First published: 11 April 2021 @ 5:33 pm
Step 3. Be present with the anxiety
Being present with your anxiety means that you will have to be with your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. It is not to make the anxiety go away. Still, it is to give you valuable information about what is going on inside you and how to deal with it.
When you feel anxious, you could also think of yourself as an antelope pursued by a lion. If you are being chased, what would you do? You’d run, right?
As you recall, an antelope can run away from a lion because of the difference between their speeds. Since the antelope is much faster, it can outrun the lion. As you run, you’ll start to relax and feel better. If you can think of your anxiety or your panic as a lion chasing you, it will become easier to run away from it. I’ve found this to be a very helpful metaphor in my own life because when I am anxious, I often feel an urge to go somewhere else. I feel like I need to escape.
When I use the metaphor of being chased by a lion, I can more easily understand why I feel the need to escape. I’m being chased by a lion, and I need to escape. The more I think about this, the easier it is to stay in the present moment, stay in the moment, and not escape into obsessive thoughts about the future or the past (which is what I often do when I’m anxious).
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