Understanding Anxiety: Can it ever go away?

Does anxiety feel like a permanent fixture in your life?
Suppose I told you it doesn't have to be.

Strap yourself in as we debunk this common misconception about anxiety
I break down the concept into helpful and unhelpful kinds, shedding light on how it affects us, and why it isn’t necessarily a life sentence.
We delve into how our brains can be rewired to break the cycle of fear and reactions, offering a glimmer of hope for those who grapple with unhelpful anxiety.

 Using the power of our minds, we can shape a better, less anxious life.

Resources & Links Mentioned

• Laugh Anxiety Away Workshop 
• Work with Cheryl
• Reduce Stress and Anxiety with a fun Breathing Technique

 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I was on a group session and a woman blurted out
that anxiety can never go awayand you have to deal with it.
Well, I disagree with that andI'm going to discuss why.
So let's start talking aboutthat.
Welcome to Mindful HypnosisPodcast.

(00:21):
It is time to change your mind.
Learn all about how to createnew, helpful habits and mindset
changes.
With integrative hypnosis Plus,with a sprinkle of mindfulness
throughout your day, you caneasily shift into a calmer state
of mind.
I am Cheryl, your hypnotist andpodcast host, and I welcome you

(00:42):
to a better way of living yourlife, one minute at a time.
This is the 50th episode, minustwo trailers, of course, and I
am so excited to share that withyou.
But mostly, I just want to sendout a huge thank you to each

(01:05):
and every one of you who takeyour precious time to listen to
me every week.
It is my goal to make thispodcast better and better each
year, to bring you solidinformation that can help you to
change your life, and that ismy goal.
And in doing this, you are alsochanging my life, and I thank

(01:27):
you so much.
On with the show.
Welcome to Mindful HypnosisPodcast.
My name is Cheryl and I am yourhost.
So, again, I was in a coachingcall with a couple of people and
a woman blurted out thatanxiety can never go away and

(01:50):
you have to deal with it.
And she was very adamant aboutthat because she suffered from
anxiety her entire life, goingto counselors and therapists and
had medication and done allsorts of things.
And I could see her frustrationon her face because she truly
believed this and I don't.
And let me explain why.
But before I do, I have a deeprespect for people who go

(02:18):
through anxiety all the time.
It is a horrible way to liveand I know because for many
years I suffered withdebilitating anxiety.
But I am also a stubborn personand there has always been a
part of me that believes thatanxiety can go away, because
it's interesting.
And I'll give you this smalllittle example.

(02:38):
One day I was going to work andI was very anxious.
I don't have to explain to youwhat that feels like.
If you have anxiety, you know.
But I was very anxious and Iwas getting ready to turn on the
highway and all of a sudden Ilooked down at my pants and I
noticed I had a bunch of lint onmy pants and I was going to
work.
So here I am picking the lintoff my pants and it dawned on me

(02:58):
after about two or threeseconds of picking lint off my
pants, my anxiety decreased.
And it decreased all within amatter of a few moments because,
number one, I distracted mybrain.
But on top of that, it's veryimportant to understand that
anxiety only lasts in your brainfor about 90 seconds.
The reason why you feel it for along period of time is that

(03:20):
you're looping it byoverthinking it and
re-triggering and overthinkingit and re-looping it, but the
general chemical rush that youget is capped off and it never
feels like it's going to becapped off.
This is why people who havepanic attacks truly believe that
panic attack is going to getworse and worse and worse.
It won't.

(03:40):
The panic attack you have gotis the panic attack you will
have.
It is a chemical release.
That being all said, I haveseen people go from debilitating
anxiety and panic who are nowliving their best lives.
I have seen kids who werebundles of nerves who are now
thriving, and even more so, Ihave worked with people who,

(04:03):
even on the one call we are on,will go from an anxiety of seven
to eight down to two or three,what a difference that makes in
your life when you can cut youranxiety in half or when you can
know the moment you start tohave it, you can do things to
diminish it or decrease it andcompletely get rid of it.

(04:24):
So let's get back to ouroriginal question Can anxiety
ever go away?
And I'm going to answer thatfor you.
But I'm going to answer it thisway.
There are two types of anxiety.
This is not a medical term,this is what I'm saying Helpful
and not so helpful.
We can break it down thatsimple.
If you have general anxiety,which means you kind of have it
all the time, or you havesituational anxiety, which

(04:47):
basically means a situationhappens.
You know you have to go to thestore or you have to go to work,
or maybe you know somebodyspecific is calling you when
your anxiety bumps up, that'ssituational.
It happens because of asituation.
That is not helpful anxiety.
And that type of anxiety can goaway because it's basically a

(05:07):
faulty wiring in your brain.
I like to think of it like thatyour mind has basically got its
wires crossed and it believeswhatever threat or whatever
danger that is put upon youwarrants or flood of chemicals,
but it doesn't.
You have created a trigger froma memory and now what happens
is, every time you come back tothat situation or problem,

(05:29):
you're recreating that memory ortrigger and you're reaffirming
that this needs to happen andyou need to have this anxiety to
be safe.
That is unhelpful.
Helpful anxiety is the kind ofanxiety that keeps you safe and
wakes you up.
It makes you become more alert.
The sympathetic nervous systemreacts to danger and then it

