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Energetic Heart Cramp (or Heart Crush Syndrome) is where Panic Disorder and Anxiety begin to impact the Soul body, particularly in the area of the heart center – and the result is literally crushing (hence the name)! We need to Up our protection, our awareness and our energies, or risk being sucked into the vortex… I’ve been working with Anxiety for years now. I’ve also had the ‘lived experience’ of Anxiety. This condition had its way with me for many many years, even though I thought I was a fairly aware and educated person. Turns out… I completely missed the signs. You see, I was pretty lucky, I did well at my studies, and work wise… well, I was always lucky in that respect, at least as far as getting the job goes! But when it starts to get up around 40 jobs or so, well… you really have to start wondering about yourself! To the point that I was almost ready to give up on life. Awareness helped, but was it the answer? It was at around this time in my life that I went to study Psychology. I had wanted to study psychology since my early 20’s, but this was a goal my mind couldn’t accept. My anxious mind that it. So far, I had already studied Nursing, Medical Herbalism and Iridology… but I still felt like something was missing. And interestingly enough, it was in this emotionally and mentally depleted state, that all of my ‘egoic reasons’ for not studying, melted away. And I have to say, that studying Psychology in a lot of ways, was the making of me. For one, I did well – so it gave a real boost to my sense of self, and my self esteem. Secondly, it was also when I had the opportunity to start putting the pieces of the anxiety puzzle together… I had so many ‘aha’ moments it was ridiculous! One of which is that sometimes you have to go do the thing that you fear the most, so you have something to say back to that nagging picky little ‘you’re not good enough’ voice. Fast forward another 15 years or so… And I have now had the opportunity to marry together my own lived experience, my studies in health and mental health, and the thousands of people I have had the opportunity to share space with through my work. I have been listening and observing closely – while they ‘shared story’ with me… and I have to say, anxiety has absolutely exploded in our communities! The world has changed, has it not? On every single level you can imagine, and even on the ones you can’t. As a consequence of my experiences and observations however, I have come to see the experience of anxiety as very different to how it is currently ‘promoted’ or viewed. Whether that be in mental health circles, pseudo-psych offerings, or social media. I understand that at times it is trauma driven… and by heavens there’s a lot of trauma in our societies at the moment (my heart hurts even thinking about it!). It can also be due to generational trauma, inherited pre-dispositions, and it can even be the consequence of drug use. So many contributing factors. However there is also another story going on… and this is where I start to get a little esoteric – so it might be time to tune out if this really isn’t your thing! You see, it’s been my observation (and I’m talking several thousand people here)… that those who are susceptible to anxiety are the more creative, gentle, intuitive, empathetic, and sensitive ones amongst us. And I’m going to go out on a limb here… and say that these souls are also likely to rate quite high on Emotional Intelligence as well as Intellect on some of the more popular personality tests out there. In addition to Sensitivity, Openness, Creativity and Imagination. This is a personality type prone to anxiety, and so I have come to see Anxiety as the Spiritual Quest of our age… Awareness = Opportunity (to do things different) Why would I think that? Well, I now know that the way through (for many of us) is by working with spiritual values and practices, from a physical, cognitive and more importantly – energetic perspective. Because left unchecked, we are at risk of developing what I would call Energetic Heart Cramp and/or… the Energetic Heart Crush Syndrome. This is where Panic Disorder and Anxiety begin to impact the Soul body, particularly in the area of the heart center – and the result is literally crushing. More and more people are becoming susceptible to this. The energy on the planet at the moment is chaotic, and we really need to step up the whole idea of self-care (caring for self) and get our daily practices in order. This needs to taken seriously, and it needs to be approached through physical practices, cognitive or mental practices, and spiritual or energetic practices. We need to up our protection, our awareness and our energies… or be sucked into the vortex, because that is what it feels like. You may also be particularly susceptible to this experience if you work with people on a daily basis… and have your energies mingling and tingling with others (sometimes this is a good thing, sometimes not so much). There are a number of things we can do to protect ourselves however, and a good start is to work on strengthening our vessel (mental, physical and spiritual bodies)… and then fill it up with good stuff! Having the right energies around us will also help to keep us in good shape. From an energetic perspective, make sure you are surrounding yourself with the right colours, sounds and scents. Create a harmonious environment by being more aware of resonant vibrations – this is more individual than most of us realise. Exercising, eating the right foods, and being consciously aware of our thoughts is...

