Training a Dragon: Use Anxiety to Supercharge Your Vibe
When we transform our perceived weaknesses in to superpowers the game changes. How to use anxiety to raise your vibration instead of crush it.
*For your listening pleasure there is also an audio version of this article read by the author. It may include a few sidebars ;)
Anxiety: A Punch in the Face + Wisdom
Anxiety is a messenger with a bad habit of punching you in the face to get your attention. Then handing you a golden scroll with a critical message on how to raise your vibration.
Yet, we’re often too busy trying to run from, sedate, or fight the messenger to notice. With the scroll lost in the mud, anxiety is dubbed something terrible we have to get rid of.
I get it. Punching isn’t a great hello, and anxiety doesn’t really do itself any favors with an intro like that. However, as a society we often don’t respond to subtle real well. Subtle is overlooked, and when you have an important message you want to be sure you have someone’s attention before you deliver.
What if in 2024, the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, we could recognize anxiety for the overlooked wisdom it brings?
Anxiety is often what happens at the intersection of programming and inner wisdom. Our programming tells us to behave one way and our inner wisdom strongly disagrees.
Bam! Anxiety is born.
However, the voice of our programming is so visceral we often don’t notice the tiny voice of our soul causing conflict. We mostly just notice how terrible we feel. The programming is so strong in its logic we rarely question the veracity of what we’re doing, much less if it’s going to lower vibration or not.
The more our programming is out of alignment with our soul the more potential intersections we have for anxiety to manifest.
As we begin to know ourselves on deeper levels we’ll likely have to barrel through some anxiety as this newly-discovered knowing conflicts with societal wisdom. Rarely does one size ever fit all. Whether it’s conformist rules or a tiny jacket we’re trying to cram ourselves in to, the result probably isn’t going to be epic.
Anxiety: The Red Pill in The Matrix
Finding wisdom on how to enhance your vibration amidst the unpleasant sensations of anxiety is downright uncomfortable. It’s like digging for a piece of candy in a box of ants. Many will decide they just don’t want the candy that badly.
However there is a way to get the ants out of the box over time.
Most all of us have been told anxiety is a bad thing, and there are all too many methods society offers us to get rid of it. Entire industries are based on it. However, it’s mostly self-suppression that creates the kind of anxiety that brings us to our knees.
Anxiety often begins as slightly unpleasant sensations alerting us that our inner advice is in conflict with what we are doing. Our body is putting up a red flag. Yet, because it’s uncomfortable, we shove the feeling down and don’t listen to it; we don’t recognize it for what it really is, and are taught there’s no value in it.
We learn pretty early on to suppress these feelings.
Over time suppressed sensations compound and collectively create a vibration of anxiety or nervousness in our bodies.
In Ayurvedic and yoga philosophy it’s taught that “issues store in the tissues” if we ignore them.
The golden scroll I mentioned in the first paragraph is a double edged sword. It provides wisdom on how to raise vibration through aligned actions if we listen to it… and it’s like swallowing the blue pill in The Matrix if we don’t. (If you’ve read more than one of my articles I imagine you to be a red pill kind of person.)
The courage to dig in the wisdom of anxiety is the red pill, and your own personal journey down the rabbit hole.
At a certain point we’ve swallowed so many blue pills we’re nearly electric with anxiety coursing through our bodies. Some part of us recognizes we’ve hit a limit and can’t take any more.
We start to become afraid of experiences and sensations that could contribute more anxiety. This causes us to limit our lives, or in my case, attempt to control my environment to prevent me from experiencing any more anxious sensations.
Potential Wisdom, Trauma Reaction, or Both?
If we transmit the vibration of anxiety it supercharges similar thoughts or experiences carrying a resonant base note of fear.
The resulting intense sensations are often more indicative of how much the vibration of anxiety is active in us, than discerning feedback on the situation at hand.
Becoming friends with our anxiety means discerning when we are creating anxiety from our own stored vibrational charge, and when it’s a zap of annoying helpful feedback meant to align us in the present moment.
Imagine two women, Elowen and Emma. Elowen’s vibrational frequency is tinged with the vibration of anxiety. A 2/10 on a scale of 10. Emma’s vibrational frequency is laced with a heavy dose of anxiety, 7/10 on our scale.
When both Elowen and Emma experience a nerve wracking situation Emma is far more likely to have an extreme reaction because the vibration of anxiety is already so active in her vibrational frequency. It won’t take much to trigger it. She’ll also likely recover much slower than Elowen.
The more anxiety we’ve suppressed the more our reactions slide away from what’s occurring in the present moment, and instead reflect the low vibration emotional charges stored in our frequency.
When I visualize this for myself I picture unethical tuna fishing.
Dolphins, turtles, and other creatures get caught in the drag nets. How heavy is the anxiety drag net for our life? What are we lugging around under the water that we can’t see?
We want to be pole & line caught tuna fishing boats. Nothing dragging under the water slowing us down. Not being in such a rush we roar through the world swallowing blue pills and dragging down our vibrational frequency.
Just because something is a trauma reaction doesn’t mean there’s not wisdom there.
It’s likely anxiety has been trying to deliver the same message repeatedly when this comes up, and has been wholly unsuccessful. Finding the message is key to not only unlocking the wisdom, but reducing future traumatic reactions. Ironically, anxiety can be looked at as the feeling of suppressed wisdom.