(05:51):
floods your body with thechemicals and these are the same
exact chemicals you would feelif a beer jumped in front of you
.
These are the same chemicalsyou fear you feel when you get
anxiety when you're sitting onthe couch eating popcorn.
They're the exact same, theydon't change.
But this particular type ofanxiety is helpful because it's
keeping you safe.
It's flooding your body withadrenaline that will make you

(06:11):
want to do something, like runor fight.
Blood is being moved toimportant areas to your body,
like your arms and your legs, soyou can move and you can fight.
But it's also taken that bloodfrom your gut which you don't
need at the time and that issometimes why you get nauseous.
Your heart rate goes up, yourpupils dilate All of these

(06:32):
chemical reactions happen inyour body and they don't feel
comfortable.
They don't feel good.
They're not meant to feelcomfortable because your body
wants you to do something.
It is basically saying yo, getfrigging moving, you're in
danger.
But when you have these samechemicals drop into your body

(06:53):
when you're eating popcorn, itfeels even more horrible because
it's nothing to run from,there's nothing to fight about,
there's nothing to do.
So you're sitting there andyou're just feeling absolutely
horrible.
So your body wants to keep yousafe and secure and it will do
whatever it can to keep you thatway.

(07:13):
So for that unhelpful situationor anxiety again, this is the
unhelpful, this is the stuff.
When you're sitting there inyour popcorn and you're having
an anxiety attack, your mind hasgot its wires crossed.
It believes as a threat or adanger that is not real.
Your brain again has created atrigger.
So now your body reacts to thetrigger and every single time

(07:38):
you go back to that memory, yougo back to that situation, you
re-trigger yourself.
What has happened?
Your brain has habituated youranxiety.
So how do we make this go awaywithout the traditional
treatments and therapies andmedications that take all of
very long time, and most often,the medications are not changing

(07:58):
your brain, they're justcalming your nervous system.
Well, since I'm a hypnotist, Idon't treat your anxiety.
I'm not allowed to do that.
But what I do work on is yourbad habit, and I do so by
focusing on neuroscience.
So, as a hypnotist, I workedwith your direct memory and I
changed the trigger.

(08:18):
And by changing the triggeryou're taking the charge out.
This is called memoryreconciliation and it's on the
cutting edge of science and ithasn't got caught up with
traditional therapy.
But it works by directlyconnecting with the memory you
have of the anxiety and everytime you release that energy

(08:40):
that you have from that anxietyand you change the charge of the
memory, not the memory itself.
We never affect your memory.
You always have your memories.
It's the anxiety and thetrigger associated with it.
When you remove that, then thememory just goes back to a
memory.
It has no effect on you.

(09:01):
Imagine this you get a veryuncomfortable text and the
moment you get it, you feel youranxiety rise.
Six months later, that person'sname pops up on your phone
automatically.
Your anxiety rises.
What happened along the way isyou got anxiety from the
original trigger and then yourbrain recognized that and went

(09:26):
oh, this is a dangeroussituation.
We got to help her.
It's faulty wiring, that's all.
So imagine now, six monthslater, that you did some memory
reconciliation and we worked onthat trigger and all of a sudden
, that person's face pops up onyour phone.
What happens now?
Maybe nothing, you may not feelanything at all, or you may

(09:49):
giggle.
All of a sudden, that triggeris gone.
Yes, this is possible.
This is what I do, and I justgot done with a three month
intensive program about coachingthe unconscious mind, and I
have learned hundreds oftechniques to help with memory

(10:10):
reconciliation and change in thewiring of your brain to help
with anxiety.
So can your anxiety ever go away?
No, not the good anxiety.
You never want it to go away.
It can't go away.
It is hardwired in your brainand it is there to take over
your conscious thinking whenyou're in danger, and that's

(10:32):
important because you need tohave that.
You need to be protected andsafe.
What we want to do is just tomake sure that the faulty wiring
, the triggers, and the problemyou have with anxiety that is
not helpful is not causing havocin your life, because you don't
need to suffer like this, likeyou do.

(10:53):
There was so much work going onin their neuroscience realm and
understanding how your brainworks, and we are learning new
things every day and traditionaltherapies, when it comes to
this, have not caught up yet.
I'm not saying they don't helpthey do.
You can have excellent resultsworking with a therapist in
anxiety.
Just the differences.

(11:14):
It may take a little bit longer, aka changing one of your bad
habits, ha ha ha.
Or if you wanna try out what I'mtalking about and get a little
bit of help decreasing youranxiety, check out one of my
anxiety workshops.
You can find that again at thesame webpage address.
You take care of yourself and Iwill talk to you soon.

(11:35):
Take a big, deep breath in andexhale.
Thank you for listening to theend of this podcast.
Go on over to the show notescheryljreynolds.
com at for more information andvaluable resources.
While you're there, sign up forthe newsletter so you never
miss an episode, and if youwanna find the link to work with

(11:57):
me one-on-one, you can find itthere.
Remember, you have a powerfulmind and it can be changed to
support the life you want tolive.
In the meantime, enjoy your dayone minute at a time.