The word “anxiety” comes from a Latin word that means “to choke or to strangle.” If you struggle with anxiety, you can identify with that image. There may be times when the anxiety is so powerful that it is difficult to breath; you literally feel like you are choking or being strangled.
Beyond Coping With The World We Live In
It is interesting to compare the original meaning of a word with how it is used today. Sometimes, looking at the original meaning can open up your understanding of a word. The word for today is “cope.” Cope comes from an Old French word that means “to quarrel, to hit or punch, to deliver blows, to engage in combat.”
Seven Daily Practices That Add Rhythm To Your Life
The Monkey Trap
Thinking Self/Observing Self
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and suddenly realize that you have heard little of what they were saying? Have you been talking among a group of friends and suddenly realized that your mind has wandered? Perhaps you have had someone complain that you aren’t listening. It is not unusual to respond to that complaint with something like, “I’m sorry; my mind was somewhere else.” So where, exactly, is that somewhere else, and how do you get back to here?
The Gift of Breath
You may not realize it, but there is a lot going on when you breathe. For example, when you breathe in, you activate what is called your stress response; it is also call your fight or flight response. When this response is activated, your heart rate increases, and your pupils dilate. You become more alert and the tension in your body increases.
Humor and Healing
When you are dealing with something like anxiety or stress, the only way you can imagine the presence of laughter and humor in your life is to see it as a temporary distraction from the anxious and stressful thoughts and feelings that seem to dictate the way you see and act in the world. But there are many ways that humor can be a therapeutic tool in your struggle with anxiety.
How Does Anger Develop?
Learning how to develop response-ability to your anger means understanding how anger develops. You may not think that there is a process to anger; it just seems to happen, and you have to figure out how to manage it. In their book, ACT on Life Not on Anger, Georg H. Eifert, Matthew McKay, and John P. Forsyth identify five components to anger.
The Place of Anger In Our Lives
One of the myths about anger is anger and aggression are instinctual to humans. When we buy into this myth, we are able to justify our anger and refuse to take responsibility for it. And when we combine that with another myth—that anger is the result of what someone has done to us—then this innate angry response is on the other person, not ourselves.
Five Myths About Anger
While anxiety is an emotion that seems to be problematic, even wrong, you have lots of people that will tell you that anger is normal and natural. After all, not everybody has anxiety or panic, but everybody gets angry. I would question that anxiety is a problematic emotion, but it is true that no one will go through life without emotional pain and anger.