If you’re feeling anxiety I raise a glass to you. It sucks, but let’s also applaud that your body has a ton of insight it wants to offer you.
Resisting the Urge to Turn the Radio Off
One of the hardest parts of learning from anxiety is controlling the urge to turn the radio off. Imagine a Naval Intelligence Officer during WWII intercepting radio communication about a fleet of ships to be bombed.
The message is anxiety provoking to listen to, but contains some pretty key info. Visibly upset, the man turns to his commanding officer and tells hims the news. “Turn it off then” the commanding officer barks. “Can’t have you getting all stressed out listening to that.” Obviously, that would never happen.
There’s too much value in the message. We don’t want to make choices like that with our mental health either. Swallowing a pill to silence anxiety is like turning the radio off.
Not judging anyone for it; anxiety can be crippling and sometimes we need support. We just want to be aware of the trade-offs. The indicators and intelligence lost as a result can be deafening.
Anxiety is just a sensation. When we arbitrarily label difficult feelings as “bad” it can cause us to discard valuable insight just because the delivery is uncomfortable. Like refusing medicine because it tastes bad.
The next time you feel a stab of anxiety imagine me stepping in front of you and saying, “Whoa, slow your roll. Your inner voice seriously has something contrary to say about what’s going on, and you’re not listening.”
Are we letting someone trample our boundaries so we get an anxiety zap telling us to speak up? Then feel nervous because it’s uncomfortable for us to speak up?
9/10 times how to raise vibration is about doing the awkward thing- and this is why so many people unknowingly cultivate a low vibration through avoidance.
Using Anxiety to Elevate Your Vibration
My personal goal is to slow down, align with myself, and follow the awkward requests of my inner voice. Then see if my nervous system stops mimicking the erratic raptors loose in Jurassic Park.
It’s probably a stretch that I’ll become a little zen Buddha, but hopefully I won’t need anxiety to zap me to get my attention. It can become more of a gentle nudge or sensation- because I will have become someone who can pick up on subtle.
Someone who pauses to reflect and adjust when something feels uncomfortable instead of blindly plowing ahead with my mental plan no matter how I feel about it.
‘Cause even if I love my identity, if I built it while feeling a bunch of anxiety, it likely isn’t my highest level reality.
Anxiety can assist in upgrading us to our next highest version of self. Recently I noticed my anxiety sparking when I’d do things I pride myself on- stuff I’ve built my identity around.
Really weird.
Then I realized that to make room for a new me I have to let go of the old me, and I was fighting that. Hard.
Anxiety was basically whacking me with a newspaper like a cartoon character trying to give me that message. Despite the horrid delivery service, being curious about the contrary messages anxiety offers has value; possibly even equal to listening to intuition.
Anxiety has even helped me notice when I’m doing something kinda dumb.
Earlier this week I was stressed while setting up an international shipment; even though there was literally nothing to be anxious about. It confused me. Every time I went online to schedule the shipment I felt a little buzz of anxiety. Finally, it hit me.
The logistics I was trying to solve for needed two shipments. Not one. It was so obvious. I was just going too fast to notice.
I swear, there’s a wiser part of us that doesn’t get caught up in the rush of life, and senses when there’s a better path. Then it gives anxiety a little nudge to communicate with us.
The Power of Letting Anxiety Rip
I’ve just been letting it rip when my anxiety rears up. Taking away the shame that I am kind of an emotional loser, or doing something wrong when I feel anxiety is seriously liberating.
The belief that there’s nothing wrong with anxiety gives me courage to explore the sensations, and collect all the discarded golden scrolls laying on the ground.
My body was so sick of being told to calm down every time I felt anxious. I was seriously over it.
Now I just freak out (in a responsible scream in to a pillow, or throw a T-shirt that can’t break anything kind of way) and let the current feeling move through me. This also moves out a decent batch of the old stored feelings as well. Give it a try. Rip the Band-Aid off.
If we get through life by suppressing ourselves we seriously blunt our authenticity.
Digging in to what we’re feeling acknowledges the present moment, while simultaneously releasing suppressed feelings holding our vibrational frequency down. (Recall the story of Elowen and Emma.)
It’s key to get this old stuff out by feeling it so we can begin to react to the present moment. This is one of the best ways to raise your vibration.
That said, assess your comfort level with feeling emotions before letting it rip. Check out my article on emotional clearing techniques to get started, or I also work with an incredible embodiment coach I highly recommend. She helps me transmute sensations that feel overwhelming and find the wisdom.
Leveling up our vibrational frequency often makes us look like a mess.
We have to let all that low vibration weight dragging below the fishing boat out- and that’s never pretty. However, the cost of staying prim, proper, controlled and contained is steep. That’s what lowering vibration looks like.
Chaos is beautiful. Chaos makes you interesting. It gives you edges for people to grab on to. Come be real and authentic and messy with me. Dig in to that anxiety. I bet you’re a beautiful mess.
If this article has intrigued you I work with people interested in raising their vibration. We can certainly look at decoding your anxiety. Swing by my website if you’re interested in connecting!
If you’d like to read something a little lighter next, try 10 Signs of a High Vibration Person, or learn about how jealousy can be beneficial in my article on polyamory.