When Anxiety Takes Over

The other day we talked about how to follow the Tao, how to be open to life and how necessary it is to accept whatever comes your way. However, you can only do that when you command all your psychic powers and when you have the faith that you can handle any situation. But what do you do when anxiety sets in? Fear and anxiety are incredible negative emotions and when they undermine your power base you feel helpless when problems and conflicts come your way.

When anxiety takes over you think that someone is taking something away from you. Your time, your health, your money, your family, your job, your youth. You feel restless and lose this connection with your True Self. You work harder, you run around aimlessly, you are getting out of touch with the natural rhythm of life. So if you give in to anxiety a vicious cycle is likely to start, that is, the more you do, the more anxious you will become until you are totally disconnected from the Path. With stress comes lack of sleep, you don't eat well and your power base erodes even further.

This situation sets you up for a great opportunity to learn how to reconnect with your power base. Stop everything. Reflect on the possibility that you have everything to deal with the situation at hand. Sure you are anxious and what if this divine intervention doesn't happen in this case? Well, what do you have to lose? The way you are on is a dead-end anyway, so perhaps you want to give our experiment a try.

When you experience anxiety you have a sure sign that you have deviated from the Tao already. Stop and reposition yourself. This will not be easy because the anxiety and fear emotions are very strong negative energies. But you are the master of your emotions and not the slave of them.

There is actually an easy, yet incredibly powerful trick to reconnect yourself with your power base. Take a deep breath in through your left nostril, hold the air for a few seconds and then breathe out through your right nostril. Repeat this exercise until your "system" has slowed down. You can actually feel the cold air enter your brain and it is as if this stream of psychic energy tunes out the endless chatter in your brain. Reconnect with that quiet Voice inside that way. The nice thing is that you can practice this exercise anywhere really until it becomes a natural habit.

Meditation is also very important. Find a quiet time in the day when you have enough psychic power to observe your mind racing. Don't do anything about it. Just see all the worries, ifs and buts fly by your spiritual eye and don't engage. The trick again is to realize that there is an authority within who is unfazed by all this meaningless chatter.

We know that it is very hard in the beginning when you have all the anxiety. Sit quietly, pay attention to your breath. You will probably want to run away. But please be patient, focus your attention on breathing until your restlessness goes away. You will be amazed how well you can sleep after a good meditation or yoga session. With better sleep your psychic energy will return.

When you have regained your psychic powers somewhat try our magnificent experiment that claims that no natter what situation you are in, you already have everything you need in hand. It is certainly true if you have the faith that it is. If Moses managed to part the sea when the Egyptian army approached, don't you think you will find a creative solution for whatever it is that plagues you? Along the Tao all anxiety and fear will vanish, the sooner you start our magnificent experiment the happier you will be. Along the Tao trust and peace arise in you. At this moment, you reconnect with Tao again. You take one deliberate step in the opposite direction and all anxiety and fear will leave you instantaneously. Try it, it works.

By Christian and Su Zhen