Sane Advice

I’ve called my anxiety disorder a gift for over a decade now. Those of you reading this who have an anxiety disorder may cringe at the thought of calling your suffering a gift. In fact, you may be still at the stage of “why me” in your recovery.

In time I hope you realize that it is a gift to have a vivid imagination, and to be sensitive. Most gifted artists have these two traits, and lurking inside you is a gifted soul as well.

You won’t likely look at anxiety attacks, panic attacks, fatigue, and depression as a gift, but if you read on I will explain why it is.

Some people go through their whole life taking for granted their good fortune of proportionate stress and limited anxiety. They don’t need to take inventory of their own thoughts and beliefs. They never take a close look at how they process their emotions, and in later life they may have a feeling of “is this it”. If they don’t understand their fears and worries, they may end up being very unhappy and simply “grumpy”. They can end being old, disillusioned, uninspired, and mildly depressed. Unless their unhappiness rises to a peak whereby they are forced to take action and learn something about themselves, and their thought process, they may never get to the mountain top of awakening. They may live out their final days still floundering in the valley of the unconscious.

If you experience intense fear and anxiety you will be forced to take action, learn, investigate, and overcome your negative inner dialogue. You will be forced to look at life with “better lenses”.

If you read all of the scriptures and stories of the most common religions and faiths, you’ll soon discover that the pioneers and leaders of faith suffered greatly prior to their awakening. Before Peter, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, Moses, and the like, realized their mission in life and experienced their awakening, they suffered greatly.

Your suffering is an enormous gift, and if you take action you will come out the other end of your horrific journey with a wisdom that most humans never have. Through your recovery you find out how special and unique you are, and you will see how truly beautiful you are inside and out. You will never look at a tree, a blade of grass, an animal, a cloud, or a sunny day the same.

You will likely begin reading inspired works of literature by authors like Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Dan Millman, and Elizabeth Gilbert. These readings will inspire you and teach you of the wondrous gift of life, love, and liberty. When inspiration and your connection to universal love and energy become the backdrop of your minds eye, you will walk through life in awe of the beauty that surrounds you every day.

Now don’t you think that perhaps your anxiety disorder and/or depression could possibly be a gift? If you are still in the early stages of discovering what it is you are going, you will have a great deal of trouble excepting this. That’s OK. Just take each day one at a time, and give up trying to control everything around you. Give up on being perfect, other people being perfect, or the world ever being perfect. It’s not yours to control. It’s yours to except.

Gratitude is Important to a Sufferer of an Anxiety Disorders

In all books and writings in the subject of human awakening, gratitude is a common denominator. Having gratitude for ever experience in your life, whether good or bad, is a prerequisite for a healthy and positive state of mind. This is why seeing yourself as a singled out victim has to stop. Self-pity is the worst emotion you can manifest. When you embrace the uncertainty, and embrace the bad moments in life, you are on your way to realizing true gratitude. When you realize true and complete gratitude for everything, everyone, and every experience, you are connected to the universal energy source. The source of all love, compassion, forgiveness and kindness.

When you are connected to love, compassion, forgiveness, and kindness, you will see yourself through the same “lenses of love”, and your healing will quickly manifest. As your healing and recovery grows you feel a very powerful surge growing within you. This is what Jesus meant when he talked about God being within you. You are a piece of God (or universal energy). This is what all of the great sages and teachers of the past were writing and talking about. God is inside of you and your awakening is the realization of this.

When you realize your awakening you will begin to let go of your ego, your mistrust, your anger, and your fears. You won’t see yourself as your job, your physical appearance, or your reputation. You will have found your purpose in life and you will flow like water with the inevitable changes of life. When you flow with life, you no longer fear life. When you no longer fear life, you can no longer be controlled, manipulated, or influenced by negative energy sources.

These negative energy sources are always man made. Only humans decide to bring negative energy into the world and the immediate space around them. As a matter of fact, when you are wearing true “lenses of love” you will witness negative human activity as unimportant and not worthy of your attention. A simple flower moving in the breeze becomes a much more important event than any negative event created by a human or humans.

So yes, your anxiety disorder is a great gift. Now get to work on your recovery and your education. Get to work changing your life and your surrounding. Get to work changing your negative inner thoughts. Get to work paying attention to the beauty of nature and the beauty of yourself. Get to work seeking out professional help. Get to work setting up a doctor appointment or therapist appointment. Get to work reading, and discovering the blessings of your life.

Take action.

Jacob