  Know Thyself It is so important to understand how the mind and the body play together in states such as Anxiety. And to ‘Know Thyself’ is the first step to taking your power back, because let’s face it – we are often left feeling powerless in the face of this really powerful chemical cascade. And it is a cascade, which occurs with every single thought we have – all being released into your body. Every single thought. Anxiety happens in the mind, but it is experienced in the body… As you think, so you are. So this post goes to understanding the process of anxiety in your body. Why is this important? Because knowledge is power, and empowering. There is nothing worse than feeling out of control – and that is exactly how you feel when ‘anxiety’ kicks in! By the time it’s in your body though, it’s a helluva lot harder to do anything about it! 🙁 That’s why it’s important to learn about the process of Anxiety, so that the work can happen in those ‘inbetweensy’ times – as that, my friends, is where the difference is made! This part of therapy is normally referred to as ‘psychoeducation’ – and it’s where I always begin. Here’s why: 1) Understanding takes away the fear and helps prevent one of the biggest traps of Anxiety – getting anxious about feeling anxious! That just confuses the whole thing even more… 2) You can see how different practices and processes (often called interventions) fit in. It all just makes a bit more sense, and helps you have the ‘conviction of your courage’, as well as the courage of your conviction to dump anxiety. Well, to dump the unnecessary and unhelpful anxiety, because sometimes it shows up for good reason! So let’s dig a little deeper 🙂 Sun and Moon At the most basic level what we’re talking about is the ‘fight, flight and fear response’, or sympathetic arousal. There are lots of people talking about this now (Joe Dispenza is a good one) – so its an easy one to get more information on. What we have here though is not a textbook, it’s a blog post, so here it is as I tell it in counselling… The fight and flight response takes place in the Autonomic Nervous System. The Autonomic Nervous System has two aspects to it, like most things in our experience they can be seen as opposing forces that need to be held in balance – Yin Yang kind of stuff The two parts are known as the Sympathetic (S) and the Parasympathetic (PS) Nervous System One gets you up and going (S), the other (PS) calms you down. When I was nursing many moons ago the PS system was simply referred to as the ‘resting and digesting’ system. And that’s exactly what it does – helps you relax so that so that you can eat and sleep, rather than stress and pace when the whole thing is out of balance! I like to refer to these two arms of the Autonomic system as Sun (S) and Moon (PS); so when you are in a state of Anxiousness – or sympathetic arousal – it’s like your out in the sun for too long – you start to feel a bit burnt out. How does this happen? As stated earlier, it is mostly triggered by thinking – which is impacted by emotions and memories – however it can also be as simple as ‘you’re mind telling you crap’. Just because you think something, doesn’t mean it’s true. This is why we need to challenge our thoughts from time to time. So, when we have a ‘negative’ thought (judgemental, catastrophising, self critical etc etc),  it gives our brain the idea that there’s something not quite right in our world, and we need help to deal with it. This happens next… It responds by pumping out adrenaline and cortisol to help us deal with a perceived threat – but we could be just sitting on the lounge thinking about stepping out the front door! When this happens on a daily basis, it builds up in the system and we get to a point where we just tip over into ‘flight and fight’ mode, really really easily. And what does this system do? Prepares us to fight or to flee, so that’s what we feel like doing! A part of our brain yells – ‘there’s trouble afoot! quick – get ready to run!’ Sound familiar? We get agitated or aggressive, or alternatively, avoid… run away, and hide. Sometimes behind closed doors, sometimes behind the couch, sometimes in the bedroom, sometimes under the bed! With a bottle of Whiskey… cause that might help (not). And while this might sound silly – I’ve been in that exact space 🙁 Shifting Energies Understanding this process better also helps us to understand that some practices will encourage the sun to set (just have a rest buddy), while others are all about bringing up the moon! For eg: Cognitive therapy changes your self-talk and therefore the chemistry you release, effectively bringing down the sun (sympathetic arousal); breathe work (oh so powerful) will help to raise up the moon. When you get a handle on the physiology behind this, you start to find your own ways to break into it and make a difference. This ‘difference’ can be felt as a shift in perspective, a shift in how your body feels, or even a shift in your energy body… Yep, our thoughts have a huge impact on our vibrations! So, start to ‘know thyself’ better 🙂 While this is a very basic introduction to what can seem a complicated process – you don’t need to understand it for the changes to happen! Be compassionate, rather than self critical, and for now, simply breathe with intention 😉 And feel free to ask some questions! Finally, it’s important to understand that while ‘awareness’ is important – it’s not the...