Anxiety

Have you been anxious recently? We guess everyone hates that feeling as much as we do, but when you experience it, have you ever just tried to just observe what exactly you are going through, why the feeling arose in the first place and what you can do about it. 

Anxiety is sending us some message. However, more often than not we are not ready for the news and mind the fact that change is coming our way. Someone is thinking of us and is sending us a letter, but instead of accepting it, we shut the door on the postman so to speak. But since important mail often requires a signature, the postman keeps coming back until we get the message. The more we reject this feeling of being shaken up, the more often he comes to visit us. But in all that struggle we unfortunately miss a precious opportunity to know ourselves, and do do something about the situation we are in.

We feel anxious when we don’t know what to do. In life, this happens quite often because we are here to learn, and it is our job to let go of inner resistance, especially us spiritual travelers. We feel anxious when we are not familiar with some subjects, or meeting some strangers, or going to a new place. This anxiety raise our alertness so that we would be in a position to tackle whatever is coming our way. Hormones are rushing through our system and we access temporarily higher energy levels to deal with the extraordinary situation. Anxiety is here to help us understand ourselves better, and it kicks in when we need to deal with an emergency. But then, once we feel that we get a handle on the situation, anxiety disappears again. 

When you are a spiritual traveler like us, you have to open up to all aspects of life, whether you like it or not. Now that you have come thus far, you may as well proceed and accept the anxiety for what it is, a temporary headache. Walking the Way can get theatrical at times; life simply shakes you up a little so that you can let go of all prior crutches. But if you always tackle everything that comes your way, your confidence rises over time. A Tao traveler has to work hard at times but also gets assistance when the going gets tough. We learn to look for meaningful connections, important symbols that others sometimes don't recognize, as well as synchronicity. Soon we reach the state in which we are always connected with the Way, no matter what.

Unfortunately anxiety has to be part of the waking up process, for that feeling is of the ego. But a spiritual path teaches us how to transcend it; ironically, not by shutting life out, but by embracing it. Become a master of life, face your anxieties and learn to put them behind. It is a lot of fun and serene to walk the Way. Please come and join us!

By Christian and Su Zhen