Let’s define Anxiety: distress or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune. When we are children we mainly absorb from everywhere – our family/friends and our school. After we are getting older we externalize more of what was sitting in our subconscious. So we act the way we have been taught or saw in our past.  We are reflecting our surroundings.

As  part from being an adult and an immigrant, I bring with me all sorts of issues, some of them with myself but some of the regarding my surroundings , more like external. I came from a middle east country that fight for its life, for its economy ,for its security and basically you need to fight for everything. You regularly live in stress, and you are not aware of your anxiety that gets into your brain and veins, without even notice.

Since I was raised in This tiny country that suffered from all sorts of problems I became an adult with the highest anxiety level of all. But once you notice that it comes with you wherever you live and go.Australia is so much different that what you were used to … So you decide to do your efforts and let go a bit, you get to learn how to live with your anxiety in peace (if you could say that..) Or try to control it within yourself.

I’ll tell you a funny story about my first week in Melbourne , it was around Australia day.I went to the library. Huge and amazing library. While browsing the books I heard a noisy sound of an F-16 on top of the library’s roof, it felt like I need to search for shelter… My anxiety level was raising in a second, my heart beat rates were so high, my mouth was dry, I couldn’t breathe, I just wanted to run, scream or both. But then I decided to try and control myself, so I looked around, and every body were so calm, I was asking myself silly questions in my head – Hey Look around, where are you right now!? You are not in danger, everybody’s calm, don’t stress, remember! you are in Melbourne, in the Library! Hello!!!

You are not in the same country you were living in , no need to be stressed about it, it’s just an airplane practicing for the Australia day event. I came home with a stupid smile on my face because I felt so silly about the way I was behaving. Also I was mindfulness of my problems that without any warning they escaped outside. Once you realized that you can control your anxiety by being aware you’ll half way through. But then life will push you to your next challenge.

When I was a little girl I was living in apartment usually (not a townhouse, or a villa) –  I am a city gal 🙂 As a child I had to walk to school, walk to Secondary school – everything was a step away from home.

In Melbourne is my first time living in a townhouse , and it means that sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night and hear the animals from outside like the possums on the tree, owls, or even people in the street.

My sleep is very light, it can take me ages to get to my deepest sleep. One night at 3AM I heard people talk outside my windows, saw lights from outside pointing to the inside, they were burglars. At that point I started to feel my heart beat rate rise , I was sweating, I was even shaking, but I was paralyzed. I decided to talk to myself and try to calm down in order to think what to do. I tried to control my heart beats first , through breathing and through motivating myself to think clear. It took me about 2 minutes to do so, but once I was calm – It was much easier to know what I need to do .  I reached out to my phone, and opened it to call the police. Then I heard a police chopper and the lights and the shadows were gone.I was thrilled.

But I was exhausted too,  Although I managed my anxiety it was obvious to me that it’s something that I can control.

Our brain is such a wonderful machine.Each one of us need to know that in order to know his own abilities.  If we will be able to know HOW we can control our brain, we will be able to treat ourselves by thoughts and motivation instead of other options like (pills and other treatments)

Concentration is a fine antidote to anxiety.

Jack Nicklaus

 

Now let’s practice:

Try to list your anxieties and how you want to act when you feel it is coming. Read this list every night, and at some point your subconscious will be able to act accordingly.

Try to do it yourself, it’s all about practice.