we can use heat or ice to alleviate some of the pain or discomfort. This step also allows you to treat the shock that occurs.
Actions: If you go into freeze or flight mode, using heat will help.
If you feel stuck or paralyzed, using ice will get you back into your body and moving energy freely.
Step 3: Allow yourself to express the emotions
This step is pretty simple but not easy. If you believe in the mind body connection, like I do, then you are aware that whatever you don’t release becomes energy stuck in your body thus creating dis-ease. By engaging in somatic release, you can physically ease out the overwhelm and move the energy from your body.
Actions: dancing, kickboxing, yoga poses, cry into a pillow, yell into a pillow, cover your face with your hands and just express the thoughts aloud.
Step 4: Identify what it is you believe about yourself
Often anxiety and overwhelm are being gaslighted by our belief system. Our thoughts start spinning out of control, like a downward spiral of a tornado. This is where you see your ego rear its ugly head and try to stop you from experiencing something new. Your ego thinks it’s protecting you but in the end it’s only keeping you in this endless loop of anxiety, fear, pain, and overwhelm.
Actions: Identifying the specific thoughts and limiting beliefs you experience at this time, the greater chances you have of ending this loop and one step closer to experiencing joy and freedom again.
Step 5: Acknowledge what new feelings you desire to feel
Now is the time to take your first step out of that old loop and story with anxiety. You are no longer engaged in the dance and instead taking a step in a new direction. Spring boarding off the work you did in step 4, it makes it simpler to identify the new emotions you desire to feel.
Actions: Identify new emotions you desire to feel such as:
Free, Calm, Relaxed, Joy, Peace, and Ease just to name a few.
Step 6: Identify the new beliefs you wish to hold for yourself
This is where you get to DREAM BIG! You get to create the vision of what it is that you want your life to look and be like. This step is probably one of the most powerful, as it creates a space for you to envision what it would be like for you to be calm, relaxed, peace and joy.
Actions: Envision-What would be present, what would you do, how you would act, and where you would spend most of your time.
Step 7: Decide the new behaviors and actions you will take that align with those thoughts, feelings, & vision
This is where completely stepping out of the loop comes in. You get to break the cycle and start taking massive aligned action. This is my favorite step out of them all because this is where you put your money where your mouth is and don’t just do the talking but actively take the steps necessary to change your life consistently.
Actions: Create a list of 3-4 simple action steps you can take to go with your vision
Some examples are: Going for a walk, meditating daily, doing yoga, breathing with your hand on your heart
This is where you get to decide that you deserve to feel calm and relaxed. You have the ability to shift your energy and all you have to do is decide your ready to take the necessary. When you first start the process it may take you awhile to get through. Just know the more you practice these steps, the easier it becomes, and faster you’ll be able to shift your energy in a moment’s notice. You got this! I’m so proud of you for taking action and calling in more peace, ease, and freedom in your life.