3642: Anxiety Into Awakening by Shana Olmstead on Mindfulness and Meditation for Self-Love

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[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00] This is Optimal Living Daily. Anxiety into Awakening. By Shana Olmsted of ShanaOmsted.com And I'm Justin Malek, your host and narrator. And we're gonna get right to it as we optimize your life. Anxiety into Awakening. By Shana Olmsted of ShanaOmsted.com Have you noticed how anxious everyone is lately?

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_00] It seems that it's becoming more and more common for people to both be feeling anxiety and expressing it to people in their lives. And there are many reasons for this. I think people are more anxious in general because they have stressful jobs and busy lives and feel pressure to continue to achieve more and more for themselves and their families.

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00] Before awareness of this pattern surfaces, sometimes consciously and sometimes through some form of crisis, it can feel overwhelming, stressful, and like there is no way out of the cycle. I've seen time and time again, however, how this increasing anxiety is really something deeper. It's really an underlying call from your soul to come back into alignment. It's a whispering that continues to get louder and louder until it's heard. Slow down, it says.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00] Slow down, it says. Pay attention, it says. What really matters to you, it questions. So for me, anxiety is a fun place to work on. And very cool that it's becoming more commonly discussed so that I can help people really understand what it's trying to help them with. Anxiety is a call to wake up, to connect with your deeper wisdom, to stop doing things that are creating misalignment internally and start doing things that bring you closer to your truth.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00] It's a powerful teacher often creating so much discomfort that it's impossible to ignore. This is something you asked for. Your higher self wants to live in integrity and authenticity. This anxiety you feel is your higher self letting you know that some things need to change. You didn't do anything wrong. You were just unconscious of your truth.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_00] As you become more conscious and aware of things in your life that need to change, but you're not making any moves to actually do the changing, anxiety will increase. Of course. This is a beautiful system that was designed to help you evolve. You're not made to feel comfortable living unconsciously and out of alignment. Your natural state is one of flow and balance. You are meant to have a beautiful sense of who you really are and what you're meant to do.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00] You're meant to learn to live as closely in alignment to this truth as is possible. Every anxious moment is here to gently show you where you are not in alignment with this truth and guide you back to yourself. It's not here to punish you or make your life miserable. It is a teacher for you. I've seen many cases in which anxiety is really a sign of an upcoming awakening.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_00] Here are some things to look for and a different perspective on what anxiety is here to awaken you to in your life. Number one, anxiety helps you get in touch with your real feelings. Many of us, much of the time, are in our brains instead of actually feeling our feelings. This leads to us feeling anxious because the majority of our thoughts are negative and fear-based. We then tend to think we're anxious because our brains are telling us so.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00] Part of what anxiety is here to help us awaken to is the truth of how we really feel. This is usually different from what our mind is telling us. One of the first practices I recommend to my clients with anxiety is meditation. This is helpful for so many reasons, but one of the most important is to help them get out of their minds and into their bodies.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00] Only once we're able to get beyond the thinking mind are we able to understand what we really feel and therefore what we need to make us happy. Number two, anxiety lets you know when your ego is activated. Part of the awakening process is practicing awareness of your thoughts. By beginning to practice meditation as well as mindful awareness of your thoughts throughout the day, it becomes easier to separate true emotions from ego-based thoughts.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00] The ego is so sweet and wants to help us, but is very misguided. It's the part of us that feels victimized and wants revenge. It's the part that is scared of everything. It's the part that tells us we couldn't possibly accomplish X, Y, or Z. It's the part that says we need to keep pushing and accumulating things in order to be happy. Of course, none of these thoughts are actually true. It's really easy to be fooled though, especially if nobody around you thinks any differently and you don't see any alternative.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_00] They can feel very intense and very real. The gift of anxiety here is that it highlights when the ego is activated. In order to continue to evolve consciously, we have to start with awareness. So this feeling of anxiety is here to help us to be aware of this ego activation and to gently shift and release it every time. This helps us continue to evolve consciously as well as to know more clearly how to move forward authentically.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00] And number three, anxiety highlights where change needs to take place. By practicing feeling your truth instead of your mind and recognizing ego fear-based thoughts, you can begin to become clearer on what needs to change. This often doesn't feel good. We have a lot of defense mechanisms in place to keep us from really feeling and knowing our truth because it's scary. It means we might have to make big changes in our lives.

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00] Starting to pay close attention to where and when you feel the energy of anxiety will highlight those places that need to transform. Without this gift of anxiety, we would go through life numb and asleep, never becoming aware of the discomfort that can lead us to transformation and expansion. I've seen many examples of anxiety being a transformative experience for people's lives.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00] I invite you to look for the gifts in it as well and allow it to teach you some powerful lessons on your journey of awakening. You just listened to the post titled, Anxiety Into Awakening by Shana Olmstead of shanaolmstead.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Summer nights used to be brutal for me, tossing, turning, flipping the pillow until I discovered cozy earth.

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[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_00] Shopify.com slash old. Thank you to Shana. We had a post from Ryan Holiday a few weeks back that I really liked talking about anxiety being his most expensive habit. And a different way to look at anxiety from Shana today. Also really valuable. Not just as something to get rid of, but like a teacher. I know for me, and maybe for you, the first instinct when anxiety pops up is to try and make it go away.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00] Or to figure out what's wrong. But her point that anxiety can increase when we're aware that something needs to change, but we're not actually making those changes, I think it makes sense. I can think of times in the past, maybe with certain work projects or even just personal habits, where I knew deep down that what I was doing wasn't quite right for me or wasn't sustainable. And instead of tackling it head on, I'd kind of push it down or try to ignore it.

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_00] And sure enough, that underlying feeling of anxiety would just get worse, louder and louder, like she said. And I do think meditation can help here. Sometimes my brain will be spinning all these worst case scenarios, making me feel anxious. But when I actually sit and check in, like through meditation, I realize the actual feeling underneath might be something simpler, like just needing a break, for example. So thank you again to Shana for this one. And thank you for being here. Have a great rest of your day.

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_00] And I'll catch you tomorrow for Minimalist Monday, where your optimal life awaits. Let's see.