Welcome to the Anxiety Busting Blog Tour!
This is a guest post by Gina Rafkind and the 7th pit stop on her Anxiety Busting Blog Tour. Gina’s mission is to share awareness tips and tools in order to help other creative women who suffer with anxiety to wake up to their life so they can confidently unleash and share their gifts with the world. Gina says it’s time to stop being gripped by fear and hiding out, and time to create more freedom, love and connection!
Enjoy!
Anxiety As A Portal to Freedom
~ and how it deepens the meaning of your life
Once upon a time, there was a girl who thought her life was perfect. She was coasting through what seemed like a pretty perfect life. Then one day, unsuspectedly, one of her parents died. Her life was turned upside down. One day she experienced a panic attack…..and then another and another and another until she didn’t want to leave her home in fear of having another attack. Fortunately, her journey took her on a path to discovering more about herself and about life. She realized that her anxiety was a gift that allowed her to experience more connection, spaciousness and creativity in her life……..it served as a portal to freedom.
Anxiety, out of nowhere, can hit us like a ton of bricks. It knocks us over with its terrifying symptoms. It can then progress into this vicious cycle of one anxiety attack after another. And what happens is we become fearful of having another attack and this actually spurs on another anxiety or panic attack………and this cycle repeats over and over and over until one day, something inside you awakens to the fact that you don’t want to feel this way anymore. Then, from this point, you begin to work on discovering little tiny steps that you can take to help you begin to heal your anxiety and bring more peace and calm into your life.
So anxiety serves as a portal to freedom by being an opening into the realm of Spirit. What anxiety does for you, at your most spiritual core, is this:
It makes you aware of the activity of the mind.
One of the main reasons we experience anxiety is because of the stories and conclusions that the mind tells us. And when we are in the crux of anxiety, we believe these stories and conclusions to be the truth…..when in fact they are not.
For instance, if the thought, ‘I am never going to be able to get rid of this anxiety…..I’m going to have it forever’, crosses your mind, what effect does that have on you?
Do you start to become more anxious?
Does your body start to tense up?
Does it feel like you can’t breathe?
Does your heart start to pound?
Do you feel alone and lost?
When you are experiencing anxiety, it’s a message from your body that something needs your attention. So anxiety is actually a ‘wake up call’ if you decide to let it be one. It wants you to wake up to the amazing journey that you are here to experience. It wants you to notice every emotion that shows up in your body, without running away or distracting yourself from them. By allowing yourself to notice, and feel, all your emotions, you begin the journey of healing anxiety.
So our body is like a type of geiger counter - it detects the level of vibrational energy we are emitting through our emotions and sends us a message when it’s off balance. And through this message, your body is helping you to notice and put your attention on these emotions that are surfacing so you can, with the help of your body, feel, integrate & heal those emotions. If your mind kicks in and tries to distract you from feeling those emotions, your body will send you more messages….and that’s the beauty…..your body never gives up on you.
“Our bodies are very well adapted to purge themselves of suffering. When we cry, for example, our bodies are trying to purify us by washing away painful and toxic emotions. But while our body is often trying to help us let go of suffering, our mind is doing the opposite. It’s re-traumatizing us with its stories and conclusions.”
~ Adyashanti
The anxiety we experience can teach us to go into the body and feel what we are feeling without the involvement of the mind. This is how it becomes a portal to freedom. If we are able to stay with what we are feeling in the body as we watch the mind, we will begin to learn to integrate and transcend anxiety. Anxiety teaches us on a different level to watch the involvement of the mind and its role in creating and multiplying our pain and anxiety.
So anxiety, like in the story at the beginning, can become a very valuable gift to discovering more about you and about life. It can help you to create more expansion, spaciousness and creativity, if you let it. It can deepen the meaning of your life, and
…..it can become your portal to freedom.
If you’d like to learn more on how to heal anxiety, I have a complimentary, content-rich teleclass in which you will learn:
~ One of the MAIN, KEY factors that causes anxiety and how to break free from it. This key factor I will be talking about is a main player that most people with anxiety experience and bringing awareness to it will release the grip of anxiety and bring more freedom and spaciousness to your life.
~ During this call I also give you a preview of my new anxiety busting program that starts on January 23, 2012 (the day of the first new moon of 2012….a wonderful time for new beginnings 
.
Click the link below to learn more about this new program and to register to receive the free recording of this teleclass – scroll all the way down and fill out the sign up box at the very bottom.
http://vedasun.com/pages/anxietybustingretreat/
inhale ~ enjoy ~ exhale,
Gina
Gina Rafkind, CPC
Holistic Anxiety Coach
Gina is a Certified Professional Coach, Certified Reflexologist, Reiki Level 3 Practitioner & Licensed Cosmetologist.
She founded VedaSun to help women bust through anxiety so they can wake up to their life and achieve their dreams. Gina does this by sharing the knowledge and wisdom she has discovered throughout her evolving journey of healing anxiety. Her passion is to share these discoveries with you so you, too, can open the channel of awareness and by ‘waking up’, live a happier and healthier life.
7 comments
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gina
December 16, 2011 at 8:20 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Hola Loran!
Thank you for being a fantastic Anxiety Busting Blog Tour host!
gina recently posted..Calming Anxiety Using Crystals
Loran Hills
December 16, 2011 at 8:22 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
It’s truly my pleasure.
Petrea
December 16, 2011 at 8:34 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
So many good tips here Gina! Thanks!
I think what you say about listening to our body’s responses as messages is key. We really have the answers inside of what we need.
Petrea recently posted..No Pain No Gain: The Role of Stress
gina
December 16, 2011 at 5:29 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Thanks Petrea
. All the answers truly are inside……all of my best insights have come in the spaces between my thoughts 
.
Jt Clough | Big Island Dog
December 16, 2011 at 10:36 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Wow! I lived this one. “Anxiety out of no where can hit you like a ton of bricks!”
And the rest of what you write I have lived too. It happened for a reason. I’m now much more aware, and much much more grateful for all that is around me, all that I have created and all of those in my life. Including my dogs!
Mahalo for your anxiety tour Gina!
Jt Clough | Big Island Dog recently posted..The Grateful Dog Project
Square-Peg Karen
December 16, 2011 at 10:51 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Gina, I love how you bring awareness to anxiety – it feels like you’re making friends with something as opposed to fighting it.
My favorite quote: “your body never gives up on you” – love that!
Square-Peg Karen recently posted..A Round-up of Antidotes to Holiday Angst
gina
December 16, 2011 at 5:31 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Hi Karen……thx so much for your comment. It’s taken me over 15 years, but yes, I now see it as a gift and a very effective geiger counter
.
much love.
gina recently posted..To Flow with Change, Breathe It In