EPISODE 34

Anxiety Series: Be-friending Your Anxiety to Take Your Power Back

Today we’re approaching our anxiety from a new angle because we’re talking about how to start be-friending it.

As a brief overview – anxiety shows up differently for each of us, and it’s a hormonal surplus that floods our body and fires up our nervous system. It loves to tell our system that we’re in danger regardless of the level of threat. And as a reminder, some of these perceived threats can be day-to-day happenings, the tone coming from your partner, and anything in between. 

Your anxiety is trying to establish some sort of safety for you, and it can pop up in a lot of different ways.

you’re not broken. your body has just been overworking to keep you safe, and it’s time to start reprogramming. 

So why would we be interested in be-friending anxiety in the first place? The truth of the matter is that we tend to wrestle with anxiety, and our resistance to it requires an energetic battle that heightens it even more. We have the anxiety, and then we have anxiety about HAVING the anxiety. This fuels the flames and gives it way too much power.

As human beings we are complex organisms, and anxiety is part of our human experience. Instead of resisting it, let’s start relating to anxiety differently. 

Call your highest self forward – she’s the most mature and present part of you that makes decisions based on the here and now, her lived experiences, and her intuition. She doesn’t make decisions based on fear, trauma, or past conditioning. I call this version of you the CEO. 

Let’s envision your CEO sitting at the head of your table of life. Around your beautiful table of life is all of your other parts – your inner child, your inner adolescent, your nurturer, etc., and your protector (who we can also identify as your anxiety). When you’re in a moment of feeling triggered your protector takes over as the head seat at your table, and it starts to make the decisions. I want you to call upon your CEO to notice when this is happening, walk the protector back to her seat, thank her for doing her job, and return to the head of the table. 

Our anxiety has served a purpose throughout our entire lives, and it has now been overworked. Have enough self-compassion to start understanding why she does what she does.

We don’t need to continue being at war with ourselves and we need to recognize that while she shouldn’t be the head of the table, she deserves a place at the table. Have a little compassion and start checking in with her. Next time your anxiety is present – notice it and name it. Be playful about it. Take a breath and ask what your anxiety and protector wants you to know. Absorb this information and ask your CEO-self if this information is true or helpful. Ask how you know it to be true. Ask what all other possibilities are present. Put awareness into why your anxiety is showing up, check-in on her, and create space from her. 

anxiety is just our body’s way of keeping our brain and body safe.

We’re more anxious than we’ve ever been, and we keep ignoring it and pushing it down. Instead of resisting her and letting her take over the CEO’s spot, we are going to start walking our anxiety back to her seat at the table while recognizing that she deserves to be there.

Let’s start be-friending her and appreciating all that she does so we can take our power back.

snag our FREE anxiety tool:

The Anxiety Survival Kit

Take care of yourselves and therefore each other!

xo, brooke jean

  • • Brooke outlines how the amygdala and nervous system trigger anxiety through hormonal surges in response to perceived threats

    • She explains how anxiety can stem from a range of stimuli, from something subtle to overt, traumatic experiences

    • Anxiety can also be caused by stuffing down other feelings and not allowing ourselves to process them. Brooke touches on the physical and mental implications of suppressing anxiety responses, highlighting ailments like autoimmune diseases and depression

    • The concept of accepting and understanding anxiety as opposed to resisting it is introduced as a means to better manage it

  • • The “CEO table of life” metaphor is presented to illustrate maintaining balance by managing internal parts like anxiety, especially under stress

    • Emphasis is placed on recognizing the positive, protective role of anxiety, leading to a more empathetic, mindful, and authentic lifestyle and leadership

    • Anticipating a stressful event releases the same hormones as reward hormones, making the anxiety stronger

    • Brooke recommends acknowledging anxiety with compassion and understanding, rather than resistance, as a non-defining aspect of one’s experience

    • Mothers have a natural mama intuition and superpowers that come with some anxiety but have served a purpose

  • • Brooke encourages a mindful, playful interaction with anxiety and asks ourselves what it wants us to know, to understand it, and manage it effectively

    • Instead of resisting, stuffing, or ignoring anxiety, we can acknowledge it and give it a voice

    • Creating distance from anxiety allows for conscious management and the application of coping mechanisms, promoting better mental health.

    • Joining supportive communities like "Mommy's Mental Health Matters" and sharing resources can help in normalizing mental health conversations and providing support

CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION

I hope that you’ll join me in this movement, and that you can authentically reconnect with who you really are. That’s where your essence and your gems really lie.

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@brookejeanunperfected to see how ridiculous I am IRL.

Join my private Facebook group Mommy’s Mental Health Matters and let’s continue the conversation, uplift one another, and build the life that we have always dreamed of. I would love to have you!

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Thanks so much for listening!